With the passage of Janus and the blow many predict it will strike to public sector unions, it’s a good time to think of strategies to increase membership. I don’t claim to know all the answers, and I’m no union veteran (4 and half years and counting). However, I think my status as a newcomer may provide a fresh perspective to recalcitrant problems. So, without further ado, those tips.
Number one: brag and state the obvious. We make a good living. Our benefits are nice and our pension favorable. By the standards of construction, our work conditions are good. Our contractors are forced to care about safety, and we have powerful representatives who advocate on our behalf. We have a vacation fund. We have mobility to move from one contractor to another, on a whim. Compared to the average American construction worker, we have it made. But our problem isn’t having it made; it’s that the average American construction worker, let alone the average American, doesn’t realize how good we have it. (Our brothers and sisters do a commendable job of advertising our compensation, on Pandora, social media and on a number of other platforms. Their work notwithstanding, I think much of the work in this domain falls on the shoulders of the rank-and-file, the brothers and sisters who have uncles, nieces, nephews, friends, many of whom hunger for something more fulfilling, and lucrative to boot. A comment around the dinner table, watching a game, or over a drink may be the first steps to your family-member enjoying a much greater standard of living. Also, we want our non-union electrician friends to know what they’re missing; just as we want those in high-school, in college and incarcerated to know what awaits them when they join our ranks. Highlighting our pay and package is all the easier because they are good; we just have to let people know.
Second: we help solve America’s labor shortage and student debt crisis. America’s oft-cited and enduring labor shortage has become cliché. Politicians and business leaders bemoan a work force too unskilled to build America. College grads decry their staggering student debt. While grad school or a barista gig appeal to some, there are plenty college grads interested in trades’ work. America need plumbers, electricians, carpenters and the like; companies hand out signing bonuses to qualified tradespeople in addition to paying them well. Everyone appreciates a delicious, carefully-frothed latte (heaven knows I do) but not every college grad needs to sojourn as a barista before charting her next career path, and very few will repay their student debt from behind the coffee counter. What better solution to this shortage than an apprenticeship that teaches a trade, has a proven track record, and fills the labor void immediately? As it turns out - I know a program! Politicians and economists can breath a sigh of relief. The IBEW is here to save the day.
On a side note, it’s no secret that union apprentice programs - at least in the electrical field - are superior to their non-unions counterparts. Our schooling is longer, more rigorous and more demanding; in the field, apprentices learn every facet of the trade and graduate as professional electricians, ready to build America. My knowledge of non-union programs isn’t based on a university study, but on every answer from every non-union apprentice I’ve asked. We have the program, and we have the answer to the labor shortage; we just need to let others know.
The third rule: make friends with the other side. A myth prevalent in union circles is that conservative political ideology is inherently at odds with unionism. Some label those union members who vote Republican as either ignorant or treasonous. But is this true? Is there something about conservatism or the Republican party that pits it in a life-and-death struggle against unions? Many would have us believe so; talking heads and too many would-be leaders insist we see debates between left and right as “the fight of our lives”. However, I’m not sure this needs to be the case, even if today it seems it is. I say this because I know of prominent conservatives (one a syndicated talk-show host, another the head of a major conservative think tank; I could cite more) who find nothing wrong with and even belong to, unions. It is simply a myth that conservative ideology is antithetical to unionism. It was, after all, capitalism’s shinning star, Milton Friedman, who opposed Right-to-Work; and it is, after all, conservative-minded libertarians who argue against a government’s right to interfere in the relationship between unions and employees. These same folk insist that unions have a constitutional guarantee to form. It may seem futile to talk to someone who supported Janus, but Janus is one slice of the pie, and it isn’t as if the passage of Janus alone spells the ruin of both public and private sector unions. If our reaction to all things conservative is knee-jerk hostility we risk pushing potential allies (about 1/3 of Americans identify as conservative) forever into camps that are hostile to our own. Furthermore, if we ignore that conservatives help make up unions, we alienate those conservatives in our own union. The more we tolerate the idea that unions are at war with the right, the less likely we will broaden our support and the more we invite political fights we can’t afford - even if the Democratic Party can.
We have a choice: continue to entertain politicians and union leaders who pit conservatives against unions in a life-and-death struggle for the middle class; or, take advantage of that strain of conservative thought that abhors government meddling in the affairs of freely formed groups. Give conservative leaders a chance to support unions by finding common cause with them rather than demonizing them from the start.
On a final note - and completely uncontroversial (just joking): avoid hyperbole, rise above the fray. Unions traditionally align themselves with the left, and have done so routinely enough that Democratic leaders take the union vote for granted. Some even refer to unions as a wing of the Democratic Party. For an organization such as our own - one that exists to for its members’ sake rather than any party’s - to be labelled a wing of any party is more stigma than badge of honor. We don’t belong to anyone but ourselves and we should caution politicians against assuming we put their interests above our own.
We don’t have to stand with Bernie, we don’t have to stand with Trump; we don’t have to don Antifa black or march with the alt-right. What we have to do is suss out each political movement and pinpoint what about their platform helps our cause and America as a whole.
Groups such as Antifa and the alt-right represent extremes of the ideological divide. So, it should come as no surprise that the closer we align ourselves with either side the more we alienate ourselves from anyone who finds themselves, as most Americans do, somewhere near the middle. Rather than tilting too heavily toward one side or the other, or taking up causes secondary to the existence of our union, our message should focus on matters our members care about, such as earning a decent wage, sustaining medical benefits for our families, and working in safe environments. Taking sides in every cultural and political battle of our day is best left to individual members. Narrowing our focus will go a long way in dispelling the notion that union members make up a monolithic blob of single-minded voters, rather than the diverse and motley crew we are.