One Day Stronger

Book excerpt: In August, 2017, the death knell sounded for yet another troubled American manufacturer: Appleton Coated, a historic paper mill in the Wisconsin village of Combined Locks. The mill and its parts were sold to a receiver who planned to sell them for scrap, eliminating hundreds of jobs and devastating a community. But then the unlikely happened. Dedicated union workers teamed with a lone local official to leverage an obscure legal strategy proposed by a community-minded attorney to stop the sell-off, enable a profitable new business plan, and save a cherished way of life. Now that local official tells the story behind this remarkable turnaround. As county executive of Outagamie County, Thomas Nelson is a progressive Democrat fighting for workers' rights in one of the Republican-leaning areas that have made his home state a battleground in national politics. One Day Stronger is an inspiring saga of how people power can triumph even in the face of indifference and outright hostility from powerful political forces. As the Appleton Coated mill and its workers struggled, Governor Scott Walker and his allies in the state legislature focused instead on channeling billions in state funds to Foxconn, a Taiwanese electronics firm offering job promises that would soon prove hollow. It took a groundswell of community anger-along with creative legal and political maneuvering by the United Steelworkers union and their local supporters-to force the receiver who'd taken control of the mill to change course, reviving its business prospects rather than shutting it down forever.Today the mill in Combined Locks is going strong again. But similar companies continue to face threats like the one that almost destroyed the mill. Author Nelson explains the crucial role that labor unions have traditionally played in making prosperity widely available to American families-and how they can do the same in the future through partnerships with forward-looking businesspeople and political leaders committed to economic justice.In a world where corporate greed and financial engineering have crushed the dreams of countless Americans, One Day Stronger offers a road map for fighting back-and winning.