Organizing
What we Believe
Our interest in organizing labor movement staff is intentionally focused on building industry strength in a way that has never been accomplished for staff working in labor; including direct organizing and coalition building.
Many labor movement staff are represented on their own, or have joined with another international union (ex: CWA, IBEW, IBT, OPEIU, etc). Independent staff unions can be highly effective, but often lack the strength to effect real change regarding working conditions, including workload. Labor movement staff represented by international unions have mixed experiences of effectiveness. At PNWSU, we believe labor movement staff can rarely, if ever, be well represented by international unions due to the incestuous relationship they have with other labor organizations. In most cases, we don’t see their representation as purposeful, they simply have organizational focus in their primary jurisdiction.
Our Focus and Intent
As we build industry strength we are committed to focus on career sustainability, professional development, contract standards (wages, benefits, working conditions), organizational equity & inclusion, and organizational ethics and accountability.
Career Sustainability: It is not uncommon for labor to hire staff, work them to breaking with intense work loads, burn them out, then cycle them out of employment and rehire, starting the cycle over again. Unfortunately this often leads to highly capable labor movement staff leaving labor for other work where they can achieve work/life balance. We believe that as we gain industry strength, we can begin to break this cycle.
Professional Development: Labor movement staff often advocate for staff development and our Local unions often fully intend to help their staff develop. Unfortunately, opportunities are often inconsistent due to other financial priorities, or lack of organizational priority. Through accessing and using our internal human resources within our growing staff union we can often train ourselves in areas of contract enforcement, internal and external organizing, leadership development, etc. Through the use of financial resources we can access professional development through external sources.
Contract Standards: We often see vastly inconsistent standards in compensation packages, other benefits, leave packages, and working conditions. Working together we intend to improve standards for all labor movement staff.
Organizational Equity & Inclusion (OE&I): Our members and our labor movement employers are in different places in their commitment to become anti-racist. We continue in our work to develop as an anti-racist organization and push our employers who have institutional level resources and the strength of labor to commit their resources and energy to transformative change, both internally and in our communities.
Organizational Ethics & Accountability (OE&A): Experiences of unethical behavior and lack of accountability rock the labor movement; sapping the credibility of organized labor. Accusations are often surfaced by labor movement employees who are the most vulnerable. As we develop industry strength, we can and will hold ourselves and the labor movement accountable to ethical standards.
How We Organize
For more information about us and if your group is a good fit with PNWSU contact our organizer on the Contact Us page.