For David Hecker, union organizing is really a life-and-death issue. "If the labor movement doesn't grow, we wither away," says Hecker, president of the Michigan Federation of Teachers & School Related Personnel (MFT & SRP). "A state federation and a national union will die if they don't organize."

It's easy to speak eloquently about the importance of organizing, but Hecker and the Michigan federation have turned that talk into action by putting staff, resources and thoughtful planning into efforts that have brought thousands of new members into the MFT & SRP in the last few years.

Before the AFT and the NEA forged closer relations on the national level, most organizing in Michigan involved raiding the other union. With that rather unproductive practice off the table, the union needed a coherent plan to bring in the unorganized or those who were in independent organizations, notes Hecker, who served as secretary-treasurer before winning election as state president. In Michigan, that has largely meant paraprofessionals and school-related personnel (PSRPs) and higher education employees.

A good plan is nothing without resources, so the MFT & SRP leadership a few years ago put forth a dues increase that allowed the state federation to enhance its organizing efforts. One of the first steps was to hire the federation's first full-time organizer, Jon Curtiss. Like most AFT state affiliates, the Michigan federation employs field representatives, but most of their time is devoted to providing services to existing locals, so it's hard for them to allocate time to organize new locals.

The allocation of additional funds for organizing was presented not only as a way to increase the size and strength of the federation but also as an efficient use of money. "I said that, in time, this [staff organizer] position would pay for itself," Hecker says. "Now we've more than paid for it in the organizing we've done," and the federation is on its way toward paying for the second full-time organizer it has hired, Krista Schneider.

On a broader level, Hecker argues that it can only be good for all workers if unions increase their membership density in an industry or occupation. That makes it harder for managers to pit workers against each other and point to lower wages among nonunion workers as a reason they can't offer better salaries. "You bring up the [wage] floor, and that helps everybody we now have," he adds.

Ruby Newbold, an AFT vice president and head of the Detroit Association of Educational Office Employees who chairs the MFT & SRP's organizing committee, shares Hecker's views on the connection between organizing and union vitality. "Bringing in new members is critical to strengthening our union," she says. "The new members get the benefit of a contract, and current members get the benefits of a larger union," which means more clout in the educational, legislative and political arenas, Newbold points out. "As the MFT & SRP continues to organize, we all benefit."

The Michigan federation's efforts are in line with recommendations outlined in the AFT's Futures II report, approved at the 2000 national convention. Among other things, that report called for expanded organizing at all levels of the AFT (building a "more vigorous organizing union," as the document put it), and it also established a high-level organizing committee. Hecker serves on the AFT organizing committee.

Joining the house of labor

Among the Michigan federation's newer affiliates, the enthusiasm for being organized and joining the broader labor movement is strong. "We are very excited about our future and look forward to the challenges ahead," says Marilyn Haggitt, president of the Waterford Association of Support Personnel, a 540-member unit that voted overwhelmingly in April 2002 to join the AFT. "Our goal is to work closely with our members and the school administration to negotiate a fair and equitable contract."

While the Waterford local, which includes a range of support staff, is one of the largest PSRP groups to join the Michigan fed recently, the union has organized a number of smaller PSRP units, as well. That doesn't mean the federation will go after any group that's available. For example, a group of 30 secretaries in the Lake Shore School District voted for AFT representation last May. If they were off on their own, far from other locals, it may not have made sense to bring in such a small group. But the AFT already represented teachers and other PSRPs in the district, so it was logical to try to affiliate the independent secretaries union.

The largest victories in the last couple of years have been in the higher education sector. In 2001, for example, about 1,500 teaching and graduate assistants at Michigan State University voted for the AFT-affiliated Graduate Employees Union as their representative. Even without any membership drives, the union claims about two-thirds of the bargaining unit as members, and a formal membership push this year should boost that figure, says GEU president Scott Henkel.

Important changes for the better have been obvious to the union's members since organizing and then winning their first contract last April, including improved healthcare. "I have heard lots of members say that faculty mentors and graduate chairs treat them so much differently and with more respect now," Henkel reports. "We're looked at as equals instead of cheap labor."

The next big higher ed target is a group of nontenure-track faculty who teach at the University of Michigan. The Lecturers Employee Organization has filed for an election to represent 1,300 full- and part-time faculty who teach at three campuses.

"We want a voice at the university," says Gina Soter, a Latin instructor at the Ann Arbor campus. "As a union, we'll have the right to meet as equals with the administration and the ability to make some important improvements for ourselves and for the university."

In each campaign, the state fed's organizers try to bring in leaders and members from nearby locals to help out, something Hecker wants to do more of. In Waterford, for example, in addition to members from various AFT locals and AFL-CIO staff who helped out by making house calls, AFT affiliates donated supplies and equipment including a fax machine, a copy machine, a table and a sign for the office.

Hecker sees plenty of opportunities to continue the MFT & SRP's organizing efforts for years to come so they can build on their successes. "This has all greatly added to what this state federation has been able to do for all of its members," he says.

--Daniel Gursky

Copyright by the American Federation of Teachers, AFL•CIO. All rights reserved. Photographs
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