Member to member

As 2016 drew to a close, NYSUT was in the throes of planning a massive campaign to convince New Yorkers to vote against a proposed referendum on the state constitution. Early polls showed two-thirds of likely voters favored the idea, perhaps because its very name suggested a worthwhile exercise in participatory democracy: Why not conduct a convention to revisit and remake the state’s constitution?  

The downside, of course, was huge. A constitutional convention was a bad idea because it would jeopardize rights that had been enshrined for years — vital protections for free speech, public education, separation of church and state. Everything in the constitution would be up for grabs, including mandates against cutting pensions, protection of the workers’ compensation system and even workers’ right to organize. Anti-union forces and privateers would be sharpening their knives and spending big. Plus, taxpayers would foot the bill for convention costs. A constitutional convention could unleash a Pandora’s box of evils. 

NYSUT worked with the AFL-CIO to produce lawn signs, bumper stickers, and video and social media ads with this bottom line: Vote NO on the ConCon. But while the case against the ConCon was compelling, it didn’t easily translate to sound bites. 

“Polls show many New Yorkers don’t have any idea what the constitutional convention is about,” said NYSUT President Andy Pallotta at the time. “The most effective way to communicate the danger is face to face and one on one.” And so, NYSUT opted to return to its roots. The union launched a member-to-member campaign to strengthen member ties and to take down the ConCon at the same time.

NYSUT provided fact-based talking points on the ConCon and urged members to carry the message far and wide. Conversations rolled out local by local, region by region. The feedback was tremendous — members appreciated the outreach — and the outcome was outstanding. NYSUT and our allies achieved a historic reversal of public opinion as voters resoundingly defeated the ConCon, 83 to 17 percent. NYSUT members showed up to vote at more than twice the rate of the general public.

While multi-media messaging on the ConCon certainly had an impact, NYSUT leaders were convinced that the member-to-member conversations were what carried the day. When their union called, especially in the form of a familiar face, members listened. 

The successful ConCon campaign was the model leaders had in mind as they strategized against a looming threat aimed not just at NYSUT’s existence, but at the labor movement as a whole. A case moving through the Supreme Court, Janus v. AFSCME, was funded by anti-labor extremists seeking to re-open issues that had been considered settled law for decades.  

Under the law of the land, public sector unions were obligated to represent everyone in a bargaining unit when negotiating contracts; as a result of this “duty of fair representation,” unions were allowed to assess fees on non-members who benefited from the contracts. These were called “fair share” fees.  

Mark Janus, the Illinois public employee named as the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, was a figurehead for deep-pocketed right-wing groups out to sabotage unions. Janus sought to benefit from union representation without paying anything at all.  

In New York state, fees to non-members had always been highly regulated and required only for collective bargaining costs. As a matter of simple fairness, they prevented “free riders” — those who benefited from a service without contributing their fair share.  

The billionaires who brought the Supreme Court case sought to undermine unions by forcing them to do the work of representation without compensation. The case was widely seen as a potential death blow to the labor movement. 

In the summer of 2017, NYSUT founded the Member Organizing Institute. Its mission was to rapidly build a statewide network of member organizers to counter attacks and protect members’ rights. NYSUT conducted trainings at regional offices to prepare participants for informed one- to-one conversations with other members at their homes. The context for conversations was the fundamental value of union memberships.

As Janus loomed, NYSUT scaled up its organizing institute. Its mission, Pallotta said, was to “invite members to help build the strongest union in history.” In the summer and fall of 2017 alone, Organizing Institute participants knocked on more than 48,000 doors, reaching out to more than 12 percent of NYSUT’s in-service members. For many, it was illuminating. 

“People tend to think of NYSUT as the solver of problems,” said Robin Parente, member organizer from Chittenango TA. “But the truth is, we are all NYSUT.” 

Don Carlisto, then-co-president of the Saranac Lake TA, described the effort as “a very pure expression of unionism — member-to-member direct action, in a very personal way, going into people’s homes and talking about the value of the union.” 

