The Basics of Organizing Your Workplace – Part 1

This guide will give you the tools you need to organize your coworkers. It’s based on a guide from a more out of date labor organization. We then tweaked it for the revolutionary socialist and anti-fascist movement. For example, though a core goal should remain some sort of unionization effort, this goes hand in hand with the formation of a workers assembly, community defense, and a revolution against fascism.

To recap from the What Is a Workers Assembly intro: it is an inclusive space to democratically develop plans to advance the demands of workers, establish community defense efforts, coordinate militant actions, grow its communal capacity to sustain militant actions, and advance the movement for socialist revolution overall. So please keep this in mind as you continue reading.

What is Workplace Organizing?

Workplace organizing usually involves steps such as the following:

• Reaching out to diverse groups of workers, finding common interests, overcoming differences, and building relationships
• Asking coworkers to join an organizing committee
• Planning and carrying out actions to improve working conditions
• Recruiting others to help plan and execute tasks, come to meetings, or participate in actions
• Helping others develop confidence in themselves and their coworkers
• Having one-on-one conversations with coworkers about forming a union
• Preparing your coworkers for what the bosses will try to do to stop the union

We need to update and expand this list for the present circumstances, including:

• Having one-on-one conversations with coworkers about the threat that fascism presents
• Recruiting coworkers to join community defense training and actions
• Recruiting coworkers to canvass other workplaces and working class neighborhoods to build a workers assembly beyond the single workplace

In organizing your workplace, you need to find a way to connect with people whom you may not find it so easy to connect with. This will be difficult but it’s worth it, because to win any demands, a union at your workplace, and, of course, a revolution against fascism, you need to have support from a strong majority.

At first though, given the immediate need to build the ranks of those willing to engage in community defense and participate in a broader anti-fascist movement, it most important to try and find people you think will be sympathetic. Never abandon the goal of unionization, but worker power is broader than traditional unionization and it’s important to build a core base first.

Why We Organize

Organizing is how we build a revolutionary socialist and anti-fascist movement. We organize collectively because there is power and safety in numbers.

When a workplace is organized, it means the workers have come together and built a structure to fight. Of course, the immediate goal of a union is to win dignity and respect, better salaries and benefits, protections from abusive bosses, etc.

Workers who are organized have far more power together than an individual on their own. We need to be capable of organizing our coworkers around these immediate goals, along with the necessity of stopping the violence of fascism as well. As we’re seeing far too often these days, just because you have a union doesn’t mean it will stand up against fascism, even when the fascists are dead set on destroying the power and well being of the working class.

Organizing a Core Group at Work

The core group is made up of coworkers leading the workplace organizing.

It is responsible for developing and implementing an organizing plan, which includes:

• Creating a list of all the workers, mapping their relationships with each other, and identifying potential leaders
• Building up new leaders who can help grow the core group
• Building support for worker power, unionization, a workers assembly, community defense, and a revolution against fascism among coworkers
• Connect interested coworkers in broader local community defense organizing, along with workers and community assembly efforts, etc.
• Helping coworkers overcome fear of organizing, including preparing them for setting up a workers assembly, pushing for unionization, and the employer’s opposition campaign
• Collecting signatures on authorization cards
• Establish relationships with other allied efforts in communities and workplaces

Why Build a Core Group?

An effective core group that truly represents the entire workforce is essential to winning, including a union recognition campaign. To start, this might not be possible and could very well take on secondary importance to broader community defense efforts and building a workers assembly among a growing number of workplaces. But, eventually, efforts must be made to build consensus among as many coworkers as possible.

It’s just that one person or even a small group or clique of workers cannot build and sustain the strong cohesion necessary for effectively standing up to a boss’s anti-union campaign or fascism more broadly. Nor will it be enough to sustain a workers assembly, not to mention effective strikes, occupations, blockades, etc.

The core group is meant to provide and eventually reach some sort of critical mass at work. It should aim to represent at least 10% of the workforce, and have a representative makeup that covers demographics, worker cliques, and languages, along with all departments, shifts, and worksite locations. The group needs to communicate effectively and regularly with all coworkers so it can help them see through divisions, overcome fear, and move into action.

Ideally, the group knows its coworkers well and can identify the most widely felt issues in the workplace as well as any vulnerabilities and fears. Members must both be sensitive to people who may be more vulnerable to retaliation or job loss because of discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender, or immigration status, and supportive of those workers when they are ready to take action. The group acts in ways that build trust.

The most effective core groups include workers who are real leaders from all parts of the workforce and have the trust of their coworkers.

Building a Core Group and Developing Leadership

Your group needs to map out existing networks in your workplace, beginning by thinking about your own relationships and who you know as real leaders and trusted coworkers. If you don’t personally know those leaders, you need to figure out how to meet them.

Ask yourself, who at your workplace would you turn to if you had a question, had a problem with a manager, or needed help finding resources? Who at your workplace organizes the group hangouts, the birthday cards, the carpools? Who at your workplace do people gravitate to? Who do people listen to? If that’s not you yet, that’s okay! But you do want to find a way to recruit some of those people who are already leaders.

Some tasks for coworkers might include:

• Getting an employee list for their department
• Helping to set up a meeting with one of their coworkers
• Identifying who they think are potential leaders
• Finding out what improvements their coworkers would like to see
• Getting signatures on a petition or authorization cards
• Participating in a workplace action, joining a canvass for a community assembly, canvassing another workplace, attending a community defense training, participating in a community defense action, etc.

Your core group members will have one-on-one conversations with coworkers, building trust and learning what improvements they’d like to see in the workplace, what they are concerned about in terms of what’s happening in their community, the nation, etc. Often this involves asking if they might be interested in forming a union and can include just coming right out and asking them if they’re concerned about the threat of fascism. It all depends on the coworker and your strategy.

