August 14, 2024
Source: Convergence
Members of United Campus Workers of Tennessee and CWA Public, Healthcare and Education Workers sector demonstrate for a living wage at the University of Memphis. Photo courtesy of CWA.
“As we wrestle with our approach to this election and the need to prioritize mobilization but also strengthen our organization for whatever comes next, the work we are trying out and expanding in our public sector poses back the question: Why not both?”
At a moment of tremendous momentum and potential for labor, and simultaneous real peril and crisis in our political system, it can be disorienting to figure out what strategic tasks to prioritize: organizing and growing our movement, or mobilizing to defeat the Far Right and neutralize its danger. Indeed those options are even sometimes posed as mutually exclusive when we polemicize and debatewhat the Left’s work should be. Should we block or should we build? The implication is, we can’t do both. But we can. Elections present us with meaningful opportunities to interact with millions of voters as workers and connect the fight for democracy through the ballot box with the fight for democracy in the workplace.
For the past several elections, Communications Workers of America has worked with members of United Campus Workers of Georgia to do just that: go door-to-door to potential members of our union and talk with them about what’s at stake in the election for working people and the union, encourage them to vote for pro-labor candidates… and ask them to join our union as a member to build the power we need to get what we want. We’re participating inside the political system, and we’re also organizing outside of it.
Elsewhere in Convergence, my former CWA colleague and longtime labor movement strategist Bob Master has articulated the urgency of political engagement for the labor movement and the profound relationship between labor militancy and success and the political balance of forces. Longtime UCW member and now organizer Melanie Barron has talked about the role unions can play in the broader struggle for democracy. And Marybeth Seitz-Brown has talked about the need for political power in order to advance a working-class agenda and social justice union program. These are critical contributions during this at once auspicious and portentous political moment. Labor organizers, members and leaders need to see our work as going beyond any single election, and need a political program that builds our power.
These pieces have uplifted especially the necessity for the development of rank-and-file members to be leaders and protagonists in politics—through training and education, mobilization and organizing practice, and so on—and have highlighted successful, advanced work like the UNITE-HERE member canvassing program. What we have done is take an additional step by focusing the work of those members to also recruit people to a union, in addition to mobilizing them for a broader political program.
How does it work?
Unlike traditional union canvasses that are member-to-member or labor-to-labor, our canvasses use lists of potential members for our locals. These are lists that can be built through records access for public employees, or in the private sector by mapping and bread-and-butter list work. Matching those lists to voter records and profiles, we can then plan a canvass where we talk to coworkers and colleagues about what we are up to: fighting for everything from bargaining rights to voting rights at the ballot box, and organizing our union for the fights that will come the day after.
We train member activists to have both mobilizing and organizing conversations on the doors.
First, they introduce themselves as colleagues and fellow campus workers–and as members of the growing union on campus. This helps immediately establish a connection beyond a typical GOTV canvass: “We work together (even if it’s at a really big workplace)!” And, it establishes the political identity of our members as being independent from any given candidate: “I’m here with the union that’s on campus!”
Then, they talk about what’s at stake in the election for campus workers. These days, that’s no short list: from attacks on free speech and academic freedom, to threats of privatization and corporate-driven cutbacks of funding, to state legislatures’ plans for increasing pay and benefits for campus workers (or keeping them stagnant). We’ve always got a full agenda that’s make-or-break with who wins Governor’s mansions, state legislatures–and federal offices, too. “What are you thinking about this stuff? What do you care about as a campus worker?”
We don’t shy away from broader working-class issues either: the need for stronger workers’ rights, increasing the minimum wage, protecting the social safety net, and–yes–defending democracy and civil rights.
We collect the responses on these issue agendas that are developed and set by our locals, and solicit other issues of concern from the the people we talk to on the doors.
Then we make our case for why we’ve endorsed our candidate. Whether it’s a race for governor, state rep, or US senator, we share what we know about that candidate’s positions on our issues and our endorsement message. “So in the shortterm the reason we’re out here today is to share our support as a union for this candidate, and encourage campus workers to vote…”
…But we also make sure to communicate the bigger picture. “Look, we know that these issues aren’t going to be solved by any single politician or in any single election. That’s why we’re also organizing our union, so that we have a real voice to continue pushing, advocating, and holding the people we elect accountable the day after election day.”
