The most important thing I hope you learned from this book is that working people must use their collective strength in direct action to solve labor's problems.

The law can help. But the law should never be permitted to become a substitute for what working people can do, and must do, for themselves.

You may feel, as you come to the end of these pages, that you have read about many interesting things but they are scattered all over the place in your head and do not form a pattern.

Let me suggest, on the basis of my own experience, that patterns will form as you begin to work with these ideas. For instance, when I talk with someone who has been discharged, I find myself running through a checklist of questions that has taken shape over the years. Was there a union where you worked? If not, was there an employee handbook or personnel policy that might be considered a contract? If yes, did the employer violate the provisions of the handbook, for instance by not following a procedure for progressive discipline? Were you involved in group activity to form a union or to deal with problems at work? If yes, did the employer become aware of this activity before the decision to discharge you? Did the employer say anything to indicate what its real reason was for canning you? Do you think that your union activity, or race, or sex, or age, had anything to do with the decision? If yes, why do you think this? Have you applied for unemployment compensation? (One reason for making sure that a discharged worker files right away for unemployment compensation is that a referee hearing obliges the employer to produce witnesses and documents to justify the discharge. Such evidence can help you to decide whether to file an NLRB or discrimination charge.)

Like anything else, rank-and-file organizing requires brains, and guts, and luck. In this book I've tried to help as much as I know how to do by words on paper. Feel free to call: I'm in the Youngstown phone book. Good luck.