| The Five Basic Steps Although every workplace is different and the needs of
workers vary, there are some basic steps involved in winning a
union voice on the job. To begin organizing a union at your
workplace there's a simple starting point before going through
the steps listed below. Here's how it happens .
- Quietly talk to a few of your co-workers who you
think may be interested in organizing.
- This small group starts to privately discuss
workplace issues,what is involved in organizing a union, and
making plans to contact the Insulators Union.
- When you are ready, contact
us and an Insulators Union representative will meet
with the small group to answer your questions and help you
develop a comprehensive organizing plan.
Step
1: Build an Organizing Committee
Leaders are
identified and an organizing committee reflecting the racial,
ethnic, and gender diversity in the workforce is established.
Organizing committee training begins immediately. Committee
members must be prepared to work hard to educate themselves
and their co-workers about the union and to warn and educate
co-workers about the impending management anti- union
campaign. The organizing committee must be educated about workers'
right to organize and must understand Insulator Union
policies and principles of democracy and rank-and-file
control. Also, at this step, basic information about the
workplace must be gathered including:
- Workplace structure: work areas, jobs, and shifts
- Employee information: name, address, phone, job title
for each worker
- Employer information: other locations, parent
company, customers, union history
Step
2: Adopt An Issues Program
The committee develops a program of union demands (the
improvements you are organizing to achieve) and a strategy for
the union election campaign. A plan for highlighting the
issues program in the workplace is carried out through various
organizing campaign activities.
Step 3: Sign-Up Majority on Union
Cards Your co-workers are asked to join the Insulators Union and
support the union program by signing membership cards. The
goal is to sign up a sizeable majority. This "card campaign"
should proceed quickly once begun and is necessary to hold a
union election.
Step
4: Win the Union Election The signed cards are used (and required) to petition the
federal labor board to hold an election. It will take the
labor board at least several weeks to determine who is
eligible to vote and schedule the election. The union campaign
must continue and intensify during the wait. If the union
wins, the employer must recognize and bargain with the union.
Winning a union election not only requires a strong, diverse
organizing committee and a solid issues program, but there
must be a plan to fight the employer's anti-union
campaign.
Step
5: Negotiate a Contract The organizing campaign does not let up after an election
victory. The real goal of the campaign, a union contract (the
document the union and the employer negotiate and sign,
covering everything from wages to how disputes will be
handled), is still to be achieved. Workers must be mobilized
to support the union's contract demands and pressure the
employer to meet them. We are proud of our democratic
tradition. Insulator Union members run their own unions - and
there's no other union where this is a truer statement. |
