Useful post on workplace organizing

For the past year or so, I’ve been involved in some workplace organizing. Organizing is very much different from the more legalistic/bureaucratic union work that I’ve done. While a lot of basic labour relations knowledge and skills transfer well enough, organizing has required a real shift my thinking and approach. I’ve been fortunate to have good teachers.

With the heat momentarily off, I’ve been taking stock of what I'd learned. Coincidentially, I happened across an excellent post about mistakes that labour organizers make on the blog Organizing Work. Two of the mistakes that really resonated with me are “Focusing on where you are strong instead if where you are weak” and “Building your campaign out of like-minded people”.

Working with like-minded people is easy because there are fewer disputes about basic facts or values or approaches. But limiting oneself to like-minded folks impedes building a broad, member-driven power base (which is the point of organizing). There are a limited number of like-minded people in any organization. Not all like-minded people are effective or reliable activists. And many folks with very different values can be very effective activists on issues they care about.

The thing is, talking to differently minded people—and accepting their feedback (which is sometimes good and sometimes not)—is hard (both intellectually and emotionally). This dynamic likely contributes to my tendency to focus organizing where we are strong, rather where we are weak. It is also often easier to increase the intensity of existing support than it is to build support in areas where there isn’t much. For example, existing supporters often share interests. Opposed members often have different interests (or, at least, common interests are harder to see).

For example, there is an area in my workplace where the union has mixed support among its members. The workers in this area hold jobs that mean they sometimes experience some spill-over effects from the union’s direct action tactics. There are some quiet union supporters in this area. But they are reluctant to voice support because of the presence of a small number of powerful and vocal opponents of the union and/or its tactics.

The easiest approach to this situation is just to write the members in that area off. From a cost-benefit approach, the effort necessary to bring the vocal opponents on board (including possibly losing access to effective direct-action tactics) is likely not worth gaining what will, at least at first, likely be tepid and tenuous support.

Emotionally, this approach is also easy. Watching members in this area deride the tactics that are literally keeping them in the union (which materially benefits them) is very aggravating. Conversely, knowing that their behaviour makes these opponents likely to be among the first to get carved out of the union (because the employer will see them as easy targets) is discomfortingly gratifying.

But that approach isn’t really constructive or effective in the long run. It doesn’t find common ground upon which to build a base of power with which to oppose the employer’s behaviour. The better (but harder) approach is to engage with these workers. They do have interests in common with the broader membership. They also have the potential to make effective contributions to direct action. Further, addressing their opposition will make it possible to more quickly and thoroughly normalize the greater member engagement and activism that is emerging.

So hat’s off (once again) to Organizing Work for another useful contribution.

-- Bob Barnetson