Common Mistakes New Union Organizers Make—And How to Avoid Them

Organizing is paramount for labor power—knowing how to do it is key.

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Editor’s Note: This piece from the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee is republished here courtesy of the author.

By Bill Barry

To err is human, to be a union organizer is to make mistakes. We all do it, so don’t sweat it. Here are some tips to try to avoid the next one.

DON’T WAIT FOR PEOPLE TO COME TO YOU

One of the most common mistakes a union organizer makes is hanging around the union office, hoping to get a call from a group—hopefully a large one—of angry workers who want a union. Unfortunately, you may wait a long time. Set up a proactive organizing strategy with targets that will help your members—like competitors or unorganized divisions. Talk with your members about friends and relatives who work non-union, so they can help get the word out.

Guess what? That phone might actually ring.

LISTEN MORE THAN YOU TALK

A big mistake for new organizers is talking non-stop about the value of a union when you meet an organizing prospect. You should listen—get them to talk about the problems in their workplace, so you can direct your discussion of the union to specific situations, and not just to some abstract concept. If you listen, you will then have the chance to talk.

DON’T RELY ON SOCIAL MEDIA TOO MUCH

Building relationships is hard. Posting online is easy. It can be tempting to focus on social media—creating Facebook pages for the campaign, tweeting on X,or using other social media. In some cases, this is caused by a staff shortage—not enough organizers for a large unit—so sending out blasts looks like the only option. In other cases, young organizers communicate with their friends only on social media, and not in person—but this is not a good organizing strategy. Direct contact with workers, and the personal relationships that develop in the process, are essential for a successful campaign. As the campaign expands, social media may be used to support those efforts, but it can’t be the foundation. . You will get more attention talking directly to another worker.

BE CONSISTENT

Since most unions do not focus on new organizing, there is often inconsistent staffing, so that the personal relations between an organizer and the committee are often broken. A new organizer has to learn all of the campaign nuances and gain the confidence of the committee, and this often stretches out a campaign just when you want to speed it up. Keeping the same face on the union’s campaign offers stability in a time of chaos. 

DON’T COUNT ON WORKERS TO SELF ORGANIZE ALONE

Union campaigns tend not to just bloom out of nowhere. An experienced organizer is important to move the process along, especially when confronting an anti-union boss. If you gather a group of high school students, give them a basketball, and tell them to create a winning team, how would it go? Not well—that’s why we have coaches. Same with union organizing.

DON’T GIVE UP TOO SOON

While a campaign may look dead, a lot can change. Often, an active committee member will contact the organizer to lament that they can’t get any support, and so the campaign is over. As long as there is anyone in the workplace who supports a union, there is still life. The campaign may be stalled, but an organizer should keep in touch, even if it’s just a brief phone call every so often. Organizers should maintain a list of campaigns at different stages, and can dedicate a work night to go through the list to maintain contact. 

If you go to an election and lose, the usual practice is to walk away and wait until next year. Even if the votes do not come up for the union, start the next day on your organizing campaign because all of the company promises will be exposed as lies, and you can build an organization—and you will win the next election. 

LEAN ON YOUR MENTORS

Part of the culture of organizing is providing experienced organizers—especially since many unions tend to hire organizers who have never worked in the field they’re organizing, who don’t always understand what conditions are like on the job site.

The learning curve for an organizer is about five years, living through different campaigns, so a shoulder to lean on is important. 

GET OUT OF THE ORGANIZING SILO

In many unions, new workplace organizing is a separate universe, and the campaigns and the staff are isolated from the membership. Every member and officer should participate, especially if the campaign is local. 

UNDERSTAND THE ROLE OF FEAR

If a new organizer comes out of a strong unit, they may not immediately understand the fear that haunts non-union workers, especially in our troubled economic times. Sometimes this fear is unspoken and sometimes it is expressed loudly, especially when the boss revs up the anti-union campaign. Creating collective action as an essential part of your campaign will help break these fears. 

Bill Barry is a retired organizer and the author of From First Contact to First Contract: a Union Organizers Handbook