“The experience was so rewarding for me,” said Sal Pergola, vice president of the Manhasset Educational Support Personnel Association. “What I learned, and passed on to members of other locals and continue to share with my own local, is priceless.” 

NYSUT Executive Director Melinda Person, who had initiated the summer Member Organizing Institute, was inspired by the response. Hundreds of heartfelt exchanges took place on the value of union membership. “These deeply engaging conversations reinforced the strong connections between our members and their union,” Person said. 

From 2017 into 2018, MOI trainings expanded, drawing overflow crowds in Central New York, the North Country, the Hudson Valley and every borough of New York City. As the Janus case wended its way to the Supreme Court, which by 2018 was tilted to a conservative majority, NYSUT worked in sync with the state AFL-CIO on an aggressive advertising campaign designed to supplement member-to-member outreach. Social media promoted videos profiling the conservative billionaires bankrolling the Janus case. Unions, the videos pointed out, were the only force protecting working people from profit-obsessed billionaires.  

NYSUT ran a series of ads and videos that focused on the power of collective strength and the many benefits of membership, including a voice and advocacy in the workplace, higher salaries, stronger pensions and better health care. These “Our Union” ads complemented the “Our Voices” videos of NYSUT members discussing why they personally valued union membership.

NYSUT alerted members that doorknockers, paid by a $10-million national anti-worker campaign, would push them to abandon their union membership. The billionaires behind the campaign were motivated by self-interest: “They know that strong unions give workers, both union and nonunion, better pay, better health care, safer working conditions and a voice in the workplace — and that means money out of their pockets.”  

In response, union members displayed their own “I’m Sticking With the Union” signs and told anti-union doorknockers not to waste their time at their home.  

What started small in 2017 and surged like a tidal wave across the state was quite simply the largest organizing campaign in NYSUT’s history. Faced with the Janus threat, the mission was to get every member in every local to re-up and sign a card affirming union affiliation.

Member Organizing Institute graduates continued to go forth and initiate conversations with their union sisters and brothers. And the cards started coming in. 

Across the state, members in droves were signing and returning re-commitment cards. They were sticking with their union. From Fort Edward to Central Square, Orchard Park to Watertown, Spencerport to Brentwood, locals reported at or near 100-percent recommitment rates. 

“The Western New York region has met the task of re-carding our membership with a swift and serious effort,” said Joe Najuch of the Newfane TA. “There is no doubt that the training and workshops offered by the regional office, promoting the one-to-one conversations, have helped the Newfane and Wilson TAs achieve and preserve 100 percent membership.” 

Their success was repeated in every corner of the state.

Dave Michalak, president of the SUNY Broome Faculty Association, said the local had been organizing and listening to its community college members for more than two years. In one-on-ones, colleagues said they were most concerned about “the consequences [of] losing our union” and bargaining protections. “Unions are the last bastion of hope for all workers in this country.” 

The Brentwood TA conducted a massive multi-stage campaign led by President Kevin Coyne. It began with outreach training for 147 BTA members through NYSUT’s Suffolk Regional Office. With a 10-to-1 ratio of outreach representatives to 1,400 rank-and-file members, face-to-face interactions were empowered. The TA conducted a creative informational campaign, engaging members with two months of contests, newsletters, videos and informational meetings on the risks of Janus and the benefits in their union contract. Members were asked: “What do I value most about the union?” and “What would I like to see my union do?” 

 Incentives for participation included “Proud to be a BTA Member” lanyards and T-shirts. Outreach meant face-to-face conversations with members, “not just placing the cards in mailboxes,” Coyne said. The local’s message was clear: Without support from the membership their contract and benefits are at risk. The campaign culminated in a 15-day organizing blitz with 100 percent of the BTA’s 1,400 members signing cards recommitting to their union. One member even faxed his card in from deployment in the Army Reserves.  

“It was the best union work we’ve ever done,” said Coyne. “We introduced our members to what the union does and the value it brings to their lives. We are stronger now than we’ve ever been.” 

