Union negotiator Joe Burns draws on labour economics, history and current analysis to show how only a campaign of civil disobedience can overcome an illegitimate system of control that has been constructed over 30 years to reign in the power of workers. He challenges prevailing views within the labour movement that say that tactics such as organising workers or amending labour law can resolve the crisis of the American worker. Instead, he offers a fundamentally different solution showing how collective bargaining backed by a strike capable of inflicting economic harm.