Labor Education and   
Research Center

We provide education, training, events, and applied research to   
working people in Washington State.

Organizing

Organizing is the heart of unionism. An organizing training focuses on the skills needed to empower workers in internal or external organizing campaigns.

These include excellent communication skills, strategic planning, knowledge of labor law and organizing rights, how to identify and develop leaders, how to work with committees, etc.

Internal organizing is for workers who already have a union and can focus on contract negotiations and enforcement, politics, coalition building, etc.

External organizing is the creation of new unions and is one of the most difficult kinds of works in unions today. Make no mistake, employers have become highly sophisticated in ‘union avoidance’ strategies, both legal and illegal, and being an organizer means helping workers understand the process and win, often against massive resistance.

Organizing doesn’t stop when the election is won or union recognition is achieved. Increasingly successful union elections don’t ever result in a first contract. So building an ‘organizing union,’ one that sees organizing as the ongoing meaning and process of having a union, is critical to success.

The Labor Center can design training for your union or organization to help you understand the fundamentals of how to organize, and give you the tools to strategically analyze when, where, and who to organize. 206-934-6671