So, do we have any union organizers that can tell us their stories?

[crispini]

I'd be really interested in hearing from some folks who successfully organized union chapters, and how they did it.

[benburch]

1. I'm going to try to get a few I know to come on down...

They are not currently DUers.

[madokie]

2. I posted about unions the other day

A friend and I worked to get this shop we were working at back in '71 to unionize. The company said that if we were sucessfull they would only close down and move out of state. We called their bluff and voted the union in only to come to work the following monday to an empty building. They had done exactly what they said they would do. They moved the operations to Missouri and resumed the business. No recourse for us. A couple years later I worked for them for a few weeks at their new location, Noel Missouri. I'm just saying this because I want you to know you will be faught the whole way, my experience. The Unions in America is what gave us a 40 hour work week and fair, well fairer wages. We owe our prosperity if not directly then indirectly to Unions. Most of my working life I wasn't union mostly because there weren't any union jobs in construction available here. I was a card caring Carpenter for several years but the commercial jobs weren't plentiful, ultimately forceing me to seek employment elsewhere. I consider myself a union man anyway. Good luck with your effort and remember to be ready for a fight, some of these anti'unionist are pretty ruthless. Count me in in your efforts. If I can help let me know.

[crispini]

7. Oh, THAT doesn't sound good.

When you were trying to organize people, how did you pitch to them and how did they respond to your pitch?

[Gman]

3. I've done "external organizing"

as we used to call it but we weren't successful at the time. We tried to organize what is now Time Warner Cable, had one big meeting and the next time we had 3 people after word got around management.

I was a union officer for 12 years, bargained contracts, did organizing, argued countless grievances, prepared arbitration cases and everything else. I'll be glad to be a resource for anyone that wants help, advice, whatever.

[crispini]

8. Well, how does it start?

My industry (technology) is traditionally not union, and my state is not either. To be perfectly honest, I don't even know enough about unions to know what the benefits of belonging to one ARE. But I do know that even my own company is subcontracting jobs overseas. :(

Is there a book, like Unions 101, or Unions for Dummies? :)

[Gman]

9. First...

establish a core committee. Those would be people that are as fed up as you are and are willing to go the next step. It is VITALLY IMPORTANT that these people be such that you can trust them and them you implicitly. If you have one snitch in the bunch, its over before it starts. Also, this core committee is small, probably no more than 4 or 5 to begin with. You can and will expand later if things get moving.

Meet somewhere away from the office and during off hours. Discuss what you like and don't like. Discuss who in the rest of the office/workplace would be at least willing to talk about forming a company employee association. And, decide if you can handle your life becoming a freakin' living hell on earth as once the company figures out what you're doing, you will probably and very likely be fired along with your buddies. But never fear because once you get a contract you can get back, assuming, of course, you even have somewhere to go to work and the company hasn't moved your office to New Delhi... (I'm not kidding!)

If you all agree, you can go the next step which is planning.

Keep in mind this is an extremely, agonizingly slow process. You have to go slowly and methodicly and plan.

This is just the beginning.

YOu're also going to want to get in touch with someone from an international union. The Communications Workers of America are very good with technology and they may be your best bet ,but there are others. It will be vital at some point to bring in a professional organizer from an international union to get financial support and organizing support for your committee.

Most unions will want you to be at least as far along as I describe here before they will start assisting you. And they will prefer that you at least have lists of names addresses and telephone numbers of employees, sketches of the office layouts and other basic but very important stuff. Remember, the union does not do the organizing, YOU (plural) do the organizing and then YOU ARE the union.

[crispini]

13. Wow, I think I may be too chickenshit for this.

Really. I guess I don't have any clear benefits of what a union would bring us. :shrug: If I don't have any clear idea of why a union would be good, then how am I going to sell it to my coworkers? they're mostly Republicans anyway. I'm in favor of unions in a sort of abstract, "because I'm a Democrat" kind of way, but I don't have any personal experience with them in my working history or environment. Is there something I can read to learn more?

[readmoreoften]

17. Here's my experience, hope it helps.

I was in the same position as you in many ways, now I'm on strike with the UAW, have been for four months. It has been a whirlwind four months.

MY BACKGROUND

I'm also a professional worker in a difficult category: graduate teaching assistant. That's my category, but the reality is that I perform the same labor as any professor: write syllabi, grade papers, teach class, answer student emails, sign forms, take shit. Before we had a union in 2000, graduate workers at my university (NYU) made only (on average) $10,000 a year with no benefits, no grievance procedure. After we won recognition for our union, our salary went up to $19,000 a year for 20 work a week max, paid childcare, full health benefits, sick leave, all grievances heard by a neutral third party, full tuition payment. That is a major MAJOR difference in quality of life! Especially in NYC!

