Lowell Peterson

Author · New Book

Portrait of Lowell Peterson

Writing & organizing

On collective imagination

Building Power


Building Power


Lowell Peterson is a labor leader, lawyer, and organizer who has spent more than three decades helping people build the collective power to change their lives and workplaces.

Lowell Peterson is a labor leader, lawyer, and organizer who has spent more than three decades helping people build the collective power to change their lives and workplaces.

Building Power

Forthcoming

Building Power: Collective Action, the Writers’ Strike Against Hollywood, and Organizing for the Future

Building Power: Collective Action, the Writers’ Strike Against Hollywood, and Organizing for the Future

Drawing on thirty-five years as a union leader and lawyer, Building Power makes the case for collective action as the antidote to a fractious age.

Retailer link coming soon

About the book

A practical guide to building worker power.

A practical guide to building worker power.

In Building Power, Lowell Peterson draws on thirty-five years as a union leader and lawyer to argue that collective action is the antidote to a fractious age.

As Executive Director of the Writers Guild of America East, Peterson doubled the union’s membership and organized workers in digital media, nonfiction television, and podcasts. Union density sits near a historic low nationally even as public support for organized labor surges. Peterson argues that unions bring people together to build durable power and democracy, countering the inequality and division that define our era.

Moving fluidly between theory and practice, Peterson examines the fundamentals of organizing and negotiating as well as the forms of leverage—bottom-up, top-down, and side-to-side—that make them work. He anchors these lessons in his experiences, including a firsthand account of the 2023 Writers Guild strike, a transformative victory built on transparency, member engagement, and disciplined escalation. Clear-eyed yet inspiring, Building Power offers an insider’s guide to the work of building a movement equal to the challenges of our time.

Early praise

“Even seasoned union leaders should read this book, which takes us from the building blocks of union success to the new challenges of AI. Whether on strategy, leadership or membership engagement, Lowell Peterson has some important lessons to share.”

“Even seasoned union leaders should read this book, which takes us from the building blocks of union success to the new challenges of AI. Whether on strategy, leadership or membership engagement, Lowell Peterson has some important lessons to share.”

Christy Hoffman · UNI Global Union

“Peterson lights a clear path forward for unionism at this thorny moment in its history. This is the real deal—an essential book for leaders, union members, and anyone interested in effective bargaining.”

“Peterson lights a clear path forward for unionism at this thorny moment in its history. This is the real deal—an essential book for leaders, union members, and anyone interested in effective bargaining.”

Stephen Schiff · Writer-producer and Lifetime Member of WGAEast

“The best thing working people have to protect themselves and advance their interests is each other. Lowell Peterson provides a roadmap, based on years of experience and success, on how to build a collective voice and the labor movement that this moment—and our future—demands.”

“The best thing working people have to protect themselves and advance their interests is each other. Lowell Peterson provides a roadmap, based on years of experience and success, on how to build a collective voice and the labor movement that this moment—and our future—demands.”

Stuart Appelbaum · President, Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union

From Building Power

On the labor movement

“Bemoaning labor’s fate will not reverse our fortunes. What we need at this point is not a definitive answer to what went wrong, but strategies that will be effective in building worker power, going forward.”

On organizing

“Organizers create something that did not exist before in the nonunion workplace: an organization that builds and applies the employees’ collective power.”

On AI

“AI will be deployed by employers in their own self-interest, and they will use it to undermine workers’ interests—but only if we allow them to do so. There is nothing inevitable about this.”

On the 2023 Writers Guild strike

“Everyone at the WGA realized that if we had any hope of transformational changes at the bargaining table, we would have to be prepared for powerful collective action. We knew we needed member engagement and transparency.”

About Lowell

A life in labor, law, and public service.

A life in labor, law, and public service.

Lowell Peterson was the Executive Director of the Writers Guild of America, East, AFL-CIO, from 2008 through 2023. The WGAE represents people who write comedy, drama, news, and nonfiction on television and radio, streaming services, and online. The union’s membership doubled under his leadership.

He negotiated dozens of collective bargaining agreements in multiple sectors, expanded member engagement programs, built strong relationships with partner unions, lobbied elected officials, and managed a staff of creative, dedicated professionals. The WGAE and its partner union in Los Angeles conducted a transformational strike against major entertainment industry employers in 2023.

Before the Guild, Lowell was a union lawyer for more than twenty years, working with unions in manufacturing, construction, communications, health care, academia, media, and more. He mapped strategy, negotiated contracts, argued cases, and advocated policy.

Lowell served on the City Council of Ann Arbor, Michigan from 1981 to 1987, including two years as Mayor Pro Tem. He has a J.D. magna cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.A. from Yale University.

For notes, events, and conversation