About NUWS

New Union Work Systems does what no other organization does: we create fantastic software for grassroots, worker-based labor organizing.

This has been our mission since our inception, and we have the track record to prove our worth. We developed Organizer’s Toolbox for labor organizers to run sophisticated grassroots campaigns with databases structured upon proven organizing methodologies.

Union staff are trained in the art of organizing not the headaches of data management. We know that in order for union organizing to succeed, you must talk to the workers. Our software enables you to respond to your workers and produce the reports you need, when you need them. We have helped dozens of unions move away from confusing campaigns, full of redundant information and wasted effort.

History of NUWS and Organizer’s Toolbox

NUWS was founded in the mid-90’s when founders John Sladkus and Matt Burry were both working independently to support a new generation of labor organizing with custom database solutions. John had worked directly as labor organizer for several years and Matt had worked on a variety of grassroots organizing projects. Both separately realized that emerging database technologies could provide the crucial edge to win campaigns and that many of the lessons being learned from campaign to campaign could be codified in an application that expressly supported labor organizing.

In 1998, John and Matt began working intensively in support of hospital organizing in the Los Angeles area and formally codified their relationship as partners in NUWS. Working closely with lead organizers and coordinators, NUWS carved out the framework for Organizer’s Toolbox and hired Tom Darci, NUWS’s lead programmer who remains with NUWS today.

Over the last ten years, Organizer’s Toolbox evolved into an application robust enough to host multi-region, industry-wide campaigns focused on bringing hundreds of thousands of working people into the labor movement as newly organized union members. Key campaign victories have been won in over 20 states in a variety of sectors.

NUWS’ staff of seven focuses entirely on developing and supporting Organizer’s Toolbox, providing regular releases and constant improvements.

Today, NUWS works closely with most of the most aggressive organizing unions in the country, including the Services Employee International Union (SEIU) and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT).