RWDSU Board Meeting: Strategies for Organizing (12/3/09)

At the RWDSU Executive Board Meeting on Wednesday, December 2, the board heard from organizers around the union about new strategies and initiatives being used to help build the union.
 
“The RWDSU is looking at different models of organizing,” said RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum. “Our goal is to build the union.”

Jeff Eichler (above), who heads up the union’s Retail Organizing Project in New York City, spoke about the union's campaign at the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx.

“We are fighting powerful interests but we have an opportunity to create a new model of responsible development in the city. We are working with community groups, religious organizations and elected officials to create living wage jobs and to give workers the opportunity to organize,” Eichler said.

“We believe that if government is helping to subsidize private development then the developer has a responsibility to operate in a way that benefits the community. Its about creating good jobs and not poverty wage jobs," Appelbaum added.

RWDSU Organizer Carrie Gleason (above) spoke about the work of the RWDSU's Retail Action Project (RAP), a pro-worker coalition of the union and New York City community groups.

 “Through RAP we reach out to retail workers and get them involved," Gleason said, while describing some of the innovative approaches that RAP has used like the Common Threads art project and how RAP members have been supportive of the union’s efforts to organize.

RWDSU organizers Luis Lopez and Joseph Dorismond (above) spoke about their organizing work and how they have worked with RWDSU locals to win campaigns. 
 
“Working people need unions now more than ever,” Dorismond said.

RWDSU Vice President and Director of Field Services Randy Belliel and RWDSU Representative Allen Mayne spoke about the union's new organizing project in the Midwest, which seeks to revitalize organizing by getting members involved in referring friends, family, and acquaintances who need a union voice.
 
 “We are working with the locals throughout the Midwest and elsewhere to create an organizing project that will build our union,” Belliel said. “We are fortunate to have received the support of all the RWDSU locals in this effort,” Mayne added.

Director of Strategic Organizing Audra Makuch (above, with RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum) spoke about how the union was looking to expand its membership to help unorganized workers win better pay and benefits but also to help current members win better contracts. 
 
“The more people we represent in a company or industry the more leverage we have,” said Makuch.

RWDSU Canadian Director Derik McArthur (above) and RWDSU Representative Roger Grobstich also spoke about organizing efforts in Canada and Iowa.