Notes from the Organizing training with KB

05 May 2017

On March 4-5th 2017 UAW 2865 had an organizing training with KB Brower of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP) in order to prepare for the upcoming contract negotiation with UC. Below are notes from the training!

We need to be building a democratic and fighting union not just one with high memebership, but high membership is an important first step.

Table of contents

  1. What is our union? What is social justice unionism?
  2. What is the internal structure of a successful union
  3. Power mapping
  4. Recruiting new departments
  5. The three-point conversation
  6. The eight-point conversation
  7. How to answer tough questions
  8. How to create an organizing committee
  9. How to turn an issue into a campaign

What is our union? What is social justice unionism?

Our union is a group of student workers that join together in our workplace to fight for a better UC.

Social justice unionism means that we care about social justice issues as a part of how we think about labor. This can be contrasted with other types of unions such as police unions, which are unions that are okay with perpetuating systems of oppression.

We negotiate and defend our contract, which is a legally binding agreement with the administration that defines the terms of our labor. When the school violates these terms, the union provides means of recourse through the grievance process.

We have power in numbers! Put simply: divided (without a union) we beg, but united (with a union) we bargain.

What is the internal structure of a successful union

Power mapping

Recruiting new departments

  1. Call all the current members in the department and schedule a 1-on-1.
  2. Have the 1-on-1, do workplace planning, identify the “real” leaders.
  3. Ask the person to help set up a meeting with you, them, and the leader.
  4. Meet with them and ask them to join the organizing committee (OC).

The three-point conversation

  1. Introduce
  2. Identify issues i) “What do you want to see changed?” A. If “I’m pretty happy,” follow up with leading questions like “What are you happy about?” or “Did you know that other R1 universities pay a million dollars more?” or “I’m glad things are okay, but we want things to be great!” ii) Need to know what they care about and what their issue is. Don’t make the ask until you know!
  3. Plan-to-win/make the ask! i) “How we are going to win [insert their issue here] is by building unity and strength with our members” ii) Sign them up!

The eight-point conversation

  1. Introduce i) “Hi my name is [your name] and I’m in the grad student union. We are a union of teaching assistants, tutors, readers and graders that are fighting for better working conditions, better pay, and a better UC. We are starting to talk to as many grad students as possible to know more about what they care about and what they want to see changed as we gear up for our next negotiations.”
  2. Identify issues i) “What do you want to see changed for grad students here at the UC?”
  3. Agitate i) Once you know what they care about, focus on really getting them worked up about it and ask them whether they’ll let it continue going on like this or whether they want to make a change. ii) “Do you think that’s fair?”
  4. Plan to win i) “The way we’re going to win [their issue] is by building a strong union. If only a few of us call on the UC to make this change, do you think they will listen? No way! But if a majority of the grad student workers stand together and demand that change, will they listen? YES! The truth is that we provide over half the instructional hours to UC undergrads at [insert your UC here], so we do the work that makes UC its money. This gives us power because the UC can’t function without us. That means that our membership is the main source of our power – the more active members we have, the more power we have to improve teaching and learning conditions at the UC. ii) That’s why it’s important for every single department to have a representative to the union, and it’s why we’re reaching out to every possible department to get them involved.”
  5. Call the question i) Ask them point-blank if they want to get involved to make positive changes for grad students.
  6. Worksite mapping i) Now we want to get a thorough understanding of what’s going on in their departments and who the potential leaders are ii) Ask about social groups and other organizations in their department, and which of their coworkers are active in other issues or campaigns. iii) Beware of loud white men who might seem like the real leaders at first, but may not have much sway or be representative of the department.
  7. Get a commitment i) Ask them to do something specific (like come to an organizing meeting) then stop talking and make them answer “Yes” or “No,” talk through any excuses they might have and make a clear plan to follow up with them.
  8. Follow up i) Be clear and specific about how you will follow up. If they agreed to talk to someone in their department to try and set up a meeting, ask them when they’re going to talk to them, and when you will follow up.

Affirm, Answer, Redirect

Don’t debate, organize: If someone raises a concern or question about your campaign, resist getting into argument mode.

How to answer tough questions

Here are some tough questions we could encounter:

  1. Dues… i) You are already paying fair share fees. The difference between fair share fees and union dues totals to five dollars a month.
  2. Too much social justice, not enough bread-an-butter.
  3. Scared of retaliation i) It is illegal; power in numbers; give examples of how there hasn’t been retaliation
  4. Unions are bad/corrupt i) The union is bad? The union is me and you!
  5. It’s not us that are exploited/we’re not workers…
  6. UC takes care of us.
  7. This will harm my relationship with my PI/the union will come between us.

Again, remember to affirm, answer, redirect. Everyone cares about something; it’s our job to find what their real issues are!

How to create an organizing committee

Ideally our OCs are made up of the real leaders representing each and every department especially from the top 20.

  1. Schedule a meeting with all existing active members i) debriefing of this training ii) contact everyone by phone and email
  2. Prioritize getting your biggest worsts to the OC
  3. Hold your OC meeting i) Go over the plan-to-win ii) Reports on the numbers or structure test iii) Debriefing of conversations and troubleshooting iv) Set goals for the next few weeks v) Get goals for the biggest worsts vi) Department-level campaigns
  4. Meet frequently, like every two weeks!

How to turn an issue into a campaign

What are different types of issues

We want to focus our public issues on widely-felt issues and also social-justice issues that are widely felt. But sometimes Isolated Issues like dependent health care are actually widely-felt issues when you think that the fact that the boss can take away a right randomly at will is something no worker should tolerate.

What are tools the union has

Campaign goals

So now we have a campaign. Our goals are not only to resolve the issue but also to:

  1. Build the membership so we can better address issues in the future
  2. Identify the real leaders in the department in preparation for the strike
  3. Test our internal structure. Will people come out and support?

Also to think about our organization, both: