The labor movement in this country is in deep crisis. All too many unions are losing members, confronting deteriorating job conditions, and fighting defensive battles.  One would think that labor in conservative, right-to-work states would be in the worst shape of all.  But this is not necessarily so. One union local in historically conservative Arizona has continued to grow not just in size but, more importantly, in influence. I believe there are lessons here for labor activists across the nation.

For the last 39 years I have worked as a leader in United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local 99, a statewide local in Arizona, a private sector union in a right-to-work state that primarily represents food workers, both retail and in food processing.  We operate in a state where the legislature and the governor are aligned with the tea party, a state that has one of the worst records in the country in terms of hostility to immigrants and the defunding of public education with accompanying chronically low wages and an anti-union climate.

Only 3.1% of private sector wage and salary workers in Arizona belong to a union (5.3% overall). In 1990 the numbers for private sector unionization were 4.9%. While private sector union membership in the state declined between 1990 and 2014 by about 40%, during the same period UFCW Local 99 tripled its membership, from just over 6,000 to close to 19,000 members.

What are some of the reasons that this union, in a backward state like Arizona, managed to buck the national trends and thrive?

Internal Organizing/Education

A union is only as strong as its leaders and activists in the shops.

High turnover rates are characteristic of the food service industry, especially among grocery store workers. These high turnover rates compel food service unions to continuously organize internally just to maintain its membership density. This requires constantly educating the membership on what it means to be a union member and what the union is all about. For this reason, Local 99 spends significant time training staff in how to recognize potential leaders and advance their development.  As part of this effort to help them develop as leaders, staff is required to meet with stewards or activists on a weekly basis.

Union leaders need to understand the big picture.  Local 99 focuses a lot of energy on developing stewards and activists through regular steward trainings (for example, on worker safety, labor history, all the factors affecting negotiations – internal and external, the correlation between the decline of unions and the rise of inequality); day long steward conferences, both large and small; regular evening zone meetings of geographically close worksites, town hall meetings (the union represents workers throughout the entire state) via telephone on pressing issues (members can ask questions or make comments throughout the call); and individually by staff representatives.  The union uses Facebook, both from the union but also from individual Union Reps, to communicate with member and has developed a young workers program.

Union building means developing rank and file leaders in the shops.

The union regularly runs internal organizing campaigns to both increase membership and to have increased interaction with members. In addition to staff working on these programs, the union employs SPURs (Special Project Union Reps) who are rank-and-file members who take a leave from work and work alongside regular staff  (or if capable – of working by themselves) for a set period for the union. Not only do the SPURs help the union grow during these campaigns but when they return to their worksite they take a new perspective with them. During these campaigns, staff is equipped not just with a list of non-members but with updated lists on current members who are not registered voters or aren’t contributing to the political PAC. Well over half of the membership contributes to the political PAC. The union also makes sure, on these campaigns, that stewards and activists are involved in all the sign-up activities.

Organizing the Unorganized

Unions must bring an increasing number of workers into the labor movement.

Rebuilding the labor movement requires bringing an increasing number of workers into forms of collective organization. This is a challenge everywhere and a specific campaign can easily take years to reach a successful conclusion.  Organizing the unorganized is particularly difficult in the hostile climate of a right to work state where non-members contribute nothing financially, leaving right-to-work union locals with limited budgets.

Maintaining union density in the food industry poses its own set of unique problems. Not only are unionization efforts adversely affected by the disproportionate presence of Wal-Mart which can always pay less and offer fewer benefits, but also by other large traditional grocers who work hard to maintain their non-union status by matching union negotiated wage rates and wage increases for their own employees.  Those non-union employers understand that matching what the union wins is much cheaper (not only in wages and benefits but in workers contractual rights) than what the union would win if it were negotiating for all the grocery industry workers united together.

Implementing a Successful Strategy 

Even in the face of these obstacles, UFCW Local 99 has been able to implement an extremely successful organizing model. The principal elements of that model include the following:

Above all else, unions must prepare the workers for the employers’ offensive. Since almost all employers will bring their full resources to bear on any organizing attempt, the union must match them in intensity and sophistication.

