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What is organizing?

How does an association of workers in a workplace start?

On the shop floor, organizing is generally born out of complaining about current the work situation. There are always things that can be changed in the workplace, things that can be made better that the workers notice, but that management are either unable or unwilling to refine. In most cases, there are a few of these issues that unite a majority of workers into action.

Organizing is an act attached to this complaining with a strategic end.

There are many styles of organizing, but there are some things to remember about unorganized workplaces:

  • Non-union workers (and many who are covered by collective agreements) will not know what a union is until they are actively engaged in one.
  • Assume no one you are organizing knows:
    • what a collective agreement is or how it is negotiated,
    • how it is enforced,
    • what workplace democracy means, or
    • the real world differences between a unionized environment and their current work environment.
  • Solidarity comes from the struggle. It is only through the process of organizing that workers learn what solidarity means.

Where do you start?

You can only organize where you are. Or, more clearly, you cannot organize where you are not. If you do not have contacts in a workplace, it is not where you should be starting to think about organizing.

Many in the movement like to discuss other places that would be "strategic" or "good" to organize. Statements like "we should organize X, their working conditions are terrible" or "It would be great if we could organize X, it would give us the bargaining power we need". These are great conversations over a coffee or beer late in the evening, but are irrelevant to actual organizing.

The focus on organizing must be on where you have real contacts, people who are interested in organizing, and where you have the ability to influence process and power. That generally means you should focus on organizing in your own workplace first.

Some things to remember:

  • Like all politics, organizing is a local issue.
  • Start small. Many organizing campaigns start with two people.
  • Organize on local issues and interests, not ideology.
  • Build and maintain the organizing/inside committee.
  • Focus on card signing. Everything else is a distraction, unless it leads directly to a card being signed.

Goals, Strategy, & Tactics

Many organizing drives fail because of the inside committee relying too heavily on one strategy/tactic or another. People in the inside committee may have read a book, done some organizing in another workplace, or have spent some time dreaming about the romantic view of organizing drives. However, most of the time the focus on one tactic or strategy occurs because of the conflation between the concepts of goals, strategies, and tactics.

There is a hierarchy when building an organizing campaign. Goals dictate strategies which in-turn dictate tactics. There are many strategies that can work for each goal and many tactics for each strategy, but not all tactics are applicable to all strategies.

Strategy vs. Tactics

  • Goals: What you want to achieve.

  • Strategy: The approach you will use to reach your goal.

  • Tactics: The actions you will take or tools you will use to advance each step towards your goal.

Organizing Example: Organizing new unit/local.

Goal: Organize (sign-up) enough workers to establish a new union local.

It is important to write the goal of the campaign down in large letters on a wall chart and/or at the top of your notes page during meetings. Even if it feels rather obvious, it will allow folks to reference the goal to make sure things do not get off track.

If the goal is to organize the workplace, then conversations about international politics, local economic conditions, levels of conciousness in the general public, etc. probably do not belong in the meeting or on the meeting agenda or time during a meeting.

Potential Strategies:

Strategies should be discussed before discussing the tactics. Strategies should change depending on the phase of the campaign and whether or not if they are working. Strategies should always change less frequently than tactics and should only be revisited if there is agreement of the inside committee that the current strategy is not working.

Many drives suffer from constant revisiting of the strategy or over-thinking the strategy. It is generally a good idea to stick with a strategy (if it continues to work) until you have reached your goal.

  1. Agitation on workplace issues to reach more workers.
  2. Develop and recruit member card-signers inside the workplace.
  3. Coordinate card-signing outside the workplace.
  4. Organize for a single meeting to outreach to the majority of workers.
  5. Expansion of scope through bargaining.

Potential Tactics

There are many tactics that can be deployed to each of the above strategies. However, it is important to know that some tactics do not support all strategies.

  1. Secret, inside the workplace card signing at lunch and breaks.
  2. Open card signing in the workplace.
  3. Use regular workplace meetings to outreach and bring-up issues.
  4. House calls.
  5. Plant gating.
  6. Public campaigning.
  7. Outside contact-driven campaign.
  8. Advertising.
  9. Online outreach.

