Labor movements demanding that regimes increase social spending or reverse cuts to it have long been a feature of MENA politics. But although such movements are well documented, the relationship between labor mobilization and distributional politics in the region remains understudied. This paper aims to advance the debate on who mobilizes for state resources, and why, in labor-abundant MENA countries through an analysis of original, fine-grained survey data on teacher mobilization in Jordan. More specifically, it investigates the puzzle of why groups like these teachers engage in highly disruptive contentious mobilization despite having long been considered to be regime insiders. The paper tests two (potentially complementary) hypotheses about mobilization by regime insiders. The first is that economic, demographic and technological changes have led these insiders to experience relative deprivation and motivated them to mobilize. The second is that changes in social networks have facilitated their mobilization.