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Institutional Organizing Styles

Two types of union organizing

Union Mythology

"Strategy":

When unions do not directly engage in a strategic organizing program, they will likely still pick-up the phone when workers call. In this mode, the union relies on worker-driven campaigns or have workers independently approach the union.

This is not a strategic approach to organizing. However, many unions rely on and successfully use this program to grow their membership. Workers will identify a union to call to help them organize their workplace simply because they have not heard of any other union, think that the sector they are in is more aligned with a union, or someone they know belongs to a union they have heard good things about.

Tactics:

The tactics used in this style of organizing relies on maintaining the public view of the union. This can be incidental to the goal of organizing and simply a result of an active, progressive, or militant membership.

  • Advertising
  • Political action
  • Campaigns on specific issues
  • Public strikes

Strategic Organizing

Strategy:

The opposite of the accidental organizing through mythology is the strategic organizing program. This involves having an active and well resourced organizing department in the union and a leadership which understands organizing requires its own dedicated staff resources and supports.

The strategy is to identify workplaces that are targeted by the union for specific reason.

Tactics:

  • Identify sector goals
  • Recruit organizers in workplace
  • Recruit organizers from community
  • Develop long-term organizing plan
  • Outline resources and staff

Strategic Organizing Types

There are several main different types of strategic organizing programs.

Secret Organizing

Strategy:

Unionize without employer finding out. Most organizing drives start with a secret organizing drive.

Tactics:

  • External committee
  • Secret Inside Committee
  • Salting
  • House Visits
  • Association Unionism or Take-Over
  • Servicing Agreement

Open Organizing

Strategy:

Unionize in the open.

All union drives become open drives at some point. The shift to an open drive should happen as a strategic choice of the inside committee, but in most cases the employer finds out before this time. Either way, the committee needs to have a plan for the implementation of this phase of the campaign before it happens.

Tactics:

  • Inside committee resourced by union
  • Plant Gating
  • Community Organizing (Stamford)
  • Sector Organizing
  • Mass campaigns in the workplace

Organizing Through Expansion

Strategy:

To use the resources of local to expand. This strategy is usually resourced through local activists/staff in an attempt to add units or expand scope of a workplace local

Tactics:

  • Organizing with an eye to an employer agreements: negotiation of the expansion of scope
  • Providing direct services from local office
  • Wall-to-wall expansion to included unorganized workers.
  • Training centres

Non-traditional Organizing

Strategy

  • Organizing under US anti-worker laws, non-Rand workplaces.

Tactics

  • Neutrality Agreement across workplaces
  • Concession sharing/competing with non-union
  • Pay-per-member Organizing
  • Raiding

Transition to Local

The goal is always to have the organizer involve the staff representative before the end of the drive. However, not all unions have a defined process for this. The default without a defined process is a type of business unionism.

  1. Business Unionism: Hand-off to staff representative as soon as drive is completed.

  2. Constant Organizing: Involves the organizers and organizing resources through to first contract and beyond.