Building Union Power through Rank-and-File Participation

When we help to bring unorganized workers into our union, build our membership internally through "Close The Ranks" campaigns, or activate our local union members to get more involved in the day to day life of our union, we are doing organizing and mobilizing. Organizing and mobilization are like two sides of the same coin. They are based on the same principles and each strengthens the other. To build an "organizing model of unionism," the following tips will help to guide your local.

I. BUILD LOCAL UNION SUPPORT

Before we can begin to change the way we function as a union, we have got to convince our members how organizing and mobilizing will help them. Make this subject a topic of discussion at local union meetings and in the plant. Be prepared to counter arguments that this will take away from our ability to service our members. Through discussion and action, our members will see how organizing the unorganized and mobilizing our members strengthens our position with the bosses.

II. SET UP A STRUCTURE

MOBILIZATION--Set up an internal structure or committee for communicating one-on-one to all our members. The starting point may be your stewards structure or any already existing structure. Have a few union members do a diagram or breakdown or chart of each plant in the local by shift and department to see who works with whom. (The Organizing Department has wall-size charts which can be useful for this purpose or it may make sense to create a computer database.)

The mobilization structure consists of one representative from each shift and crew. These mobilization committee people report to a mobilization coordinator for their shift. All the shift mobilization coordinators report to a plant-wide mobilization coordinator or committee. The mobilization structure is like a phone tree where committee members are responsible for informing the members above and below them.

The mobilization committee members are responsible for communicating information to all the workers on their shift and for getting them stickers, buttons, or flyers. Another responsibility of mobilization committee members is to encourage their work crews to participate in the actions and activities of the local.

ORGANIZING-Create a standing local union committee to focus on organizing by recruiting union members to be part of it. One of their first tasks can be to identify potential targets of unorganized plants in the community and to survey local union members to see who our members know that work in these plants. Once the local has decided which plant to target and has developed contacts at the plant, the first step in organizing is to build a list of all the bargaining unit employees, along with their shift, department, home address and phone number. These addresses will be used to reach out to the workers through home visits. The goal of these initial home visits is to build an in-plant organizing committee with the most influential workers, or leaders, from all the departments and shifts in the plant. Without this committee, which functions as the union in the plant, unions only win about 10% of the time. The committee serves to educate, motivate and lead workers during the entire election campaign and into the first contract fight.

III. IDENTIFY ISSUES AND DEVELOP A PLAN

Whether we are talking about organizing or mobilization, we need an issue in the plant around which to fight and involve workers. Without an issue, our structures fall apart and many workers see no reason to get involved. Try to pick an issue that affects the most people. In our plants, contract demands are obvious issues around which to fight. Yet, what about in between contract time? Think of issues that we are having difficulty resolving through the negotiation or grievance process that we could pressure our employers to resolve if we involved our members. In organizing an unorganized plant, the process is the same. In general, workers don't join the union simply because they believe in the principles of trade unionism. They form unions because they have problems in the plant that they want to fix and they want input into the process for resolving them. Organizing campaigns should focus on workers' issues and educate and agitate around them.

IV. INVOLVE WORKERS

The key to organizing and mobilization is that it must involve workers in activities around targeted issues. One way to get workers involved is to design activities that are fun to participate in. These can be anything from wearing a union sticker or button, holding a plant gate rally or vigil outside the corporate headquarters or a plant manager's house, or a work slowdown or other on-the-job activity. We should begin with activities that everyone feels comfortable doing, such as signing a petition or wearing a button. Each activity should challenge the boss and our own comfort zone more than the previous one. Where it makes sense, involve community groups in rallies or invite the press to publicly pressure the company.