We are also in a difficult situation with contract labor. There are scores of adjunct teachers salivating to earn what we made before a union contract. (When we went on strike, there was no shortage of scabs willing to cross the picket line.)

We won our union it was a major victory.

The Bush Administration's republican-majority labor board overturned our right to be considered workers and to be protected under federal labor law. NYU (which is like any other employer, just because they are university heads doesn't mean a thing-- they are some of the most powerful businessmen in the country) now refuses our right to collective bargaining and we are waged in a defensive war for the right to keep our union.

Without the union, everything went to shit. Healthcare premiums were raised with no warning; we have no grievance procedures at all; some paychecks come late or not at all.

Before the strike, I was pro-union in the same general way that you were. Now that I'm on the inside of this thing, I can't tell you how much my union means to me.


WHY YOU MIGHT WANT TO TRY TO UNIONIZE

Because your quality of life and job protection will go through the roof if you win.
Because you will be giving a priceless gift to the generations in your line of work who come after you.
Because the labor movement has struggled to get you the weekend, benefits, pensions. It might be your turn to fight the fight.
Because we can't go backwards. Union members have fought and suffered to get us where we are today.
Because millions of American workers will stand in solidarity with you.
Because your struggle will bring you closer to other workers in ways you never knew possible.
Because you will get to know the secretaries, security guards, and janitors in your building on a first name basis-- they'll tell you juicy gossip, too.


WHY YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO HEAD A UNION CAMPAIGN

If your coworkers (those who would be in your bargaining unit) are largely conservative and anti-union it will be very difficult.
If you are suffering from a physical or mental illness, I'd advise against it. I've done some difficult things in my life, and this is probably the most difficult. It is extremely taxing.

BEING ON STRIKE FOR UNION RECOGNITION

If you try to organize a union, and your employer refuses to bargain with you, you will most likely either have to give up or call a strike (or apply pressure in some other way.) I cannot tell you how emotionally draining a strike is. You will see the courage and cowardice of everyone you know laid bare. Your bosses will spread lies to the media about you. They will turn many of your friends and coworkers against you. They will probably hire a public relations firm to wage a campaign. People will become hysterical. People will find inner strength that you never imagined. People will stop speaking to you. Strangers from around the world will come to your aid. Many people who scab will attack your character and despise you beyond belief. You will be told you're a hero constantly by others. All this will happen at once. At some point you will be docked. You may lose your job. (Don't worry, when you win, you'll very well may get all that pay back in a settlement.) If you win, you'll get your job back.

A strike is psychological warfare. It is battle. Most don't last as long as mine has lasted.

THE FIRST THINGS TO DO

Exactly doing what you're doing. You have to organize yourself before you can organize other people. Don't talk about this with anyone before you develop a strategy. Then talk to one other person. Then another. It is all about one-on-one organizing. In the meanwhile, be a nice guy (gal, whatever.) Get to know your coworkers. If you actually genuinely get to know them, you will be more genuine when you try to organize and they will trust you. If you can, try to put yourself off as a reasonable kind of person. (I'm a really eccentric and political person, so when it was time to organize, it was more difficult for my co-workers to relate to me. They used the excuse "a union is the type of thing that a radical like readmoreoften would get involved in, but I'm not that type. It made it harder to organize them.)

Keep talking to people about it. Look up union organizing books on Amazon. Talk to a local labor organizer for advice. You could be lucky and your employer might immediately accept or union. But probably not.

[no name no slogan]

11. I'm a unionized tech worker

but I work in state government in a union-friendly state (MN). Even then, we still have problems getting tech workers to become full dues-paying, active members. It's a very tough sector to unionize, given that so much of the work is done under contract or by freelancers.

Be sure to let us know how things are going. I don't know how good a resource I would be (most of my organizing has been done at the caucus/grassroots level), but I'd be willing to give any advice, too. :)

[SushiFan]

4. I was union my whole career. I'd help out or be interested

if the right picket / organizing event came along. Just pm me if you know of any.

[Omaha Steve]

5. I got fired in 1980 for organizing

Want to read my NLRB case file?

[crispini]

6. Wow, really?

What industry?

[Omaha Steve]

10. Graphic Arts

The old GAU that doesn't exist anymore. I think it is now the GAIU.

[Omaha Steve]

12. Here is my NLRB file

You can view by HTML or PDF.

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:8Lzmr3jH_yEJ:www.nlrb.gov/nlrb/shared_files/decisions/261/261-38.pdf+nlrb+dawes&hl=en

So many posts for a group only a few days old!

