PEF ‘divas’ take training show on the road
Member mobilizers learn to build PEF’s muscles into ‘mighty’ union

By SHERRY HALBROOK
When you join in the chant, “We are the union, the mighty, mighty union!” do you believe it?
Well, you had better believe it.

PEF’s Member Mobilization Committee is on a mission to put plenty of muscle and member power behind the words.
“We have about 1,500 new volunteer member mobilizers,” said Region 9 Coordinator Neila Cardus, chair of the Member Mobilization Committee. “Those new mobilizers are in addition to our 1,500 stewards, so that makes our network 3,000 strong.”

Anyone who has seen that network turn out large numbers of members at sites all over the state at the drop of a hat, knows that the system is working.
“We’ve been doing great,” Cardus said. “But we can do a lot more. These are new muscles we’ve only begun to flex.”
To that end, the committee has been traveling from one region to another nearly every weekend conducting comprehensive mobilizer trainings.
The training is conducted by committee members Cardus, Jennifer Faucher, Pat Baker, Mary Twitchell and Ruth Gaines — all PEF regional coordinators — who wryly call themselves “the divas.”

“We’ve trained mobilizers in half of PEF’s 12 regions, so far,” Cardus said. “We’ve been to Regions 10, 12, 11, 8, 4, and 5. It’s been an exhausting schedule for us on the committee, but the enthusiastic way members respond to it keeps us going.”

Region 1 training is planned for late May or early June and Region 7 training over the summer.
Region 8 Coordinator Jeff Satz said he was especially pleased to see 10 new activists show up for the training in his region which was held in April.
“We had a pretty good turnout,” Satz said, “but I think I’m going to ask the committee to come back and do it once or twice more in my region, because we have so many members in the Albany area.”
One challenge, according to Satz, is getting mobilizers to realize that this comprehensive training goes far beyond the briefer, more tightly focused basic training that was begun last year.

“Our mobilizers know how to get people out to rallies,” Cardus said. “But the mobilizer network is a very powerful tool that can do much more than that. Through it, we can exert a lot of pressure on the people we want to influence and get better, faster results on many kinds of issues.”

Among the many topics covered in the comprehensive training are an overview of when and how to mobilize members through the network to achieve goals related to a wide variety of issues such as bargaining, health and safety, political action and grievances.
Who should be included in the member mobilization network, how to chart where members are and structure the network to reach everyone efficiently are covered in the training. Mobilizers also learn how to conduct member surveys via the network, and how to pick appropriate issues and tactics to take maximum advantage of the network’s potential.

“It takes time to cover so many subjects thoroughly, and do it in a way that makes sense to all of the participants,” Cardus said. “We try to keep our presentations lively and interactive so that people stay interested and will retain what they’ve learned.”

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