Then we make an ask: “Are you with us? Are you up for joining other campus workers and our union to vote for the candidates who support us?” And if they are—“Are you up for joining our union, because we need you for more than just your vote?”
Building lists, building base, building power
The system isn’t a silver bullet, though, and sign-ups don’t always immediately happen on the door, in the GOTV conversation. The reality is, a lot of people aren’t up for joining at first, and do think their main political action in that moment should just be to vote. But the interaction does grow our understanding of who our potential members are, and introduces us to them for follow-up. We’ve signedup a lot of people right then and there, and even more when we track them down during worksite visits, follow-up phone calls, or future home visits–where we can build off the conversations we’ve had, the information about their concerns we’ve collected, and often a post-election retrospective that helps us put the work into a new context.
This model works particularly for the kind of “pre-majority” organizing we are doing in the South, where state sector workers are largely excluded from formal recognition and bargaining through a regime of racist, anti-worker laws. In the absence of a union election, workers directly join the union and begin paying dues, immediately becoming members. But there could be applications of this where we use the momentum of an election to collect authorization cards, or make assessments of workers for future organizing.
We’re able to develop a longer-term conversation about our vision of change and power. Public sector workers are keenly aware of the relationship between elections and workplace power, because as CWA Public, Healthcare and Education Workers Vice-President Margaret Cook will always say, “We elect our working conditions.” While some parts of the Left struggle to articulate and understand the deeply connected relationship between workers’ rights and electoral power, our members live it every day.
We elect our working conditions.—CWA Public, Healthcare and Education Workers Vice President Margaret Cook
And they know that it takes more than just getting out the vote. That may be step one, but joining the union and organizing for power to ensure the vote matters and translates into ongoing power is steps two, three and beyond.
As we wrestle with understanding our approach to this election and the need to prioritize mobilization but also strengthen our organization for whatever comes next, the work we are trying out and expanding in our public sector poses back the question: why not both?
ZNetwork is funded solely through the generosity of its readers.Donate
Members of United Campus Workers of Tennessee and CWA Public, Healthcare and Education Workers sector demonstrate for a living wage at the University of Memphis. Photo courtesy of CWA.
“As we wrestle with our approach to this election and the need to prioritize mobilization but also strengthen our organization for whatever comes next, the work we are trying out and expanding in our public sector poses back the question: Why not both?”
At a moment of tremendous momentum and potential for labor, and simultaneous real peril and crisis in our political system, it can be disorienting to figure out what strategic tasks to prioritize: organizing and growing our movement, or mobilizing to defeat the Far Right and neutralize its danger. Indeed those options are even sometimes posed as mutually exclusive when we polemicize and debatewhat the Left’s work should be. Should we block or should we build? The implication is, we can’t do both. But we can. Elections present us with meaningful opportunities to interact with millions of voters as workers and connect the fight for democracy through the ballot box with the fight for democracy in the workplace.
For the past several elections, Communications Workers of America has worked with members of United Campus Workers of Georgia to do just that: go door-to-door to potential members of our union and talk with them about what’s at stake in the election for working people and the union, encourage them to vote for pro-labor candidates… and ask them to join our union as a member to build the power we need to get what we want. We’re participating inside the political system, and we’re also organizing outside of it.
Elsewhere in Convergence, my former CWA colleague and longtime labor movement strategist Bob Master has articulated the urgency of political engagement for the labor movement and the profound relationship between labor militancy and success and the political balance of forces. Longtime UCW member and now organizer Melanie Barron has talked about the role unions can play in the broader struggle for democracy. And Marybeth Seitz-Brown has talked about the need for political power in order to advance a working-class agenda and social justice union program. These are critical contributions during this at once auspicious and portentous political moment. Labor organizers, members and leaders need to see our work as going beyond any single election, and need a political program that builds our power.
These pieces have uplifted especially the necessity for the development of rank-and-file members to be leaders and protagonists in politics—through training and education, mobilization and organizing practice, and so on—and have highlighted successful, advanced work like the UNITE-HERE member canvassing program. What we have done is take an additional step by focusing the work of those members to also recruit people to a union, in addition to mobilizing them for a broader political program.