The Flyer

Also known as a "leave-behind", the main focus of the flyer is to make it easier to start a conversation with a fellow worker. It should also be produced so it acts as a reminder of the conversation.

Most important parts of the flyer:

  • Has the logo and name of the union on it.
  • Has the employer name on it.
  • Outlines key issues in the workplace.
  • Outline issues in flyer in conversation.
  • Contact information of the organizer.
  • Webpage of the generic organizing page of the union or the drive specfic page

Flyer design

Do not waste much time on the production of flyers. Many organizing committees spend a lot of time on design, wording, fonts, etc. on of the drive's flyers. Every minute spent tweaking, revising, or debating flyers is a minute not spent talking to members.

The flyer is simply a tool to help start and engage in conversations with fellow workers. It is not meant as a replacement for a conversation. However, it should be able to act as a reminder of the conversation and outline the main points the organizer made. It should be built as a reminder to the organizer and the member what they should be talking and/or thinking about when it comes to signing a card. Most workers will not read the flyer except to look up contact information.

There are many flyer designs.

“All the info” flyer

Used in many successful union drives, the Full FAQ flyer is a personal favourite. It acts as a resource for organizers and obviously is not made as a primary outreach tool.

image

“Ugly as flyer” flyer

In workplaces where the inside committee has no one who has design skills, but something needs to be produced very quickly, this can (but, probably should not) be used. This "design" of a flyer has been used in many successful drives.

image

"Professional" flyer

Larger union drives which involve the communications department and designers can result (usually after a long wait) in a nicely designed flyer. The number of professionally designed flyers used in failed union drives could fill a very large (and sad) art gallery.

Have as nice a flyer as you can. However, remember that flyer design is not a predictor of drive success. Indeed, they are completely unrelated. This is why too much time spent on the flyer is a waste. An easy example of this is the below flyer.

image

The List

After card signers, the list is the most important thing that a drive needs to be successful.

  • Not just the list from the employer.
  • Is built through the drive.
  • Contains more than just name and contact info.
  • Keep track of at least:
    1. Who you have talked to.
    2. What their response was.
    3. Do they want to be involved? How?
    4. Their referrals.

Workplace Leadership

Identifying "natural leadership" or "influencers" in the workplace is essential in an organizing drive. Every workplace as at least one worker who most of the rest of the workers respect and look to for advice in the workplace.

These workers are not always the most liked workers, social, or even nicest people in the workplace. They are also not always naturally pro-union as they usually do not feel they personally need the addition support in the workplace as they lead the workplace.

However, if these individuals can be convinced of the union then the drive is more likely to be successful. However, if the employer (or anti-union forces) in the workplace convince them to be their mouthpiece then it will generally sink a drive.

Goal:

Identify natural leaders.

Strategy:

  • Build list of workers and influencers in the workplace.
  • Develop networks of supporters around influencer.
  • Map network of influence.
  • Highlight personal issues.
  • Collect all issues for other workers in the workplace.
  • Build narrative to make it obvious that they should support the union.

Tactics:

  • Pick the contact person.
  • Find non-public space to give the influencer time to answer/address all issues. Answer all questions.
  • Engage natural leaders last.
  • Isolate anti-union influencers.

Report Back & Follow-up

Reporting back after a session of card signing is essential to a successful drive.

  • Share stories.
  • Update lists.
  • Identify new leaders/opposition.
  • Identify who can be moved.
  • Build positive support and community.

Follow-up: as soon as you can

  • No point asking people their problems if you do not follow-up.
  • If there are people who are marked neutral, follow-up in different ways, with different people.

Testing Support

Long campaign? Test Support.

  • Not every signed card is a supporter.
  • Test support throughout drive.
  • Build truthful feedback.
  • Change strategies if not working.
  • Abandon tactics if not working.

Team Best Practices

  1. No cliques. Cliques are the opposite of mass organizing.

  2. No negativity. Cynicism and negativity kill organizing drives.

  3. No minimums. There can be no minimum level of contribution to being part of an organizing drive.