Of course, these conversations need to be carried out thoughtfully to make sure that the boss does not find out. Often, meeting coworkers individually or in small groups outside of work is the best and safest way to have conversations and build relationships. Phone calls are more effective (and safer) than texts.

The core group must continue to identify and recruit established leaders in the workplace, while also developing potential leaders’ skills and knowledge. As potential members are identified, they should be given small tasks that gradually increase in difficulty and risk.

As people take on more tasks and show their reliability, they should be invited onto the core group and given more leadership responsibilities, including helping to identify and recruit more coworkers as organizers. The members need to hold each other accountable for carrying out the tasks that they have taken responsibility for.

Developing leadership and organizing skills is an ongoing process even after winning the election and establishing the union. A strong democratic movement depends on having strong leadership throughout the workplace.

Charting The Workplace

In order to do all of these things, you and your core group must track your conversations and record notes in an organized chart of all of your coworkers.

This chart should include a row for every worker and columns detailing:

• Name, job, shift, and personal contact info
• Major concerns a worker has (at work and at home)
• Friendships and cliques
• Assessment
• Tasks completed and actions taken

The chart will help you ensure you have the support you need throughout your workplace, and strong relationships with a majority of your coworkers. You’ll be able to track things such as which issues are universal; who knows who in your workplace and what departments they work in; where are your weak spots; who’s friends with the boss; and even how many people have participated in a particular action.

Combined, these pieces of information tell you whether your organizing is in fact building support, thereby taking most of the guesswork out of the process. It will also ensure you don’t miss a single coworker, even in a larger workplace.

The list-building, one-on-one conversations with coworkers, and identification of leaders and workplace issues are instrumental in building a communication network in the workplace, and should be done throughout the organizing.

Assessment usually refers to how you think the person you’re speaking with feels about worker power and the movement: Do they support it? Are they against it? Undecided? Unless you feel certain that this coworker will jeopardize the organizing if you are too honest with them, avoid jumping to conclusions before making your ask and seeing how they respond.

Remember, if your boss doesn’t have a chart like this to stop unionization efforts already, they will! Not having a chart of your own will leave you vulnerable to their counter-campaign.

Finally, your chart is a confidential document. We recommend you not share it with anyone outside your trusted circle of core group members. You can share some — but not all — of this information with potential leaders you are building up. And don’t ever share your chart over work emails.

It’s important to find ways to gather coworkers for social activities and enjoy food and drinks together early on in the process (and throughout it). Strong personal relationships build trust and solidarity. And a fun community is one that is easy to keep people invested in it.

The Organizing Conversation

The organizing conversation is the basic building block of organizing. Getting to know your coworkers is critical to any organizing effort. The organizing conversation, a conversation that can move people to take action and organize, consists of these basic and time-tested steps:

• Introduction: Who are you? What are your concerns?
• Get the issues: What does your coworker care about?
• Agitation: Why that’s unfair. And, you’re not alone!
• Plan to Win: Why collective action? What’s the plan?
• Inoculation: Prepare for your boss’s response.
• Call the Question: Ask them to take action with you.

In-person and one-on-one conversations strengthen relationships and foster trust. They also allow for more back-and-forth, which is important in situations where people have a lot of questions, concerns, or ideas to share.

Not all of the above steps happen in every conversation — this is just a general guide. But it can be helpful to look at this model before having a conversation. If you remember one or two points from it, then it was helpful.

Work with someone in your core group and rehearse. This will prepare you for future conversations and help you to not feel down on yourself if a conversation didn’t go the way you imagined it would. The most important thing is to be yourself, be natural, and follow the flow of conversation.

It’s a good rule of thumb to listen as much as or more than you talk. Our coworkers’ issues and concerns are the primary motivation for them to get involved in organizing, so it’s important to learn about them as people and about their issues.

Workers won’t find this conversation important unless they feel personally fired up about the issues and concerns you’re talking about. Then show them how their issues connect with the organizing. In the case of an organizing campaign for a union, connect their issues with the organizing and bargaining that workers will be doing through that union.

When you agitate coworkers, you validate the unfairness of their concerns and show them their coworkers feel the same way. Once you’ve agitated coworkers, you can provide them with concrete hope by telling them about the core group’s plans. Your coworkers won’t want to take action unless they genuinely believe there’s a way to tackle those issues, a plan to win.

For example, in a union drive, you educate your coworkers about what unions are and how they function. You talk to them about the power and safety in numbers, and the need for a majority of workers to stand together and represent yourselves. You can strengthen your case by sharing examples of how other workers have won through similar methods.

Through one-on-ones, you also prepare your coworkers for how the boss will respond in order to stop the organizing. This process is often called “inoculation.”

In some conversations, you end with an ask. Whether they agree and follow through on the ask tells us how ready they are to join the organizing effort. You might ask them to set up a meeting with another coworker, help create a list of coworkers’ names, participate in an action, sign a union card, etc.

It is critical to follow up with anyone you asked to do something. If you don’t, you risk making the task seem unimportant. (Signing cards should happen on the spot to avoid this getting put off. If they can’t do it right then, schedule a date and time to follow up.)

Organizing happens through building and sustaining relationships. You do that in one-on-ones and in social gatherings. The important thing is to get to know your coworkers, build trust, and learn about their issues. Then, it is important to help them feel the unfairness of their issues and the depth of their connection to fellow workers through those issues, as well as showing them how uniting allows us to overcome fear and build the power necessary to solve issues, and the importance of developing and carrying out organizing plans related to those issues.