Conference provides strategies for recruiting new members

Marti Reitzel believes that a union is the only realistic hope healthcare workers have of regaining control over the quality of patient care. That’s why the veteran nurse decided to try her hand at organizing.

“Quality care should be No. 1, ” said Reitzel, a registered nurse at Menorah Medical Center in Kansas City, Mo. She was one of more than 50 AFT Healthcare members and staff who came to AFT headquarters in Washington in November to learn more about organizing new unions and strengthening existing ones.

Reitzel wants to focus on recruiting hospital nurses who don’t yet belong to her union, Nurses United for Improved Patient Care, Local 5126.

“I want to try to help whenever I can and reach out to people to educate, motivate and bring them into the union,” said Reitzel, a nurse since 1978.

That’s just the kind of attitude the labor movement needs. With nearly 16 million union members in the United States today, the labor movement needs to organize a half million new members each year just to maintain the current percentage of organized workers.

“Elected union leaders need to know what organizing entails, so that they can devote the necessary resources to it, and members need to have organizing skills down cold, so that they can be effective member-to-member organizers,” said AFT Healthcare’s director of organizing, Gary Stevenson.

Stevenson developed a program to address this need by training members to become organizers. The three-day conference focused on themes, including establishing a timeline for an organizing campaign, giving workers a heads-up about the employer’s anti-union tactics, and finding good leaders.

“We have a long way to go to achieve a level of density in organizing healthcare workers,” Stevenson told participants. “But the potential is there for tremendous organizing activity and growth. Having you as organizers will make a difference for a lot of people. In organizing, every person makes a difference.”

“Organizing is the key to building the union,” confirmed AFT president Edward J. McElroy, who addressed the group.

“We’re a growing union, but it won’t always be that way unless each of you reaches out to others and we all feel it’s our responsibility to organize members. It’s critically important to organize those who are unorganized,” he noted. “We can’t make the mistake of thinking just because a member pays dues that they are actually organized. We have to talk about our issues and activate members around those issues. That’s what our recent victory in California was all about: organizing and mobilizing members around issues.”

Basic principles
Whether a union is bringing in new members or negotiating a new contract, organizers must adhere to basic principles if they want to succeed. These include creating a timeline for the campaign, making one-on-one contact with members or potential members, preparing people for the employer’s campaign and identifying and recruiting leaders.

Establishing a timeline helps an organizer answer questions like, What’s our plan? or What are we going to do each step of the way to let our institution know that we are serious?

The issues workers face, from short staffing and forced overtime to low wages, are what moves them to action, said Stevenson: “Issue-based organizing is a very important tool to use in mobilizing members.”

When an organizing campaign is generated around workers’ issues, it strengthens the union and empowers members and potential members through education and support.

In addition, mobilizing people to take action on behalf of the union sends the boss a message, Stevenson explained. “It’s not about what people say, it’s about what they do,” he noted. “Are they willing to wear a button or come to meetings, make house calls, share information to build lists or sign a union card?”

Organizers can assess the progress of their campaigns on a regular basis by creating measurable goals. They can also chart or keep track of potential members in each unit to determine their support for the union or contract negotiation issues.  Organizers can usually identify whether people are leaders or activists; pro-union but not active; undecided; or anti-union. Those assessments can also help organizers identify potential leaders.

“Your goal as organizers is to generate leaders who are committed to taking on responsibility as well as delegate duties and hold people accountable for their actions,” Stevenson told participants.

While charts and assessments strengthen the union, it is the personal touch that truly makes it grow.

“One-on-one communication is the most effective tool in union-building,” said Stevenson. “There should be ongoing one-on-one conversations with people whether you are a new union going after your first contract or just starting to organize.”

Communication is important because sometimes it’s the only chance you have to find out what someone’s issues are, said Dawnette McCloud, an organizer for AFT Healthcare Northwest. “It allows you to be interactive and share your story about why the union is important to you.”

Allowing other union members to tell their stories helps tremendously in fighting an employer’s anti-union campaign, noted Larry Lipschulz, organizing director for the New Jersey AFT Healthcare affiliate, Health Professionals and Allied Employees.

Sharing stories lets people know that power resides in collective action. Ultimately, the members are the union, and we are more powerful together than alone, said Lipschulz.

When workers decide that they want a union, employers often will set up vicious anti-union campaigns to generate fear and keep workers from organizing, which is why it’s important to inoculate them. In other words, inform members about what’s going to happen before it happens, and they will become immune to it.

For example, early anti-union activities include either firing or promoting union supporters to management positions, said Lipschulz. Employers intend to create fear. They will talk about strikes and dues, and give the impression that it’s futile to have a union. You can’t answer all of the questions raised by anti-union tactics, but if you get workers to understand that the boss doesn’t want a union, it helps put anti-union behavior in perspective.

Feeling empowered by the conference, Keith Inrig, an X-ray technician at the University of Connecticut Health Center and a member of University Health Professionals, says he will use what he’s learned to recruit new leaders and empower them to go back and focus on strengthening his union internally.

“I want to help bring in new leaders to keep the union rejuvenated,” said Inrig. “I don’t want to see us get stale. We can’t let the union stagnate.”