[Coastie for Truth]

14. Big Business versus Union Lawyers in the 1930's

Dad was a UMWA lawyer in the 1930's.

Part of the package was that the UMWA paid dad a few bucks for each Worker's Comp case. The Worker's Comp law said that the maximum fee was $5, and the injured worker had to pay it - not the union.

Consolidation Coal Company tried to disbar all of these lawyers for being "kept lawyers."

Ultimately the union lawyers won -- and the injured workers were represented at their Workers' Comp hearings/

[Coastie for Truth]

15. Grand dad was an ILGWU organizer and a "Lector"

(Lector was like an ESL instructor for the union). He was an itinerant clergyman without a congregation and also recently widowed with 3 toddlers.

One evening he was doing his ESL thing, and a young immigrant girl in the class turns to the woman next to her and asks "That Lector is cute - what do you know about him?" The older woman replied "He's my brother, he's recently widowed with three kids." Six months later they were married - and Grand ma had three step sons.

[Lefty48197]

16. Here's a story

but I'm not an organizer.

I worked in a factory that manufactured computer hardware about 17 years ago in Ann Arbor. The UAW and then the Teamsters tried to organize the production workers.
There was a lot of buzz among the workers when the unions first showed up and started handbilling us. Some of the workers seemed quite receptive to the unions and people started talking among themselves.

...then the company got involved.

I know one guy who went to one of the union's meetings, and was subsequently told by the director of personnel that 'if he knew what was good for him', then he would stop going to those meetings.

Then it got ugly. People whom you had worked along side for months or even years would turn on you if you dared speak out in favor of the union. I was pretty deep into politics at the time, and I spoke out in favor of the union on several occasions.

A small group of the workers would then turn on me or anybody else who didn't toe the company line. "We don't need a union". "The company treats us well". "If we join a union, then they'll send our jobs overseas"

All of the sudden, we were treated like garbage, by people that used to be our friends. These little suck-butts spent so much time blowing the company leaders that they were able to keep the unions out of the plant. About 12 months later, they closed the shop and sent the jobs to Singapore, anyway.

I can't really describe with words how ugly the human emotions were that I saw during those organizing campaigns. It was amazing. To be treated like sh*t by somebody that acted like your friend one week ago is an experience that I hope no human being ever has to undergo. It was absolutely unreal.

[readmoreoften]

18. I'm going through that right now.

I've been fighting to keep the union that we have, the union that negotiated all the wonderful benefits that my scabbing coworkers are enjoying. Bush's NLRB voted down partisan lines that my employeer no longer had to recognize my union because although we work, somehow we're not workers. No one in my department wanted to strike (while other departments were rock solid.) People have treated me with pretty much total distain, hatred, and arrogance.

I think there is probably nothing more arrogant than a scab. Something about people who align themselves with management to screw over other workers. The worst kind of person. (I'm not talking about the poor person who's supporting 15 sick children, a dying wife, and a grandmother who's tied to an oxygen tank. I'm talking about the plain ol' suck-up scab.) They'll turn on you like vicious dogs. They get so angry that you have the "moral highground" that they will do anything to cut you down.

I lost all the relationships I'd been cultivating for a year. Ah, good riddance. I've got new union friends now. And we've got unbelievable solidarity!

Isn't amazing how workers will trust some large company NOT to move to Singapore or wherever else is convenient. (Then they'll take our tax $$$)

[bperci108]

19. That truly sucks.

If you indeed lose your "official" certification....

Do what the Starbucks workers did.

It worked; they won.

http://www.iww.org/en/node/2208


Forget the NLRB, forget the sellouts at the local hall office (they're probably golfing buddies with the bosses...) and the AFL-CIO national office (sorry if that offends some, but it's indeed true) and forget an administration that wants to see every single union of any sort wiped from the face of the Earth.

From the link:

"...The IWW Starbucks Workers Union is a grassroots organization of Starbucks employees united to improve life on and off the job. The campaign to organize Starbucks is based on the solidarity unionism model, unionism in its purest form: a group of workers directly pressuring a corporation without getting entangled in the cumbersome government certification process or the alienating business-union approach.

The business union model is dead, IMHO.

They've become the willing tool of the bosses and the ruling class. Their ranks are filled with good, idealistic and strong union supporters, but these folks haven't realized the shocking truth yet; They've been screwed. It's time for them to wake up and come out.

I'll always support the business unions' members (AFL-CIO and others) when they strike or picket, but I'll try to bring them the message of solidarity unionism and the One Big Union. There are many, many "two-card" Wobs, (i.e. both Wobblies and members of business unions also.)

Now that I've probably made some folks mad....I'll stop. :rant: