I work at a non profit and we just won union recognition and are slowly moving towards first contract negotiations and I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING. Would love to chat with some folks about their experiences, especially if you've negotiated around contracts/grants/etc.
I'm gonna be real with you, it's better if you're doing all the work. If your union is rep heavy, people will start to view it as something separate from themselves, you lose engagement, and you lose the aspect where people learn to self govern through struggle.
Unions with lots of paid staff also tend to be heirarchal, where a bueracratic can overrule am organizing committee.
You're doing it the hard way, but also in the way that's going to go best for you and your Co workers in the long run.
That makes a lot of sense. I connected with someone at another unionized non profit and they shared their experience with me. They shared that they decided on another Union that we were considering and said that they were super bureaucratic, took months to respond, And their tactic was to be very friendly with management in order to get demands met. their contract ended up looking great but it does sound like a lot of that was due to worker action. They said that they felt that it was a good thing that we have so much autonomy so I should appreciate that. I just think the rest of the organizers are so burnt out and barely engage even though I try so hard to keep us a cohesive team. Like, we work with people in severe crisis all day every day for low income wages being scared we will get fired every day so I get it but god damn I can't do it alone and it's making me want to quit. How do I motivate people?
start taking action
edit: with your committee
That's the thing we have a group chat and I ask people about what they want to do, or even fill out the fucking survey that I spent like an hour or two making and hardly anyone responds. I'm trying super hard to not get bitchy, or just drop out completely. I know there are organizers who have been able to fight through it I just don't know how much I can sustain the effort. Or, if I should have a straight talk convo of like "hey, if we want to be successful for ourselves and everyone else that trusted us with this we all need to support eachother let's figure out how to make it happen and please don't just ignore me lol"
A group char diffuses responsibility. Sometimes you've got to one-on-one your fellow OC members. Remind them of the issues, how they feel about it, remind them of the union as the path forward, and ask them to step up and do a specific task.