How does it work?
Unlike traditional union canvasses that are member-to-member or labor-to-labor, our canvasses use lists of potential members for our locals. These are lists that can be built through records access for public employees, or in the private sector by mapping and bread-and-butter list work. Matching those lists to voter records and profiles, we can then plan a canvass where we talk to coworkers and colleagues about what we are up to: fighting for everything from bargaining rights to voting rights at the ballot box, and organizing our union for the fights that will come the day after.
We train member activists to have both mobilizing and organizing conversations on the doors.
First, they introduce themselves as colleagues and fellow campus workers–and as members of the growing union on campus. This helps immediately establish a connection beyond a typical GOTV canvass: “We work together (even if it’s at a really big workplace)!” And, it establishes the political identity of our members as being independent from any given candidate: “I’m here with the union that’s on campus!”
Then, they talk about what’s at stake in the election for campus workers. These days, that’s no short list: from attacks on free speech and academic freedom, to threats of privatization and corporate-driven cutbacks of funding, to state legislatures’ plans for increasing pay and benefits for campus workers (or keeping them stagnant). We’ve always got a full agenda that’s make-or-break with who wins Governor’s mansions, state legislatures–and federal offices, too. “What are you thinking about this stuff? What do you care about as a campus worker?”
We don’t shy away from broader working-class issues either: the need for stronger workers’ rights, increasing the minimum wage, protecting the social safety net, and–yes–defending democracy and civil rights.
We collect the responses on these issue agendas that are developed and set by our locals, and solicit other issues of concern from the the people we talk to on the doors.
Then we make our case for why we’ve endorsed our candidate. Whether it’s a race for governor, state rep, or US senator, we share what we know about that candidate’s positions on our issues and our endorsement message. “So in the shortterm the reason we’re out here today is to share our support as a union for this candidate, and encourage campus workers to vote…”
…But we also make sure to communicate the bigger picture. “Look, we know that these issues aren’t going to be solved by any single politician or in any single election. That’s why we’re also organizing our union, so that we have a real voice to continue pushing, advocating, and holding the people we elect accountable the day after election day.”
Then we make an ask: “Are you with us? Are you up for joining other campus workers and our union to vote for the candidates who support us?” And if they are—“Are you up for joining our union, because we need you for more than just your vote?”
Building lists, building base, building power
The system isn’t a silver bullet, though, and sign-ups don’t always immediately happen on the door, in the GOTV conversation. The reality is, a lot of people aren’t up for joining at first, and do think their main political action in that moment should just be to vote. But the interaction does grow our understanding of who our potential members are, and introduces us to them for follow-up. We’ve signedup a lot of people right then and there, and even more when we track them down during worksite visits, follow-up phone calls, or future home visits–where we can build off the conversations we’ve had, the information about their concerns we’ve collected, and often a post-election retrospective that helps us put the work into a new context.
This model works particularly for the kind of “pre-majority” organizing we are doing in the South, where state sector workers are largely excluded from formal recognition and bargaining through a regime of racist, anti-worker laws. In the absence of a union election, workers directly join the union and begin paying dues, immediately becoming members. But there could be applications of this where we use the momentum of an election to collect authorization cards, or make assessments of workers for future organizing.
We’re able to develop a longer-term conversation about our vision of change and power. Public sector workers are keenly aware of the relationship between elections and workplace power, because as CWA Public, Healthcare and Education Workers Vice-President Margaret Cook will always say, “We elect our working conditions.” While some parts of the Left struggle to articulate and understand the deeply connected relationship between workers’ rights and electoral power, our members live it every day.
We elect our working conditions.—CWA Public, Healthcare and Education Workers Vice President Margaret Cook
And they know that it takes more than just getting out the vote. That may be step one, but joining the union and organizing for power to ensure the vote matters and translates into ongoing power is steps two, three and beyond.
As we wrestle with understanding our approach to this election and the need to prioritize mobilization but also strengthen our organization for whatever comes next, the work we are trying out and expanding in our public sector poses back the question: why not both?
ZNetwork is funded solely through the generosity of its readers.Donate
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