So, I live in Portugal, where unions are commonplace. Less than three months ago I started a new job I'm intending to keep for at least a couple of years, so I immediately joined the union.
Yesterday I had my first plenary in the union. I am one of the union's youngest members, if not the youngest and I'm more versed in Marx and Engels and communist theory than most of them, since I've been class conscious since the age of 14 or so and it's been the main focus of my life. People in the union have high hopes for me, even after I spent most of the plenary roasting them for my perceived obsolescence of their methods.
They asked me for solutions. They are open to change their ways. So I'm here today to ask for historical references and books that I can read to understand what actually works, i.e. what historically has been done by workers and unions that produced real effects. In the plenary I mentioned introducing solidarity strikes (which have never been legal in Portugal), giving back the workers the money they lose by striking and promoting illegal strikes, but I need actual measures I can corroborate with either real historical events or close to watertight theories of modern socialist/pro-worker thinkers.
Can you guys help me out?