Organizing
members key to success
Convention
workshop builds mobilizing skills
Story & Photos By DEBORAH A. MILES
Boosting union power into divisions that need to achieve
full mobilization was a priority at PEF’s 25th
Annual Convention. One of the workshops offered to
delegates, “Creative Ways To Mobilize Your
Membership,” did just that.
PEF trainer Kim Loccisano told the more than 35
participants to talk to co-workers on specific issues, so
the union can address their concerns.
“It’s important to listen in order to build
strategies,” Loccisano said. “Divisions need to
organize members, educate them and take action.
“Part of organizing is knowing our members’
concerns, grievances and problems.”
Trainer Denise Young added that members should meet on
either a formal or informal basis to build team spirit,
so workers know the union is there to support individual
concerns.
Workshop leaders emphasized the importance of making
members realize that personal accountability plays a
paramount role in achieving union goals in contract
negotiations.
Doing your share
Participants were urged to make their members accountable
by giving people tasks such as collecting signatures for
the Cut State Waste campaign and recognizing those who
volunteered their time.
“Recognition is one of the best motivators,”
Young said. “A union worker who is applauded may
advance to the next level as a true activist,” she
said.
Young also said a mobilizer’s action plan should
include opportunities to contact the media, such as
writing letters to the editor of a local newspaper or
calling local TV stations to cover a rally.
Members should call the PEF Public Relations Department
at 1-800-342-4306 ext. 277 for help coordinating their
media-outreach activities.
Learning through
example
The workshop included a panel of PEF leaders who
successfully launched fight-back campaigns when the state
targeted SUNY hospitals for privatization and tried to
close or consolidate mental health facilities earlier
this year.
“Members of the ‘targeted closures’ panel
won through their mobilization efforts,” Loccisano
said. “They were successful because they were able
to put their action plans into place. They took the
mobilization tools and directly applied them to the
membership and lawmakers.”
The panel included Jennifer Faucher, Neila Cardus,
Michael Fenko, David Porter, Maureen Hogle, Virginia
Greer and Cindy Bartley-Horn.
One of the participants, Ken Dodge, is an engineer 2 at
the state Department of Transportation and Division 177
secretary in Region 8. He said it was important to learn
new skills to benefit the more than 900 members in his
division.
“This workshop is important to me because the
department has made considerable efforts to hire
consultants to perform a number of functions,” Dodge
said. “There is potential for this to grow since the
mechanism does exist.
“This is an opportunity to find ways to mobilize and
learn new skills that may benefit my members,” he
said.
If you would like copies of the workshop handouts,
contact kloccisano@pef.org or Denise Young at 1-800-724-5003.
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