Today, science is a billion-dollar enterprise operating through governments, universities, and industries. But like every other productive activity under capitalism, it would not exist without scientists’ labor. Recent waves of unionization campaigns have shown us that the only way to overcome precarity and oppression, which defines our everyday experience as workers in the lab, is through collective action.

In this collection of essays, written by and for student workers, union organizers, and radical scientists within STEM academia, we seek to understand the structure we
set out to change, share strategies for building power through labor organizing, and inspire scientists of all career levels to enact an alternative vision of science.