The Organizing Committee
The Organizing Committee is the engine that drives any organizing campaign. The Committee must claim ownership of the campaign.
In addition to the core or primary Committee, most campaigns will include another layer of worker activists. This group, sometimes called a “task force”, an “key people”, “workplace contacts” or “campaign support group” may not meet regularly or be involved with strategic decision making but will provide the worker to worker contact and show of unity needed to win a campaign.
Role of the Committee:
- Provides leadership throughout the campaign
- Educates co-workers about the benefits of working union and workers’ rights and building a more powerful workplace
- Decides campaign strategies and actions
- Distributes union materials and gets cards/petitions signed
- Contact co-workers through phone calls, home visits, social media and personal conversations in the workplace
- Provides feedback to staff organizers about direction of campaign and status of co-worker support
- Gathers information about the employer, co-workers, working conditions, issues
- Attends regular Committee meetings with strategic purpose
- Acts as a watchdog for employer actions
- Publicly asserts ownership of campaign by having name and/or picture on social media, leaflet, petition or other demonstration of public support
Recruitment of Committee:
- 10% to 15% of total number of eligible employees
- Throughout all departments, shifts and locations
- Contains full and part time employees
- Representative of the ethnicity, race, gender, age and longevity within the unit
- Respected and trusted by co-workers
- Influential and willing to lead co-workers
- Good Communicator, including good listening skills
- Good work record
- Knowledge of the employer
What the Committee Needs to Know:
- The organizing process (including NLRB and other representation procedures)
- What to expect from the employer’s anti-union campaign
- How to respond to co-workers questions (and fears) about dues, strikes, benefits of working union, legal rights
- How contract bargaining works
- Ways to build unity and keep momentum throughout campaign
- How a union can make a difference in the lives of working people
- Distribution/solicitation—workers’ rights