Public Employee Press

Engaging, educating, and empowering members

By JOSEPH LOPEZ

Engage, communicate, educate and agitate. That is DC 37's goal as it launches a major initiative to get the union's 120,000 members more involved and inform them about the role of organized labor in our community.

"We want to encourage more members to become active in the union," DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido said. "As unions come under attack across the nation, we need to become stronger. We hope to build up our presence in the workplace and in our communities."

"If we do not bond together as one, the things we hold most dear, like our pensions and health benefits, could be at risk," said DC 37 Organizing Director Barbara Terrelonge

Unions need to respond more aggressively as conservative governors like Scott Walker of Wisconsin slash collective bargaining rights and the benefits of public employees, Garrido said.

Conservative groups aim to financially cripple unions through lawsuits bent on taking away their constitutional right to collect dues from workers who receive their services but fail to sign up as members and pay their fair share.

Many members are unaware that the protections and benefits they enjoy resulted from years of struggle in which workers lost their lives as they fought to improve the livelihood of their families.

DC 37's initiative aims to inform members of the "union difference." For instance:

• Unions pushed for the fiveday workweek, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, anti-discrimination laws and the federal minimum wage

• The median weekly earnings of union workers is $950 compared with $750 of non-union workers in the same jobs.

• Three out of four union workers enjoy a guaranteed pension while only 16 percent of nonunion workers participate in a defined-benefit pension plan

• Seventy-nine percent of union workers are covered by employer-provided health-care plans, while only 49 percent of non-union workers have that benefit.

A fighting union

By reaching out to members and informing them of these major issues and the history of unionism, DC 37 hopes to engage the members in building a fighting union.

"Our goal is to have oneon-one conversations with at least 50,000 members by April 2016," Terrelonge said.

The union is looking to create member-driven worksite committees and have on-site meetings to share important up-to-date information. "We want our members to know what we know when we know it," Terrelonge said.

On April 9 at the New York City's Human Resources Administration offices in 4 World Trade Center, Terrelonge was accompanied by several local presidents and staff members
at the first of a number of planned outreach meetings at various locations that house DC 37 members, to discuss the plan to re-engage the membership.

"You are the union, you have power, and sometimes you don't know how to use it," said DC 37 and Local 1549 President Eddie Rodriguez. He warned that going to war to protect your union rights isn't just about the present, but also the future.

"After the people taking your collective bargaining away finish with you, they're going to come after your children," Rodriguez said.

"We need to be made aware of the important issues so we can come together and fight," said Local 1549 member Leshaunna White, who attended the lunchtime meeting at HRA

"There's no such thing as having too much information," said Local 375 member Marc Brown, who welcomes more news about union issues.