Financial Analysis

Financial analysis is a useful tool for organizing. It contributes to the identification of key relationships, profit centers, and growth strategies that drive company decision making. Organizers who understand the connections that allow a company to operate, the sources of its earnings, and the techniques it uses to expand can develop campaign strategies and tactics that have the best chance to build worker power. In this practical, hands-on, two-part workshop, you will learn the basics of financial analysis and how owners/investors think about their companies. You will use actual company SEC filings to get comfortable with income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements. Then, with data from those documents, you will practice using elementary analytic tools to evaluate a company’s financial health. You will end the workshop better informed about company economics, with financial skills that can inform your campaign planning and execution.

Aaron Brenner is a senior capital markets analyst at the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. He does research and organizing for the UFCW’s capital stewardship department. His work includes comprehensive organizing campaigns, shareholder activism, retirement security, and financial advising to locals. Prior to UFCW, he was a union researcher, freelance financial analyst, professor, and journalist. He is on the board of Homeland Stores, an employee-owned, 80-store unionized grocery chain based in Oklahoma. He holds a PhD in labor history from Columbia University.