Organizing Plan: The "O" Stands for "Organize"
UE Local 896/COGS
2002-2003
Organizing is more than just a point of emphasis for our local. It continues to be the essential aim of the local, our defining activity. Even before COGS had become "UE local 896," organizing was at the heart of everything - hence our name, "Campaign to Organize Graduate Students." Why is organizing so important?
- Organizing is the Main Mechanism of Democratic, Independent, Membership-Run
Unionism
UE's origins and development differed sharply from the other large, industrial unions which were formed at the time. Most were built from the top-down, depending on organizers, lawyers and outside financial help. This limited both their independence and involvement by members. To a far greater extent, UE was built by workers organizing themselves, local-by-local, from the bottom-up.
This gave our union a much different character. Locals were built on self-reliance, while the entire union depended upon the democratic agreement of its locals and members to organize and grow as a national union.
- Organizing is the power behind the contract.
- Organizing is the best defense against injustice in the workplace.
- Organizing Is the Key to the Survival of COGS
- We Can Do Better
(From UE Aims and Structure: How Rank-and-File Unionism Works)
One of the main reasons COGS members voted to affiliate with the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America was precisely UE's shining reputation as an organizing-based, membership-run, independent union. COGS members respected the UE's emphasis on independently run locals where members make the decisions.
To follow the UE principles of rank-and-file unionism, as well as to preserve the principles of inclusiveness and democracy in our local's mission and structure, we need to do everything we can to bring in as many members as we can. Diversity and democracy in the local must be pursued purposefully through organizing all areas of our bargaining unit.
Every two years, COGS members elect a committee of dedicated, intelligent officers to speak for us all at the bargaining table. But no matter how clever, forceful and rational their arguments, the real power they bring is a strong union membership standing behind them. The more graduate employees there are in the union, the more powerfully we will be able to make our collective demands for the contract.
On the department level, grievances are won more easily - indeed, they are avoided more easily in the first place - when the graduate employees in that department are organized, dues-paying members of the union. Even with our contract in place, with all of its protections, employers will not heed the contract if they can get away with it within their department. But when a department is strong in union membership, employers certainly think twice before violating the contract. If a violation does occur, it is the organized department that will respond quickly and effectively, using the power of collective action to correct the situation.
The work of organizing is necessary just to keep our numbers from naturally declining. Every year, we automatically lose fully a third of our membership to graduation. Therefore we must work hard during the summer and fall just to return to the previous year's membership level. Moreover, among those who graduate are those members who have been around, have served as stewards and officers, and who carry the institutional memory of the local with them when they leave. Unlike most union locals, we do not have the luxury of experienced leadership that will stick around and cultivate new leaders over time. Instead, we have to make sure that every year, new graduate employees not only join the union, but get involved. This is important because we depend on ourselves to do the work of running the union.
Organizing-based unionism is a nice idea, a fine and noble aim. But more than that, given the huge annual hit we take to our membership levels, organizing is quite simply necessary to our local's survival. Even if we wanted to rely solely on a UE professional to run the local for us, it would be practically impossible for that person to keep up with turnover alone, not to mention organizing in weaker departments. The amount of organizing work left to do each year requires collective action by the members - not just to remain democratic, and not even just to remain powerful, but, practically speaking, just to remain. We organized years ago to create this union; now we must organize every year to keep this union.
Even at our peak levels of around 728 members, there still remain the better part of two thousand non-members left to organize. The "sciences," particularly research assistants, remain underrepresented in our local. Two campus areas still have no Area Chief Steward! But even as our membership leaves in droves each year, so do the historically resistant non-members. This year, initial reports from office visits in historically anti-union departments indicate that most new graduate employees do understand and appreciate the gains we have won (once we tell them about it). Those graduate employees who opposed the idea of unionization in 1996 are all but gone, and we can now go into unorganized departments on the strength of our current contract, educating new graduate employees about the need to protect what they have by joining us as dues-paying members of the union.
There are over a thousand graduate employees out there, waiting to be approached about joining the union. The fall mailings have been sent out, and have produced a good return. Stewards have had initial department meetings, and produced a good early-year return. We must now get out there and talk to hundreds and hundreds of our co-workers, educating them about COGS and the contract, inviting them to join us in building a more inclusive, more efficient, more powerful union for the long term.
With all of this in mind, the Organizing Committee proposes an organizing plan for 2002-2003, in the form of the following resolution:
A Thousand Conversations: Proposed Organizing Plan for 2002-2003
WHEREAS organizing is the main mechanism of democratic, membership-run, rank-and-file unionism; and
WHEREAS organizing is the power behind our contract with the Board of Regents; and
WHEREAS organizing is the best defense against injustice in the workplace; and
WHEREAS organizing is the key to the survival of COGS; and
WHEREAS well over one thousand of our co-workers have not yet been asked directly to join us, and
WHEREAS the "O" in COGS stands for "Organize":
WE THE MEMBERS OF UE LOCAL 896-COGS HEREBY RESOLVE:
To rededicate our work as union members, stewards, officers and committee chairs to emphasize organizing as the focal point of all union activity, so that for every event and action there is a clear answer to the question, "What's the organizing angle here?";
To consistently urge all stewards to contact each and every graduate employee in their department at least once, asking non-members to join, and inviting members to attend meetings or otherwise contribute to the union;
To visit graduate employees primarily in their offices during the week, on outings led by the Organizing Committee, for every academic building on campus where there is no stewarded department, or where strong departments require help in organizing their building;
To assign individual COGS members to specific buildings, following initial rounds of office visits led by the Organizing Committee, so that the visits may be more effectively focused around office and lab hours by members who are familiar with the layout, schedules, work issues, and culture of the departments in those buildings;
To visit graduate employees at their homes or by other means when the workplace makes office visits untenable, as in some laboratory workplaces;
To have, through the efforts of stewards, organizers, and the membership at large, before the end of the current academic year, altogether at least ONE THOUSAND CONVERSATIONS with those who as yet have no record of being asked directly to join the union.
Respectfully Submitted in Solidarity,
COGS Organizing Committee for 2002-2003
