How we can grow to 165,000 members

"Strength in numbers." If we had one member for each time this term has been used in union meetings and labor journals, this article would be about age 50 retirement and the 30-hour work week and not about organizing.

The foundation of our movement resides with our numbers and our ability to move people collectively and help them change their lives for the better.

If OCAW is not about growth and power, then it is not about anything at all.

We can't change lives without power. If we are not about getting bigger, then we are about getting smaller. There is no middle ground.

Organizing #1 Priority

With this understanding, OCAW members launched a new organizing program at their 1994 convention. Over the past three years, the International has pushed its expenditures on organizing to over 10 percent of its per capita tax income, and has developed organizing training programs that over 300 members have attended.

Seventy members have attended three-day training sessions sponsored by the AFL-CIO's Organizing Institute. Plus, the International has encouraged locals to establish and fund organizing programs - often with offers of financial assistance.

In spite of this initial success, few locals have taken up the challenge. Of 320 OCAW locals, about 20 have notably increased expenditures on organizing. And of these, only three have an organizing committee, an organizing plan, and an organizing budget based on a set portion of dues that are set aside each month in an organizing fund.

The International recognizes it has to work harder to help locals launch serious organizing programs in their areas. But it also is a reality that many locals either: (a) do not want to take the political risk of shifting funds from servicing to organizing efforts that may or may not succeed, or (b) believe that organizing new members is the job of the International union.

"OCAW 2017"

So what is the role of OCAW locals in the all-important task of growing OCAW?

To determine this, we ask readers to imagine for a moment how they would like to see the OCAW look in 20 years in 2017.

When asked this question, most members respond that they would like to see OCAW bigger and stronger. Almost universally, members find it more than reasonable that OCAW should be as big 20 years from now as it was 20 years ago; that is, with 165,000 members (even though many of these members were lost when the Canadian District split off from OCAW.)

Ask yourselves what it would take to rebuild OCAW to this reasonable size. Knowing that OCAW loses about 1,000 members per year to attrition, if you do the math, you will see that OCAW would have to add 5,000 members per year for the next 20 years to reach this modest goal.

Assume that this goal could be reached by organizing 50 groups per year, each with 100 members. However, considering a win rate of 50 percent (about the national average), we would need to go to an election with 100 such groups per year. But then, when you consider that unions do not always get first contracts, it is conceivable that OCAW might have to run 150 campaigns per year of 100 members each to get to 165,000 members over the next 20 years.

While this goal is achievable (other unions in industrial jurisdictions are adding members equal to and greater than these), one problem with this goal emerges larger than all others: Where are we going to find 150 campaigns each year, and when we find them, who is going to do the 15,000-30,000 house calls that are necessary to winning these campaigns?

Local participation vital

It is immediately apparent that all of the International staff in the world could not even begin to cull out 150 good organizing targets each year, much less to undertake a small fraction of the one-on-one communications necessary to move 150 campaigns to election. The vast majority of this work can only be undertaken by local unions and trained volunteer organizers.

When convention delegates established the organizing program three years ago, it established the goal of getting three percent of its members to devote two hours per month to organizing. This modest goal would provide 60,000 hours per year and the means to make large-scale organizing a reality.

While the International has important responsibilities for leading and financing the organizing program, it becomes obvious that significant organizing will never take place without at least a matching investment in human and financial resources from local unions.

The only way for us to reach our goal of 165,000 new members is for locals to: (1) establish local organizing committees, (2) draft organizing plans, and (3) set up organizing budgets based on a set portion of dues that are set aside each month in an organizing fund.

Of course, no one underestimates the risks that local leaders take when funds are shifted away from servicing or other activities. But then, we cannot expect unorganized workers to expose themselves to the risks of organizing if we are not prepared to take some risks as well.

Since local union participation is important, the International wants to partner with locals that desire to grow and it will assist them in targeting plants in their areas.

Please contact us!

We want to hear from you -- even if you disagree or if you have other ideas as to how we should allocate resources to improving the lives of our members. Please call 1-800-825-6405 or email us at ocawiure@aol.com.

OCAW Reporter, November-December 1997