As the months became years in this unprecedented member-to-member outreach, the drumbeat got louder: “I’m sticking with the union!”  

 “We’re going to make sure that each and every member sees union value,” Carlisto said. “When we look back on these initiatives, we’re going to say this was the game-changer, the fact that members put feet in the street to connect with other members.” 

“We have to make sure we’re speaking to each and every member and make sure they understand what is at stake,” emphasized UFT President Michael Mulgrew. “You only have the rights and benefits you do, and you only have people fighting for you every day because you have a union.”

 Even before he signed a membership card, new music teacher William Pace credited the UFT with helping him untangle a bureaucratic certification snafu that threatened his job at Bronx Compass HS. 

New UFT member Wayne Cole didn’t want a career like friends teaching in Georgia — “their hands are tied and nobody looks out for them,” he said — so he sought a job in New York City public schools and signed up for “the support I’ll get as a union member.”  

On Feb. 26, 2018, the day Janus would be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, thousands of union members rallied in New York City and Buffalo for a Day of Action. Busloads of higher ed members from the United University Professions and Professional Staff Congress traveled through the night to demonstrate outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. 

“This is the new reality for our movement and it must continue,” NYSUT President Andy Pallotta told the crowd in Manhattan. “We’re mobilizing to defend our rights.” 

As the wait began for the Supreme Court to render its decision, member outreach continued. Gordon Kaedy, president of the Averill Park TA, said: “We have 280 members. It might take me two years to get to every member, but you have to spend that time. That’s the most important part of building that relationship, so people at least know what you’re doing on their behalf.”  

“It can take a lot of work to get through to people and make that important connection,” agreed Luis Grevely, a Schenectady Federation of Teachers member. But it’s worth it, he noted: face-to-face contact was key, more effective than emails or even phone calls.  

Conversations generally focused on pay, health care and job protections that would be eroded if the union lost strength. Solidarity was key to winning and defending good contracts. Some conversations were germane to specific member groups: protections against unfair dismissal for SRPs, help with certification for new teacher members.   

When the U.S. Supreme Court decision on Janus came down on June 27, 2018, no one was surprised. As expected — as feared — the right-wing leaning court ruled that workers in public service could not be required to share the costs of collective bargaining, even though they shared the benefits of the contract. Corporate lobbyists hailed the decision, predicting it would undercut unions’ power by depriving them of funds they need to function. 

In the months following, waves of odious postcards and social media ads urged members to walk away from their unions. Opportunistic law firms sought to peel off members, urging them to “go it alone” and contract with for-profit legal services. Paid doorknockers recited falsehoods: “Give yourself a raise, lose nothing.” But thanks to NYSUT’s battalion of organizers, members had been inoculated against the attacks. The battle, in fact, was largely over. Thousands and thousands of newly inked union cards sent a powerful message.  

By spring of 2019 it was clear that anti-union forces had failed in the attempt to deal a fatal blow to the labor movement. “I am happy to report that the state of our union is strong,” a jubilant Pallotta told NYSUT’s Representative Assembly. “Anti-union forces wanted to destroy us, but this challenge made us stronger. We did the right thing. We organized. We knocked on doors. We built relationships. And our membership numbers are up, our members are more engaged than ever, and they’re sticking with our union.” 

A year after Janus, NYSUT’s member-to-member organizing expanded again. The union rolled out a Member Organizing Institute specifically for SRPs. Participant Brad Jagnanan, a teaching assistant and Henry Viscardi School FA member, was focused on helping NYSUT retain and recruit new members. “I want to ensure the union stays strong,” he said. 

The post-union reality of Wisconsin is a cautionary tale of what could happen in New York if we do not stay united. Wisconsin public employees lost the right to bargain collectively; pay and benefit losses followed.  

But in New York state, five years after Janus, organizing has become a way of life. “We have placed person-to-person contact, relationship building, at the heart of all that we do,” said Pallotta. “This isn’t new. We’re just getting back to our roots. It is a new style of unionism, and this can never end. As the song says, we’re ‘sticking to the union, until the day I die.’”