Our Old Problem: What Will Convince
Unorganized Workers to join a Union?

For decades, unions have spent millions of dollars and hired thousands of organizers to persuade workers to join unions, but have had limited success. Yet here we are in 2010, faced with colossal failures. With our supposed best efforts, unions now represent only 7.2 percent of the nation’s workforce in private industry. That is the lowest rate since 1901. And some more horrendous news: In only one year—2008—some 800,000 union members dropped out of the labor movement. What should we be doing about that?

Surely, unions are good for working people. They provide higher wages and better benefits than for those in non-union jobs. That’s especially true for working women and ethnic minorities, and it applies equally to virtually every region of the country..

If you’re a union member, you don’t have to face your boss for a raise and run the risk of being fired. The union uses its strength to represent you and your co-workers in collective bargaining with the boss. And it can usually get a better deal for you than when you act on your own.

With a union card, you can earn some measure of respect from the boss, because if he gets abusive or treats you unfairly, he knows the union can cause him trouble, sometimes by calling a strike.

Given such time-honored advantages of unions, why does only one out of eight of the nation’s workers join? What’s wrong with our organizing message? Why are we so unconvincing?

So what’s the answer? Spending more money and hiring more organizers? That won’t help much if we rely on the same old, predictable organizing methods.

Is the Employee Free Choice Act the Magic Key to Labor Revival?

Many union leaders are still hoping that Congress will approve the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which will make it a lot easier to recruit unorganized workers into unions. But very few unorganized workers have responded to the AFL-CIO campaign, which is run exclusively by men and women who are already in unions.

The elimination of “card check,” from the EFCA bill takes away its core value (where a majority of workers can join a union by signing authorization cards), and provides only a minimum advantage to organizers.

It is true that millions of workers are afraid to join unions because of fear they risk their boss’s anger and may be fired. But there may be millions of others who don’t want to join the AFL-CIO, because of its publicized undemocratic features and self-serving leadership.

If unions hope to increase their membership, they will have to do two things that do not depend on more funding: First, they will have to re-examine their appeal to various unorganized constituencies and make whatever changes are necessary.

Second, they must discard the traditional form of organizing under which workers are permanent hostages of the employer and where workers can be easily intimidated or fired without a proper response from the organizer.

I have developed such a plan based on the communities where pro-union workers live, as well as where they work. My plan contains several new features and is demonstrably more productive, safer and less costly than current organizing methods.

I am ready to demonstrate this method under the following conditions:

I want a dozen of the best union organizers to sit around a table, with a couple of video cameras recording the event. As I proceed in presenting my plan, I want the organizers to challenge it at every stage. The presentation, which will take a maximum of three hours, may, at the very least, provide some useful ideas on which to build a better organizing plan.

I am the author of “A Training Manual for Union Organizers,” which has been widely used by hundreds of organizers. I have published pamphlets on organizing that have sold a total of nearly 150,000 copies to unions around the country, and I have taught many classes in union organizing for individual unions and groups. I think you will find the time you invest well worth it. Harry Kelber

LaborTalk (40) will be posted here on Tuesday, February 18, 2010 and on our two web sites: www.laboreducator.org and www.laborsvoiceforchange.org