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.
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Business Unionism: Hand-off to staff representative as soon as drive is completed.
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Constant Organizing: Involves the organizers and organizing resources through to first contract and beyond.