WORK SESSION #1: Defining Our Local Units by Issues

2 ACTIVITY ONE Working with your team, see if you can have a discussion that leads to your completing the worksheet you have been provided on “Framing a Values/Issues-Based Union Message.” Then, we will discuss the results of your work. 1.Was this easy to do? Difficult? Why? 2.Did you learn anything in the process of doing this? 3.Is this a conversation that needs to continue when you return home? How will that happen? 4.Once you have completed this framework, what can you do with it? How would it be useful?

3 What is issues organizing? Involving members in “union work” to address something they care about. Why issues organizing? To create urgency. (Your activism is needed right now.) To define the union. (This is what we care about. This is what we do.) To activate members at all levels of union commitment. (This is your fight and there are things you can do.) To build union consciousness. (We did this together!)

4 What makes a good organizing issue? One that can be brought to an acceptable resolution. (Winning isn’t always necessary.) One that can be clearly communicated and has at its heart core worker values. (Respect. Dignity. Voice. Professionalism. Worth. Value.) One that unites, rather than divides. One that can be used to create a range of involvement opportunities. (“Baby steps” for newbies, “next levels” for experienced activists.) Examples of good organizing issues? Bad ones?

5 Where to find good organizing issues? Look: We can find them through our own day-to-day experiences. Listen: Surveys. Meetings. Discussion groups. Organizing conversations. Don’t be bound by paradigms: Just because it can be negotiated, grieved or legislated doesn’t make something less of an issue. And as the story of the “Falling Pin Zone” suggests: Just because an issue can be resolved simply or quietly, doesn’t mean it should be.

6 Elements of an Issues Organizing Campaign: Research and Planning: What is the issue? Who is affected? Who can resolve? What resolution? How will we involve members in seeking that resolution? Over what timeframe? Who will be responsible for what? Education and Agitation: Getting the word out. Making the issue the issue. Getting people to care enough to take action. Activation: The “doing” of the campaign. The time where relationships and experiences are created that make unionists out of members. Resolution: The application of union power. Declaring victory or explaining how the fight will carry on. Evaluation: Did we achieve our goals? What did and didn’t work and why? Who was activated? What leaders emerged? How do we sustain them as activists?

7 ACTIVITY TWO Working with your team, see if you can identify one or more good organizing issues for your local unit. Then select one of the issues to plan the broad outlines of an actual organizing campaign you can carry out in the real world. 1.Be able to describe why it is a good organizing issue. 2.Identify who it affects, what resolution you will seek and who can resolve the issue. 3.Decide how you will seek to involve members, keeping in mind the idea of “baby steps” and “next levels.”