An Injury to One is an Injury to All

Supporting IWOC isn’t charity; it’s a strategic necessity for a labor movement that wants to win. We need to finally close this legal slavery loophole that allows our class to be divided and conquered.

Prison slave labor is used to undercut our wages, or even replace us. It is a direct attack on every hard-won union standard. The fight of incarcerated workers is our fight.

By standing with the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), you defend the principle that all labor is labor, and no worker should be left behind. You can help build a labor movement that truly includes all workers and help remove a tool used to weaken us.

A worker in a prison garment shop paid pennies is our brother. A worker on a prison fire line risking their life for meager compensation is our sister. Their struggle for dignity, safety, and a say in their own future is a strategically essential and morally imperative labor struggle.

How Your Union Can Take Action

Build formal solidarity

Make it official within your union’s structure.

• Pass a Solidarity Resolution: Declare that your local or international sees incarcerated workers as part of the working class and supports their right to organize (we can help you write it).
• Create a Standing Committee: Form a permanent Prison Labor Solidarity committee within your local to coordinate ongoing education and action.
• Endorse Campaigns: Use your union’s voice to endorse IWOC and other similar campaigns that publicly amplify the demands of incarcerated workers.

Disrupt the hyper-exploitation

Use your union’s economic and political power to challenge the system.

• Divest Union Pensions: Lead a campaign for your union’s pension fund to divest from corporations and banks that profit from prison labor (e.g., private prison companies, major prison contractors).
• Ban Prison-Made Goods: Advocate for “hot cargo” and other contract clauses and internal policies that prohibit the purchase, use, or transport of goods known to be produced by prison slave labor.
• Legislative Action: Help us push to repeal repugnant state and federal laws like the 1996 Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), mandatory minimum sentences that tie the hands of our judiciary, and fight for better laws and policies that extend basic labor and civil rights protections to those behind bars.

Mobilize for direct support

Your collective power can help reinforce and expand support for our incarcerated organizers.

• Join distributed actions: Participate with us in call-ins, email campaigns, and other public pressure tactics to defend organizers facing retaliation for protesting inhumane treatment and conditions.
• Financial solidarity: Whether helping released members actually afford a fair shot at their “second chance,” covering the cost of our frequent mass mailers, paying for phone time, distributing aid freely to those getting out of jails, or buying essential books for our incarcerated organizers, IWOC shoulders expenses that are not required for other types of organizing. Contributions from your local and its members will provide essential material support needed to fuel our efforts.
• Mutual Aid Drives: Organize drives for stamps, books, paper, and pre-paid phone cards – the basic tools of organizing behind bars.

Educate & Organize Your Members

Change the culture of the labor movement from within.

• Host a Workshop: Invite an IWOC organizer to speak at your union meeting, educational, or conference via this form.

• Share Resources: Use your union newsletter, social media, and/or meetings to share IWOC updates, victories, and calls to action.

• Political Education: Prison slavery not as a distant “social issue,” but as a front-line labor struggle that impacts the wages, safety, and power for all workers.

Ready to build solidarity with us?

Please fill out the form below to discuss a solidarity plan tailored to your union.