I am a believer in the concept that there is strength in numbers. One of the major strengths in a group is the ability of its members to share experiences and advice with other members. Therefore, I think that it would be helpful if people would share some of the things they learned from previous organizing drives. We must start teaching each other what we have learned from our experiences so we can take on the bosses better. I am happy to get the ball rolling by sharing some of the things I have learned after a few years of salting.


1) When one is working in a company that is nonunion and you are trying to organize it, I think it is vital to keep your head down while simultaneously having your chin up. One does not want to attract the attention of the bosses before you are ready because this will simply result in someone getting fired. Meanwhile, you do not want to appear like a push over because no one will listen to you when you talk to him or her about a union. I am not saying it is easy to balance these two competing interests but if one can figure out how not to attract attention from the bosses while still earning respect from workers, their organizing drive will be much more viable. I recommend that such an activist should fight the bosses only defensively but as ferocious manner as is safe and earn the respect of the workers by having a good work ethic and by being respectful. It is my experience, that if someone does this right, the workers will both listen to and trust them when they talk to them about joining a union and the employer will not lash out at the work force until it is too late.

2) The most common error I find among my fellow activist is that they try to play the role of a hero to the workers when it is not needed. I have found that workers simply need a proper education in how to fight for themselves and some confidence in their abilities. It is my experience that once these two conditions are achieved, workers tend to join together and demand from the bosses what they are owed. The fact that so many activists try to do everything for the workers is both insulting and counterproductive. The American workforce is a strong group of people, who are being screwed by the bosses. We are not weak and can fight for ourselves and therefore we do not need a hero. Our major problem is that we are disorganized and the bosses have divided us. What we need is a real organizer and not a knight in shining armor.

Regardless of it being insulting or not, the efforts of the "hero" are almost always inferior to those of an organizer. For instance, the changes that a hero implements tends to only survive as long as the hero stays at the work site, but the changes implemented by an organized workforce can last for generations. Furthermore, we are stronger when we work together. No single activist is stronger then a well organized workforce. Although the changes are temporary and a hero is weaker against the boss, I constantly see activist try to be a savior of the workers. My advice for activists is to forget about your pride or whatever motivates people to be a champion, and to simply organize. Do not underestimate the worker; workers only need a little help in figuring out how to fight for themselves.

3) The number one reason I have seen activist leave the movement is due to frustration at organized labor itself. Although things are starting to get better, the labor movement is still currently sick and we must understand this. Sometimes we have to fight unions to get them to do what is right. For instance, we may have to fight to get a union to start to organize new workers or to enter a tough fight for the current membership and so on. It is very easy to get frustrated at the movement when you spend more energy trying to work with union officials then you do fighting the bosses, but be patient. We activists are like an antibiotic for Labor's illness, the more of us that are in movement; the more the illness starts to withdraw. Although no one may tell you this, Labor needs us. Although Unions are horrible patients, we are both the antibiotic and the faithful nurses and doctors who will bring our patient back to life. Sadly, many nurses are never properly thanked for there serves and we are no different.

4) When one is looking to build an organizing committee, be very careful because this is the most dangerous part of an organizing drive. The organizing committee is going to be the brains and the brawn of the effort to unionize and is of obviously fundamentally important. I like to think of building organizing committees as being similar to having a child. When the committee is brand new, it is fragile and needs to be protected and nurtured. If we do not nurture it when it is young it can grow up deformed or it may even die. Just like having a child, our goal is to have the committee grow healthy and strong and eventually self-sufficient.

With its vulnerability and importance in mind, what follow is some very common childhood illnesses which many committees suffer from. When we are building a committee, we are risking being exposed to the bosses and therefore we have to totally vet all candidates. I like to vet candidates for the committee as seriously as I would vet a babysitter for my child. If the committee is exposed to the bosses before it has a chance to strengthen and mature, the boss may be able to kill the drive before it even begins. If we set up the organizing committee with an incorrect composition of workers, i.e. having no women or no one from a particular department…etc, we leave ourselves open to being pigeonholed by the bosses. If we activist take too much control of the committee, we set a pattern for dependence that is extremely hard to overcome later. If we are able to avoid these common pitfalls, the likelihood of having a strong and healthy committee and eventual victory will greatly increases. Just like a young child who is starting to develop, we must take the utmost care that it develops correctly or it will constantly be ill.



5) The most important thing I learned from my own previous organizing drives is to ask questions. No matter who a person is, there will always be more they can learn from others. As the old saying goes, a wise man can learn from a fool but a fool cannot learn from a wise man. This is why I am requesting others to add their own opinions and advice to mine, so we can all learn from one another. There is so much we can learn from one another. We have no choice but to both learn and become stronger or to see our movement and the middle class in our country continue to vanish.