This post is an excerpt from “Unite & Win: The Workplace Organizer’s Handbook.”
Union-busting is primarily aimed at undecided workers, but you must prepare everyone for the boss campaign.
Identify Vulnerabilities
Consider any vulnerability a worker may have: a sick family member, attendance issues, or a strong desire for advancement — in case the boss uses that vulnerability against the individual. If workers know what’s coming, they will recognize it for what it is. Don’t let the bosses divide workers by language, race, department. They will try. Stress equality, justice, fairness.
Be sensitive to people’s fears and don’t pile on too much before they’re ready. Instead, weave your inoculation into confidence-boosting discussions and activities. Throughout this ordeal, to win, you have to keep talking about the issues that matter to workers and the organizing goals workers have set: wage increases, fair work schedules, fair treatment, democracy in the workplace. The union is the workers, and that is what the boss wants you to forget.
Offer a Positive Alternative
Plan activities throughout to keep workers involved — rallies, cook-outs, buttons, T-shirts, “We’re Voting Yes” petitions. You use solidarity to combat fear, division, confusion, and hopelessness. By emphasizing transparency and democracy, workers can effectively disarm the argument that the union is something outside or above the workers.
Expose company lies with confidence. If your campaign is full of hope and solidarity, it will help workers overcome the fear that the union-buster spreads. United we win!
Get your copy of “Unite & Win: The Workplace Organizer’s Handbook” to learn more about organizing your workplace.