Membership Mobilization and Solid Preparations are key to meeting the employers’ offensive. The union slowly builds an organizing committee, developing leaders in all departments and preparing them (inoculation) for the company’s assault while simultaneously building support among the workers as to what a better future at work can look like.  The committee is involved in preparing pamphlets for distribution to their coworkers and in developing strategy and planning events. Committee members are trained on how to respond and ask questions at compulsory “captive audience” company meetings led by union busters. If the organizing drive is successful and negotiations begin, the committee is involved in negotiations and no settlement is reached unless the committee unanimously supports its ratification.

Research is a crucial element. In addition to developing an organizing committee in those worksites, the union conducts a complete research analysis of the targeted company – its customers, its suppliers, its financial structure including its debt, its market share, if it has contracts with any government entity, all public access documentations – whether workplace injury reports, health and safety inspections, tax breaks they’ve been issued, etc.  And then the union goes on the offensive against the company at their weakest links, to put them on the defensive and try to get neutrality agreements and card check elections.

Organizing committees AND research. While there has been much criticism from the left on the problems of unions relying too heavily on Corporate Campaigns, they are indispensible when combined with organizing “on the ground”.  Neither is very successful without the other. And each complements the other.

Political Action

Unions must combine economic and political power.  Unions are doomed if they do not use their economic power to increase workers’ political power, including workers’ role in the electoral process.  In a predominantly Republican state like Arizona, it has been many years since the Democratic Party played a significant role in fighting for the needs of working people or electing pro-labor candidates to public office.  In the absence of a strong Democratic Party machine, Unions have been the principal organizations in Arizona committed to involving workers in political action and electoral activity. And given that union members can and do often make the difference in close races, progressives candidates in Arizona have been increasingly relying on unions like UFCW Local 99 to win public office.  As a result, the political practice of Local 99 has become increasingly more sophisticated. Elements of this new sophistication include the following.

Electoral politics is more than endorsing candidates. Engaging in the electoral process is more than simply endorsing those who seem most pro-union, then sending them a check and a few volunteers. The union must carefully choose which specific election campaigns to get involved in. Local 99 puts almost all its resources only in closely contested races. At the same time,  the union doesn’t just wait for good candidates; it actively works to recruit and develop its own. The union also helps finance organizations that recruit leaders from unions and progressive organizations (especially on immigration) on how to run a campaign and how to be an effective candidate.  Even more importantly, the union has sent many of its own members to get this training and has won elections on their behalf.

Technology plays an important role. The union maintains a complete internal database on its membership including what congressional, state, county, city, school board, and precinct they live in. The union regularly runs campaigns to get its members to register for early voting so when ballots go out, the members are being contacted immediately to return them for the candidate who supports working people. Follow up calls come a few days later to make sure the ballot has been sent in.

The union backs its commitment. When the union says it’s going to support a candidate, it goes all in, whether it’s collecting small contributions for candidates who want to run “clean”, phone banking, walking precincts, or supporting independent expenditure committees. Candidates, then, come to the union early on, looking for its support. Conversely, the union is merciless against any candidate it has supported who ends up voting against issues impacting working people, by publicly attacking them and working to defeat them in the next election cycle. This has been very effectively used in holding politicians to what they’ve promised.

The issue is the needs of working people. Support for any candidate is strictly based on their support for issues impacting working families, which especially in Arizona, includes support for public education, access to quality healthcare and immigration rights. The union does not get involved in issues like gun control or abortion that don’t directly affect working people, though those who support working people generally are supportive of those other issues.

Politics is not just about elections. In rightwing states, where electing progressive is often not an option, unions have to find other means to advance their political agenda. With a state legislature that is openly hostile to unions and other progressive forces, the initiative process takes on great importance. The union does extensive polling beforehand on how best to frame issues. UFCW Local 99 was the leading force in establishing not only a state minimum wage but one that was indexed to inflation.  That overwhelming victory also gave the union the credentials that it can win initiatives. When bills have been proposed in the legislature to restrict the movements of unions or other progressive organizations, the union was exploring initiatives that would have similar restrictions on corporations, usually with the result that the bill gets withdrawn or killed in committee.  When many states were pushing “paycheck protection acts” a subterfuge pushed by ALEC to weaken unions’ political impact by making it much more difficult in the private sector and those workers employed by the state to participate in political check-off and political contributions, the union threatened to work on an initiative that would require corporations to get their shareholders okay to spend corporate money on political contributions. On several occasions the union has been the lead organization suing the state over laws or initiatives or referendum that have passed that are unconstitutional, even winning reimbursement for its legal costs.

