Since its inception, the labor movement has sought tools to level the playing field with management. Coordinated actions at work sites and rallies--both large and small--have effectively drawn attention to our issues and brought pressure to bear on management. Pressuring management to meet our members' needs is what mobilization is all about.

PEF's Member Mobilization program was borne out of our 1999 contract struggle and can be traced back to a single phrase uttered by a state negotiator when she said that they didn't care what we wanted because we couldn't "hurt" them.

Under New York's Taylor Law, strikes are illegal. In other words, the ability to withhold one's labor, a worker's only weapon against an arsenal of employer tactics, did not exist for us. Our only option was to mobilize our members and raise our issues in the media, Legislature and at the polls. Our contract struggle lasted 18 months. As our ability to mobilize kept improving, so did our ability to pressure management.

Whether we were turning out a thousand members in 24 hours to surround the offices of the governor's negotiators, or sending 50 angry members into a disciplinary hearing, or packing the audience at a crucial meeting of hospital officials, mobilizing our membership made a statement that management could not ignore.

The power of mobilizing is unquestioned. Mobilizing members to turn out quickly in support of our issues is as powerful at the local and agency level as it is at the state level. To coordinate such events and ensure that a consistent message is delivered requires a great deal of organizational effort and discipline. And, once the crisis has passed, the momentum can be difficult to maintain.

PEF's solution has been to create an informal mobilization process that used contract negotiations as a catalyst and then make it a permanent aspect of the organization. We reorganized our Education Department, changing its mission and adding the mobilizing function. We added a full-time director of mobilization and redeployed staff to develop and train our member-mobilization network. PEF's mobilization program continues to organize our membership for effective and coordinated response to actions taken by management.

By continuing to identify willing activists and charting the location of those activists, PEF has been able to keep building a mobilization network to prepare for the inevitable budget battles and contract fights. Our initial goal was to prepare for and focus resources on our upcoming contract negotiations; however, it quickly became clear that mobilization is a tool that can be used to address virtually any labor-management, legislative or budgetary issue.

We have found that our ability to mobilize and create pressure around issues has often proven to be a deciding factor in decisions made concerning our members, especially in the face of increasing attacks on public services resulting from the current national economic downturn.

PEF is currently using mobilization effectively in our state budget fight. Our network of mobilizers and members is currently working in a grassroots effort to generate phone calls and letters to the governor and legislative leaders in support of our positions on the state budget.

Once you effectively mobilize your membership, you build a reputation of strength and effectiveness for your union. Your members also gain increased confidence in their ability to influence issues; they no longer feel they are at the mercy of management, and management sits up and takes notice.

PEF has learned the hard lesson that the power of your argument will never get you a good contract or affect the state's budget. It takes raw political power to do that. Our power comes from our members, and mobilization gives us the ability to tap that power.