About Us

Learn more about ION and our team!

MISSION STATEMENT

The legal system, in its current form, functions to protect and advance the capitalist system and those who benefit most from it, particularly multinational corporations and corrupt oligarchs. The system has erected expensive, bureaucratic barriers for workers seeking to organize against it, and the meager mechanisms that do exist are often inaccessible, hidden behind a paywall, or cloaked in mysterious legal jargon. Our goal is to change that by empowering workers, organized and unorganized, to stand as their own advocates and masters of their own destinies.

We also recognize that true power and change comes not from the law but from the workers themselves, which is why, rather than just focusing on pro bono representation, we prioritize self-empowerment through trainings and educational resources, so that every step of organizing that doesn’t require a lawyer is handled by the rank-and-file.

Right now, the National Labor Relations Act (Act), imperfect as it is, is under attack and being challenged as unconstitutional. While we fight to preserve and strengthen the NLRB as a useful tool in resisting capitalism’s onslaught, we simultaneously understand that worker power does not derive from the Act, but from the collective power of workers on the shop floor who are struggling everyday to push back against never-ending attacks on their livelihoods.

In furtherance of our mission, ION provides workers with:

Hands-on organizing support from experienced rank-and-file organizers and tacticians;
Comprehensive legal training and connections to a network of labor and employment attorneys ready to provide pro bono advice and/or representation; and,
Wide-reaching networks of solidarity and support from other worker-led unions, campaigns, and coalitions from all over the country.

MEET OUR TEAM

Tyler Daguerre, Co-Founder

Tyler (they/he) is a full-time barista, law school graduate, and former Starbucks Workers United organizer.

As an organizing mentor, Tyler provides hands-on practical and strategic support to workers interested in organizing an independent union or taking collective action. They currently mentor workers in the Blue Bottle Independent Union.

Jonathan Melrod, Co-Founder

Jon (he/him) is a longtime revolutionary political organizer and one of the early co-founders of ION. Jon joined the labor movement while living and working in an auto assembly plant in Milwaukee, WI. His memoir, Fighting Times: Organizing on the Front Lines of the Class War, recounts years of active participation in the anti-capitalist class struggle on the factory floor.

Jon brings with him decades of practical experience and contributes to ION’s core strategic vision and historical perspective.

Dave Runkle, Co-Founder

Dave (he/him) is a former software engineer turned public attorney who represents indigent children and parents in the Massachusetts child-welfare legal system.

Dave contributes to the project management and systems development aspects of ION, as well as legal research for our worker trainings.

Kylah Clay, Co-Founder

Kylah (she/her) is a public defense attorney based in Boston, Massachusetts.

Kylah has helped create several ION trainings/organizing resources and runs our website. She is part of ION’s organizing mentor team, using her prior experience building a regional coalition of unions in the Starbucks Workers United campaign.

Heather Ramirez, Volunteer

Heather (she/her) is a movement lawyer and worker leader, based in New York City, where she has represented a range of workers organizations, focusing on the intersection of immigration and labor law.

Heather provides legal support for independent union drives through ION, and is an essential point of contact for emergent campaigns in New York and beyond.

Arek Rein Jungwirth, Volunteer

Arek (any pronouns) started their organizing journey while a student at Reed College. They are Co-President of Rainbow Workers Coalition, an independent union they helped found at Camp Winnarainbow.

Arek is part of ION’s organizing mentor team, supporting workers with building their own independent unions in the West Coast.

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

ION is a committee/initiative of the National Lawyers Guild (“NLG”) - Massachusetts Chapter. NLG works to change the structure of our political and economic system. NLG seeks to unite the legal community with organizers and activists in the service of the people, to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests. You can learn more about NLG here.

BERKELEY LAW AND ORGANIZING COLLECTIVE

Berkeley Law and Organizing Collective ("BLOC") is a collective of law students at UC Berkeley School of Law who provide legal and organizing support to workers’ movements fighting for social justice by working closely with marginalized and low-wage workers. Members of BLOC learn essential skills for a legal career full of organizing and movement lawyering. BLOC works with ION to provide trainings on federal and state labor law to service workers organizing independent unions. Additionally, students with BLOC are currently researching the possible changes to labor law under a Trump Administration and how organizers can navigate these challenges. You can learn more about BLOC here.

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