Not just reacting but being proactive.  The union’s political activity also includes taking the initiative on issues. Unable, recently, to obtain sick paid days in negotiations with a company that makes tortillas and tortilla chips in Tempe, the union is now actively working with other groups and businesses to pass mandatory paid sick leave for all employers in that city, as well as several other cities where it has a good chance of becoming law.

Immigrants Rights

Unions can play a leading role in promoting a progressive social agenda.

No issue in Arizona is more controversial at this moment than the rights of immigrants, both documented and undocumented.  The fight for immigrant rights here is complicated by a number of factors – the political dominance of the Republican Party, particularly its most extremist right wing, the historical weakness of the state’s Democratic Party, and the fact that while there is a large Latino community in Arizona, it is traditionally less active than other bordering states. Unions, with their organized members and resources, are uniquely positioned to play a leading role on behalf of immigrant members and the broader immigrant rights movement.

Local 99 has played a significant role supporting and providing leadership to the immigrants rights movement in Arizona.  When the issue first started to draw national attention, Local 99 was involved from the beginning when new organizations, such as Somos America, were forming and new leaders were stepping up.  The union provided not only money and meeting space, but leaders (staff and rank-and-file activists) from the union who participated in the organizing committees and strategy planning.

Unions must also educate their own members.  The union has also had to educate many of its own members on this issue since many of them are subject to the same biases and misunderstandings as the population at large. . Tackling this issue has been controversial: members have dropped out over this issue but the union has also been able to win over many others. Additionally this campaign is crucial internally as many members and many others who want to organize are themselves immigrants, both documented and undocumented.

Building the labor movement at the intersection of economics, politics and community involvement: A Case Study  

A recent example illustrates how UFCW 99 combined the various elements discussed above: the union’s three-year campaign to organize janitors at the Phoenix airport. Most of these workers were either refugees or immigrants, so not just issues of pay and benefits, but also the fight for dignity and respect was critical to this campaign. Although job turnover throughout the campaign was high, the Union managed to maintain a strong organizing committee and a core of activists, with new leaders continuously sought out and developed, that were key to our success.

Since the Phoenix City Council manages the airport, it was a major focus of the campaign. The union’s past electoral support of Council members who were committed to improving the lives of working people gave us particular leverage in this arena at several stages of the campaign.

When the campaign began, the janitorial company hired by the City Council to work the airport was aggressively anti-union. Local 99 was equally aggressive in fighting for the rights of workers and for those who were penalized for union activity. After winning a number of cases, including getting fired workers their jobs back, and after public protests and worker demonstrations, the company lost its contract with the city.  In addition to our political clout, the union’s previous community involvement was critical here – whenever there were demonstrations or picketing of the employer, other community and religious organizations always participated (Local 99 had an active record of supporting and often providing seed money to broader community groups working on other issues like education, payday loans, housing, LBGT rights, discrimination and domestic abuse.)

Our next task was to convince the Council to change the way it awarded airport contracts. Historically, contracts had gone to the lowest bidder, which meant the one paying the lowest wages and offering the least benefits. The union pushed for a bidding process that created a “floor” so that whoever got the bid would be in a position to both provide livable wages and not have to worry about losing the contract on the next open bidding process to a low wage operator.

The next company awarded the airport janitorial contract was initially equally anti-union but after similar pressure agreed to a card check.  At this point, the union’s hard work in education and mobilization really paid off. The Union won the card check and when it came time to ratify the contract, not only was there a huge turnout, but membership sign-up for the union was almost 100%.  And while the pay issues were immediately addressed in the contract, the contract also contained language addressing worker concerns about dignity and respect. The employer agreed in writing to treat all workers with respect and dignity, to maintain a work environment free of harassment, to develop and post a policy regarding harassment and to train all employees and supervisors regarding such policy.