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HOW A LOCAL NEWSPAPER CAN GET THE MEMBERSHIP INVOLVED
by Mary Baird

[Editor’s Note: These ideas implemented in a phone company local in the 1980s work just as well today—and most are applicable to union websites as well.]

"The editor of a labor paper is of far more importance to the Union and the Movement than the President or any other officer of the Union."
—Eugene V. Debs, Metalworker, 1904

I have seen a newsletter give a local union a new face, new life. At an Ohio Bell local in Cleveland, there had been no regular publication for years. Communications Workers Local 4304's Crosstalk helped to bring the union back to the members and the members back into the union. Here are some steps we took to “reach out and touch” the membership.

ENLIST MEMBERSHIP INPUT
Members will read it if they're a part of it. You'll never get a large number of people to submit articles on their own, but there are ways to get them into the paper and their concerns into print:

* Mail-in survey. One of our first surveys was an unfinished drawing of a nameless union member and a blank word-balloon. The item was called “Sound-Off” and members were asked to fill in the balloon with their main gripe or concern. Next issue, we printed the responses.

Last bargaining round, Crosstalk gave members a direct line to negotiations by printing a mail-in survey. We printed the results and forwarded them to the local and national bargaining committees.

* Roving reporter. Crosstalk does a feature article, with photographs, every two or three issues on a particular group of workers--covering the nature of their work, problems they're facing, their opinions about the company, and their ideas on how the union can better represent them.

For example, Crosstalk recently ran a feature story on the people who clean Ohio Bell buildings, who often refer to themselves as the “forgotten ones.” They told their story to their 900-plus union brothers and sisters: the company is contracting out their work. They want the union to fight harder on their behalf, and they need the backing of their brothers and sisters in other classifications.

This is the type of article that gets the most positive feedback. People need to have their say about things they like and dislike. They need to hear what others have to say. When it comes time for a walkout or job action by one group of workers, others are more informed, more connected, and more concerned.

* Grievance update column. Our vice-president summarizes the status of current grievances that are of interest to everyone or those that stewards can use as precedents.

* Phone-around surveys. January 1984 ushered in AT&T's divestiture, so we ran a feature on all the happenings around the local that reflected the combined impact of divestiture and technological change. Information was obtained from conversations with chief stewards in the various departments.

* Opinion page. Crosstalk's policy is to print any signed article or letter a member submits, with the right to edit for length. People can and do debate policy and politics; some question local and national union positions.

An example is the series of articles from various members on the pros and cons of the Quality of Work Life program. Despite the heated controversy and criticism from both official union and company channels, the local defends the right of members to decide for themselves the validity of policies set down or negotiated by their elected leadership.

In this way the newsletter says, in effect, that the leadership respects members' views. The union is projected as a composite of its members and their varied concerns, and not as an impersonal monolith that dictates how the members should think, act, or vote.

* Ongoing talent search. Some members express themselves best in artwork, poetry, photos, puzzles, or cartoons. Use the stewards organization to seek it out. Crosstalk found its main cartoonist when stewards told us about the great caricatures he did for office bulletin boards. G. Walker's “Billy the Beeper” series has given Crosstalk its own original comic strip that relates uniquely to phone workers.

One member's wife wrote a poem about the union. We printed that, along with thank-you notes for the family picnic written by some members' children. Others papers have run photo contests or printed children's drawings.

* Human interest stories. Members like stories about what they do off the job--special hobbies, talents, activities in the community. One of Local 4304's members is a semi-professional clown who performs for retarded children and at union picnics. We ran a front-page spread on ``Clowning Around with Wally'' when he retired.

* Input by hook or by crook. I call it the “tooth-pulling” method of getting members to contribute. You will always get the “I can't write” syndrome from 95 percent of your membership. Tell them to jot down phrases, comments, any old thing to get the word out. Offer to help put it in readable form, sound it out with the author, and print it. Be a ghost writer, take dictation. Anything--just get people comfortable with the notion that you don't have to be a crack journalist to have a say in union affairs, report on events, or share your gripes and ideas.

SELL THE UNION
Too often, workers assume that benefits have been given to them out of the goodness of the company's heart. The paper should publicize every victory or benefit forged by the union. Crosstalk footnotes the holidays in the monthly calendar as “benefits won by your union through negotiations.”

* Publicize victorious strikes, court settlements, and arbitration awards won by your own and other unions. Report all grievance victories and cases won by the workers' compensation committee. Publicize all monetary settlements--back pay awards, lost overtime, or wage recovery.

* Highlight contract protections. We do a regular “Know Your Rights” column, usually featuring a section in the contract like vacations, seniority, or transfer rights.

* Do human interest stories on members who are helped out by the local. Crosstalk covered one situation where a member and his family lost nearly all they owned in a fire, and the union collected money to help recoup their losses.

BUILD SOLIDARITY WITH OTHER WORKERS
Building solidarity among different groups within the local is a first step. Crosstalk's workgroup stories help do that, as does coverage of various job actions. We did a feature on a walkout led by coin telephone technicians when a co-worker was falsely accused of theft, suspended, and threatened with the loss of his job. The lesson members learned from this was that sticking together won that man's job back.

In addition, the event was no longer an isolated occurrence. Through its portrayal in the local paper, it became something that could happen to any union member, and set a precedent for united action in the future.

Coverage of other unions' struggles is essential, particularly when you can show that they are directly related to threats faced by your own union.

In Cleveland, stewards and members of several unions marched in protest of Greyhound's concessions demands on the ATU last year. Crosstalk told that story from a solid union viewpoint and pictured our own stewards marching with the Greyhound strikers. This offensive by Greyhound and the ATU's resistance could be seen as a scenario we too would face in the not-too-distant future.

Labor history is another vehicle for building solidarity, a sense of having “roots” as union members. Crosstalk featured the big Labor Day parade held in Cleveland last year. Alongside this front- page spread was a “Yesterday” story on Labor Day in Cleveland in 1911, when 20,000 workers turned out to support striking garment workers.

ANALYZE ATTACKS ON LABOR
Some portions of the mainstream labor press tend to underplay or even cover up the real plight of unions today. By accurately exposing labor's defensive position through coverage of concessions, plant closings, decertification drives, or other union-busting atrocities, the local paper is educating people who never really had to struggle for a union on what it might be like without one. And a strictly union viewpoint on these events helps members see how the media distorts the facts.

One feature story on union-busting listed eight “warning signs” of coming attacks. Members were urged to look for these signs at Ohio Bell and report them to their stewards.

USE OUTSIDE RESOURCES
* Monthly editors' packets are distributed to locals by many national unions--usually a good source of current events around the union, graphics, and updates on key legislation.

* Labor press workshops are held both by individual unions and by various regional labor press associations. They provide a chance to meet other editors and exchange fresh ideas.

* Look for other good newsletters and get on each other’s mailing lists. I have found that this informal “code of exchange” among local union and rank-and-file paper editors (which includes and encourages mutual plagiarism!) is actually a growing information and communication network for the grassroots labor movement.

* Personal contact with more experienced labor editors is a must. Advice from another CWA editor here in Cleveland helped me get a good start with Crosstalk.

[Mary Baird is formerly the editor of Crosstalk]