Public Employee Press

Activists enjoy training as volunteer union organizers

An army of activists is gearing up for future organizing campaigns.

Dozens of union members and a handful of community advocates participated Feb. 7 and March 7 in intensive all-day training sessions on the nuts and bolts of organizing.
The DC 37 Organizing Dept. held the seminars as part of its plan to launch a wave of home visits soon to reach out to potential new members of District Council 37. Over 100 activists attended, including members of locals 371, 372, 375, 1549, 1559 and 2627 and retirees.

The union is looking to add about 8,000 members as it urges four groups of workers — including employees of subcontractors at city agencies and cultural institutions — to sign up to be represented by DC 37. The union is also continuing its drive at the Central Park Conservancy.

“In a climate that is often hostile to unions, we are going to start out quietly by visiting workers in their homes,” said DC 37 Interim Organizing Director Edgar deJesus. Unions do a lot of recruiting in the workplace, but one of the best ways to reach out to potential members is to meet them in their homes to talk about the benefits of belonging to a union.

The mission of organizers, he said, is to spread the “gospel of unionization” — job security, good wages and benefits, and secure retirement.

Yolanda Medina deJesus, an education field coordinator from DC 37’s national union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, opened the March training session by asking participants to introduce themselves and share their motivation for volunteering.

The activists spent the bulk of the day learning communications skills. If they fail to make a good first impression, visitors will often wind up having the door closed in their face. So it’s very important for volunteer organizers to learn how to break the ice immediately when they knock on the door.

Rather than trying to lecture potential members, facilitators told the Volunteer Member Organizers they should be good listeners and ask open-ended questions. Once they establish rapport, they should then offer information about the benefits of unions. Later they ask workers to sign a union designation card and encourage them to participate in the organizing campaign.

Union leaders who addressed the sessions to encourage the volunteers and stress their important role in strengthening DC 37 included Local 372 and DC 37 President Veronica Montgomery-Costa, Local 371 President Faye Moore, Local 372 Executive Vice President Santos Crespo, Local 436 President Judith Arroyo and Local 1549 President Eddie Rodriguez.

Participants’ reasons for becoming VMOs included expanding the membership to make DC 37 stronger, a desire to help others and a belief that rebuilding the labor movement is vital to improving America. Unions represented about a third of the workforce in the 1950s, but now only 12 of every 100 workers have union protection.

“I am going to make it a duty of mine to get more people to join the union,” said Local 1549 member Ayanna Gabriel, who on her job in 2007 was a lead organizer in the union’s campaign to bring hundreds of Health and Hospitals Corp. workers with the MetroPlus HMO into the Local 1549 family.

“I like to help people,” said Local 372’s June Gregory. “I want people to learn not to be afraid of the boss and to let them know the benefits that unions provide.”