Union Schooling
Attend boot camp. Learn organizing
not war.
by Jennifer Hattam
May 19, 1998
Program
Title:
The Organizing Institute
Job Length:
Three days to a lifetime
Location:
Various locations in the United States
(willingness to travel or relocate is a must for
full-time organizer)
Skills:
Previous organizing experience
Salary:
$210-$400 weekly stipend plus housing and
transportation as an intern or apprentice
Burnout Rate:
Medium
If you just want to get a taste of
the labor movement, then the
Union Summer, which we profiled
last week, may be for you.
But if you have dreams of becoming
the next Cesar Chavez, or
have gotten choked up watching
Norma Rae more times than
you can remember-and you've got
some previous organizing
experience to back it up-you may
be ready for the AFL-CIO's
Organizing Institute.
Lisa Canada first got interested
while waiting tables as a college
student. Canada, who had been
reading Michael Moore's Flint
Voice since she was eleven years
old, got fed up with her
working conditions. Her attempt to
improve them was
unsuccessful, but the hotel and
restaurant workers union "liked
my gumption," Canada says, and
recommended that she attend
the Organizing Institute.
The application process was "very
difficult and intimidating,"
Canada remembers. "I felt like I
was the worst one in the
room." Nevertheless, Canada was
accepted. Now she's an
organizer with the United Food and
Commercial Workers
union (UFCW).
The path to becoming a union
organizer starts with a three-day
training weekend, where union
members and prospective
organizers alike examine case
studies and role-play. While
you're learning what the work
entails, Institute staff are seeing
whether you have the skills to do it.
The Institute is looking for
people "who see workers as having
the power to solve their own
problems," and have "the ability
to ask people to take risks,
because organizing is a risk," says
Institute director Allison Porter.
When asked what other skills
are important, Porter lists some
standard management clichés:
interpersonal, strategic, and
motivational abilities. But Porter
believes that "having the fire in
the belly is probably the hardest
thing to teach people," and the
most important.
About half of the training weekend
participants go on to
organizing "boot camp," a
three-week field internship. Groups
of five to seven interns are
assigned to a ongoing union
campaign, where they "knock on
doors and go to work sites,
trying to move people to some kind
of action," says Porter.
You won't get much time off-Canada
calls her internship
"very tiring and very
exhilarating"-but you will receive
housing, transportation, a $210
weekly stipend and a chance at
the next step-an apprenticeship.
About 75 percent of interns stay
on to become apprentices.
They are assigned to12 week stints
on a major campaign, where
their responsibilities increase
(so does the stipend- to $400 a
week), usually under the watchful
eye of a senior organizer.
During her apprenticeship, Canada
organized 1,100 school bus
drivers in Long Island-alone. "I
was pretty overwhelmed,"
she remembers. "I shouldn't have
been there by myself...but I
didn't know anyone, I was living
in a hotel-I had nothing to
do but work!"
If you successfully complete the
three-part program, you can
approach any local or national
union for a job, with a
recommendation from the Organizing
Institute proudly in hand.
And that seems to be good for
something: more than 90 percent
of Institute graduates get jobs
with a union.
Once you're a full-fledged
organizer, you can expect a salary of
$20,000 to $30,000, plenty of time
on the road, and long days
(yes, that's a code-word for
"many" too-you'll be working
plenty of weekends).
The burnout rate is not as high
you might think. Porter points
out that organizing is a career:
"It's not canvassing that some
college kid's doing during the
summer. Organizing is a skill
and it's very addicting. People
find it hard to get away from."
The challenge of overcoming
employer opposition is great, but
so is the gratification. "The
biggest reward," Porter says, "is
building an organization that
lasts after you leave...and has an
ongoing way to address injustices."
Canada agrees, saying that the
work "really fit me-it's the best
thing I ever did."
If you're willing to do what it
takes, call 1-800-848-3021 for an
application and return it, along
with a résumé, at least one week
before the three-day training that
you would like to attend.
For more information, contact the
Organizing Institute at 815
16th Street NW, Washington, DC
20006; phone (202)
639-6200; fax (202) 639-6264. Or
e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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