AFT healthcare training emphasizes organizing principles

The AFT's newest healthcare organizers met in Washington, D.C., this winter to learn how to run organizing campaigns and how to keep the union strong after the campaign is won.

Gary Stevenson, AFT Healthcare's organizing director, along with AFT and affiliate staff, led 35 organizers from AFT affiliates in skill-building and discussion about the principles of healthcare organizing. The three-day conference provided hands-on exercises using role-playing and discussion. The training focused on four areas of expertise: recruiting a representative and effective organizing committee; accurately charting and assessing units; educating and training the organizing committee and union supporters; and staying on message in the face of anti-union campaigns.

"A big part of what we do is at the work site," says Stevenson. "It's where our focus is. It's why we place such a strong emphasis on the principles of healthcare organizing. Recruitment, training and accountability are important elements of these principles, and they are the bedrock knowledge every organizer has to know."

Another key ingredient is active participation, Joe Woodard, the organizing director for AFT Connecticut, told participants. As organizers, you need to make potential members as well as current ones understand that the union is about taking action, he noted.

"You must have ongoing conversation about the issues that are important to your members and have them participate in coming up with solutions," he said. "Everyone has the ability to persuade one person to come out and be active in the union, to make it a priority."

People are motivated to get involved in union work by issues that concern them. To learn what those issues are, listen to the stories people have to tell and share them with others, said Stevenson.

"Storytelling empowers people to believe they can organize," Woodard added. Organizing is "not about winning the election or getting the contract, it's about building the union over time. The union gets stronger with member participation. The challenge for us as organizers is to engage people, to encourage them to become active members."

The Organization and Field Services department and AFT Healthcare sponsor several organizer conferences each year. Upcoming conferences include a volunteer member-organizer training and advanced training for lead organizers on leadership recruitment strategies.