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THINKING LIKE AN ORGANIZER
by Pam Galpern

Here are some exercises to get your members thinking about how to organize their co-workers. They'll learn about the importance of listening, how to identify good issues to organize around, and how to choose an action that makes sense for the issue at hand. The exercises could be used at a stewards training session or any educational event put on by the union.

These exercises were led by Pam Galpern, a member of Communications Workers Local 1101 at Verizon, at an "Inside Organizers School" held in New York in July 2005. Forty young people from around the country came together at the school, sponsored by the Rank-and-File Youth Project.

Part 1: Learning to listen

Pick a common problem at your worksite, such as forced overtime, management favoritism, conflict between co-workers—whatever is on people's minds. Have the group break into pairs, and ask each pair to have a conversation about the problem for 2 minutes.

Pick a second common problem. Tell people to create new pairs by turning to the person on their other side. This time, one person should talk about how the problem affects him or her, and the other member of the pair should just listen. This lasts 1 minute. The listener can ask an occasional question or indicate that he or she has understood, but mostly the listener listens.

Then switch roles. The talker listens, the listener talks, for 1 minute. (You, as the facilitator, inform them when time's up.)

Ask the group, "In which scenario did you learn more?"

Explain the "80-20" rule: an organizer should try to spend 80% of her or his time listening, and no more than 20% of the time talking.

Ask the group how they reacted to being listened to. How was it different from the 2-minute conversation they held at the beginning? Draw out more discussion that examines why listening is a critical tool in organizing.

This could be a time to pass on some related "tips for organizers":

• Talk to everyone (that is, listen to everyone). Don't limit your social interactions to a small group. Find some common point that you share with each co-worker and make it a point to get around and talk to lots of different people.
• To learn about a situation, get information from a wide variety of people. There will be more sides to a story than you might have thought. Issues have a history. People like to talk about their workplace and what's gone on in the past—how things used to be, what the union was like, how such-and-such rule came about. Listen.

Part 2: What makes a good organizing issue?

Ask the group to brainstorm: What makes a good issue to organize around? Break into groups of 6-8 people. Have the groups meet for 15-20 minutes and brainstorm, then report back to the large group.

Here are some answers that people have come up with in prior workshops:

• It affects many people, maybe a majority. (But don't forget that "an injury to one is an injury to all.")
• It's winnable
• It's timely; People are talking about it and are upset about it.
• It brings people from different racial or cultural backgrounds together
• It's not divisive (although sometimes some people will see an issue as divisive that others see as crucial. Race or sex discrimination is a good example. Discuss how the issues play out at your workplace.).
• It raises bigger issues that go beyond your workplace—it's educational.
• People can build off their organizing on this issue for future campaigns.
• It helps develop new leaders.
• There's a precedent—what's the history?
• There's a clear issue with a clear goal—what you're trying to win.

Once people have brainstormed a list similar to this one, ask for examples of issues from your workplace that fit these criteria. (Probably no one issue will fit all of them.) What are the drawbacks and advantages of the different issues? Pick a few examples that stand out to discuss in more detail.

Part 3: What makes a good organizing action?

Ask the group to brainstorm: What makes a good organizing action? Break into groups of 6-8 people. Have the groups meet for 15-20 minutes and brainstorm, then report back to large group.

Here are some answers that people have come up with in previous workshops:

• Helps develop new leaders
• Builds unity
• People can build off the action for a future campaign
• Requires/encourages everyone's participation
• Creates awareness in the community
• Educates members regarding broader related issues
• Is fun
• Demonstrates power
• Builds on past actions
• Raises the stakes/involves a risk
• Is a surprise to management
• Builds on what people do anyway
• Evokes a response from management
• Demonstrates that workers and management have different interests
• Has a clear target, appropriate to the issue (e.g., you don't target the CEO to win bathroom breaks in your department)
• Builds from where people are at
• Has a clear end point—an exit strategy. How do you know when you've won? Can you retreat gracefully, if necessary?

Ask for examples of actions (a delegation to the boss, picket line, petition). Which of them would be an appropriate way to organize around the issues you chose in Part 2?

Part 4: Organizing exercise

Write up the scenario of a problem that happened in your workplace. (See below for the scenario that was used at the Inside Organizers School.) Write the scenario in two parts, with the first part giving less information and the second part filling in more details. Choose an issue where it isn't or wasn't 100% clear how to proceed. There may be risks, or people from diverse groups may be affected differently, or the contract language may be unclear, for example.

Break people into the same small groups as before. Give them the first part of the scenario and have them generate a list of what further information they need, in order to decide whether it's a good issue to organize around. Have them report their questions/concerns to the whole group.

Then give them the second part of the scenario, which provides more information (and presumably answers most of the questions they've identified). Have people return to the small groups and discuss again whether it's a good organizing issue, using the criteria you developed in part 2 above. What are the risks? If it is, ask them to come up with an organizing plan, using the criteria from part 3.

Reconvene as the whole group and have each small group report. Discuss.

The Scenario: Management sets up worker

Part 1:
You are a steward. A manager approaches you "off the record" and shows you a letter from a customer detailing a negative experience the customer had with a particular technician. The letter is extensive, detailed, and written in such a way that you are fairly certain the manager either dictated it to the customer or wrote it herself.

The letter describes what time the technician got to the job, what time he left, and what he did. The manager points out that the customer says he left the job at 3 pm, but he didn't report finishing the job until 4 pm. The manager tells you she is showing you the letter for informational purposes only. She isn't planning on disciplining the technician, but maybe you can talk to him.

What questions would you want to have answered before taking next steps? What other information would you need?

Part 2:
You talk with the technician, who has a very different story from the manager's. He says he left the customer's home at about 3:30 and she was very happy with his work.

You visit the customer along with another steward. She confirms that the manager told her to write the letter. In fact, the customer says the manager told her that if she wrote the letter the installation would be free.

The manager is Puerto Rican. The technician is African-American. They have had some problems in the past, and the technician was suspended a few months ago for leaving his job site.

You talk to a number of co-workers and describe what happened. For the most part, Black co-workers are sympathetic to the idea that the worker is being set up, while many white co-workers are more skeptical.