Conversation and Recruitment Training

The Video Training:

If you do nothing else, WATCH THIS VIDEO before you start trying to recruit people.

Extremely Short Version: A-E-I-O-U

A quick and dirty memory aid:

• Agitate: Get the person talking about what’s wrong (e.g. RTO), so they feel it.
• Educate: Get them to see the true cause of the problem: The feudal corporate structure and lack of worker power.
• Inoculate: Give them a taste of the talking points the company will use against our efforts, and get them able to refute each one.
• Organize: Get them involved in some peer-to-peer activity to cement strong relationships and begin building worker power. This might take the form of regular “collaboration enhancement” sessions where you get people and issues mapped out. To the extent possible, solve what you can amongst yourselves, but also keep track of common grievances.
• Unionize: Eventually, it will become clear that the only solution for the grievances is collective bargaining and a union contract.

One-on-One Organizing Conversations Training (from UE)

Goals of One-on-One Conversations:

1. Build relationships with our co-workers
   • We have solidarity, trust, bonds with our co-workers – the administration doesn’t
2. Understand their experience at work
   • Not only learning what someone’s day-to-day is like, but also learning what they value and are passionate about, since people want to feel fulfilled at work
3. Understand their issues at work
4. Connect their issues to your own issues and issues of other co-workers
   • Share your frustrations, be human
5. Provide a solution to our common issues: coming together to ask for better working conditions
6. Identify co-workers as union supporters → this can be a whole training
   • Always the risk of “spilling the beans” to someone who’s anti-union, but more likely problem is that you encounter someone who’s not sure or who’s afraid, and it’s important to proceed safely in this situation
7. Move co-workers from union supporters to active organizers → this can be a whole training
   • We build towards this with more people onboard
   • Important to avoid the “chicken legs” problem, where disparate people who could have been organizing together didn’t realize they were each union supporters and worked in isolation unnecessarily, and we want to empower people to connect to each other

How do we achieve all of these goals in our conversations with fellow workers?

• We ask a lot of questions
• We listen more, speak less
  • We listen rather than trying to persuade, which distinguishes us from the other side that’s anti-union → connection over issues shows that we know where our co-workers’ frustrations are coming from and we share them and have common best interests
• We share our own experience with work related issues
  • Makes it clear that this is a common problem to all of us that can be addressed collectively, not just an individual problem
• We share experience of other workers in industry and across industries
• We share our experience with becoming active organizers
• We connect with fellow human and build strong relationships
• We share our passion for change through collective action
• People we speak to are likely to have questions themselves, so it’s important to receive those questions and answer honestly (“I don’t know but I will find the answer”)
  • A common administrative tactic, or a byproduct of bureaucratic organizations, is that workers don’t have easy access to information that can help them make decisions about collective efforts

Stages of One-on-One Conversation

1. Introduction

   • Goals: To establish a contact and start relationship
   • Elements of the conversation:
     • If you already know your co-worker, say hi!
     • If you do not know your co-worker:
       • Identify yourself as a fellow co-worker by sharing your position and department
       • Explain why you came to talk to them
     • Ask questions about their everyday experience at work - BE HUMAN!

2. Get to know your co-workers issues

   • Goals:
     • To understand what individual co-workers are concerned about
     • To help them reflect on their issues by identifying the cause of such issues
     • To agitate them around such issues
   • Elements of the Conversation:
     • Ask open ended questions to help you get a sense of what issues is your co-worker facing
     • Ask if they have struggled with particular issue
     • Ask how particular issue at work has affected them
     • Share your own experiences with issues at work
     • Share experiences from other co-workers you talked to about same or similar issues

3. Connecting your co-workers issues to need for a collective action

   • Goals: To provide solutions to issues!

Key Principles

• Listen more than you speak
• Ask open-ended questions
• Share your own experiences
• Build relationships, not just recruit
• Be patient and persistent
• Always follow up

Remember: The goal is not to convince someone in one conversation, but to build a relationship and understand their concerns so you can work together toward better conditions.