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Campaign Update: Organizers Train for High Stakes Effort
November 30, 2005
Workers at the nonunion Rockwell Collins plant in Melbourne, Florida, may have substandard benefits and a lack of respect on the job. But at least they have jobs. Taking advantage of the workers’ limited understanding of their right to organize, the company is doing its best to reinforce a sense of insecurity in its 600-plus workers. Despite the pressure, the workers have been receptive to the IBEW’s message of collective action and empowerment, as the campaign for union representation continues.
The battle of wills and dueling messages plays out at one of many factories on Florida’s “ Space Coast,” as it is known for its concentration of defense manufacturers near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The company – which has a good relationship with workers at two IBEW-represented plants in Iowa – is fighting the organizing effort with so many captive audience meetings, that production is down 5 percent. Communication will be key to the campaign, said Florida’s lead organizer, Carmella Cruse, who helped lead a three-day Organizing Institute in this fall in Orlando.
Four new field organizers with the help of several members from Tampa Local 824 and Cocoa Beach Local 2088 made up the group of nearly 15. The curriculum was developed and presented by the AFL-CIO, in cooperation with IBEW, and geared toward a house-call blitz of Rockwell Collins workers. Through a series of classroom lectures and role-playing exercises, participants learned the finer points of talking to potential members in the Institute, led by the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute director, Cruse and two Fifth District international representatives. Organizers and interested members took part in the program, which culminated in a day of visiting Rockwell workers.
“Our goal is to educate the Rockwell workers and let them know they have a right to organize,” Cruse said. “Some think they are going to get terminated if they talk to you.”
One participant who has been particularly helpful along the way is Coralville, Iowa, Local 1634 Business Manager Brian Heins, who represents workers at a Rockwell plant there. He can speak directly to employees as someone who has firsthand knowledge of how the company works with the IBEW.
The importance of listening is among the top lessons the leaders helped impart. “You can communicate better with someone if you are listening, instead of trying to sell the union,” Cruse said.
Membership Development International Representative Alan Freeman said such a strategy will provide a striking contrast if the company takes a high-handed approach of taking employees away from their work to hound them about the IBEW.
The Organizing Institute, the second in Florida since President Hill announced a statewide campaign earlier this year, will also benefit other organizing efforts in the state.
