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< | Practice Pickets: solving the problem of no-strike clauses before contract expiration |
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> | Practice Pickets: solving the problem of no-strike clauses before contract expiration
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| | The Problem of Fear |
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< | In February 2005, I was an organizer preparing union members for a strike at a laundry plant. Like most union agreements, the workers’ contract contained a no-strike clause prohibiting strikes and pickets before expiration. As we were negotiating the contract’s renewal, this clause became problematic. The employer did not believe members were ready to fight – that is, ready to strike and deprive the company of profits – so it was sticking to its harshest proposals. The workers needed to convince management they were ready. Seeing employees march in a picket – an action that looks to managers like a strike – would have had a powerful effect on the employer. However, our no-strike clause forbade picketing. |
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> | In 2005, I was an organizer helping union members at a laundry negotiate a new contract. Members’ leverage usually comes from the threat of a strike. However, at this plant, the union had not been strong for years, so the laundry company felt little fear. My job became to convince the company that its workers would strike. |
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< | Instead I pushed other tactics: stickers, leaflets and circulating a petition, which asked for hepatitis vaccinations the company had “forgotten” about for years. Members’ response revealed their fear of supporting the union. Stickers “fell off” people during the day. Members would read leaflets, but no one wanted to help pass them out. The clearest indicator that members felt overpowered was that many refused to sign the petition. People might take stickers off or refuse to help with leaflets because they ideologically disagree with the union. But if they won’t sign a petition for a legally-mandated health protection, it’s safe to assume they are afraid of management, not ideologically pro-disease. |
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> | I began with non-confrontational actions such as leafleting and sticker days to ease the members into acting strong in front of management. Unfortunately, members were afraid to use even these mild tactics. Union stickers “fell off” people’s smocks before managers saw them. Members would read leaflets, but no one wanted to help distribute them. The clearest indicator of fear was that many refused to sign a petition requesting hepatitis vaccines they had needed for years. Some people may take stickers off or refuse to help with leaflets because they ideologically disagree with the union. But if they won’t sign a petition for a legally mandated workplace protection, it’s safe to assume they are afraid of management, not ideologically pro-hepatitis. |
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< | Members were also reluctant to talk in public. Management installed surveillance cameras soon after I started working. If I sat with members in the lunchroom, they would offer me food non-stop. Sharing food is a kind gesture, but sometimes getting the girl from the union to eat something is also a way to get her to close her mouth. Fear of talking increased after a manager, in a meeting in front of the entire wash department, yelled an obscene taunt at the only washer who openly supported the union. In total, only this washer plus two other members seemed as though they would be ready to strike when the contract expired in May. |
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> | The members’ fear was understandable. The company was acting hostile. Management installed surveillance cameras where workers were likely to talk to me. In front of the entire wash department, one manager yelled obscenities at the only openly pro-union washer. The general manager called in the police to scold me in the employee cafeteria. Someone slashed my tires.
By April, only three members, including the washer who’d been told to go do something anatomically impossible, looked as though they would have the nerve to strike when the contract expired the next month. |
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Developing a Practice Picket |
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< | I wanted management, not my members, to be afraid of a strike. I asked the union’s attorney to send me a copy of the contract. The no-strike language prohibiting “picketing the employer’s establishment” was vague. The term “picketing” has a well-known legal meaning – “patrolling at a site with a message . . . on . . . sign[s]” – so it did not need definition. Howard Lesnick, The Gravamen of the Secondary Boycott, 62 Colum. L.Rev. 1363, 1364 n. 5 (1962). But the contract language also did not define “the employer’s establishment.” Moreover, it did not say that no picketing could occur during the contract. It only forbade picketing at the “establishment.” This gave me an idea. |
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< | There was a vacant lot a block away from the laundry. I sent a description to our lawyer of its distance from the plant. I told him we wanted to “practice” picketing the chainlink gate to the lot. He agreed with me that although the lot was within sight of the plant, it was sufficiently unrelated to the plant for us to picket without violating the no-strike clause. |
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> | I wanted management, not my members, to be afraid. I had just come from a campaign during which union hotel workers had started out similarly nervous. They had gotten stronger when given the opportunity to picket their hotels.
When their managers could not conceal how alarming they found the pickets – picketing looks to managers like a strike, which looks like losing business, which looks like upper executives wanting to fire some managers – the workers’ confidence leaped.
I thought my members at the laundry would benefit from a picket too, but they faced a problem. Like most union agreements, their contract contained a no-strike clause prohibiting strikes and pickets. The hotel workers’ contract had been the same, but they hadn’t had to worry about it because their contract expired months before the pickets. But my laundry members couldn’t simply wait until their contract expired. The national union leadership had already told the company we were going to walk May 5. |
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< | I thought an opportunity to experiment with picketing would build members’ confidence. Picketing a block away would feel less likely to get you fired than doing something in time and space that management has the right to control. Workers often feel they do not have a protected right even to wear a sticker in their workplace. Moving activity a block away makes a psychological difference. Moreover, underneath their fear, the members DID want a raise, DID want vaccines, and they DID want to be respected. |
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> | I still wanted my laundry members to have the opportunity the hotel workers did. I asked the union’s attorney to send me a copy of the no-strike clause. The language prohibiting picketing the employer’s establishment was vague. The term “picketing” has a well-known meaning – “patrolling at a site with a message . . . on . . . sign[s]” – so it did not need definition. Howard Lesnick, The Gravamen of the Secondary Boycott, 62 Colum. L.Rev. 1363, 1364 n. 5 (1962). But the contract language also did not define “the employer’s establishment.” Moreover, it did not say no picketing could occur during the contract. It only forbade picketing at the “establishment.” |
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> | There was a vacant lot a block away from the laundry. I sent a description of it to our lawyer and told him we wanted to “practice” picketing the chainlink gate to the lot. He agreed with me that although the lot was within sight of the plant, it was sufficiently unrelated to the plant for us to picket without violating the no-strike clause. |
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> | I thought this opportunity to experiment with picketing away from the plant would build members’ confidence. At that time many felt they did not have a right even to wear stickers at the plant – marching around the plant waving signs would have seemed unspeakably risky. But moving the picket a block away might diminish this fear. Moreover, underneath everything, the members DID want a raise, DID want vaccines, and DID want to be respected. |
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< | Member and Management Response |
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< | On the day of the picket, the first to arrive were not members, but two managers and their video camera. They stood across the street recording. Soon members arrived. We learned the chants and practiced patrolling. Mostly we patrolled the gate to the lot, which stood in for a client’s delivery entrance. One worker drove his minivan to the gate so we could simulate a truck arrival. We obstructed the “truck” by walking back and forth and taking our sweet time to get out of its way. After the picket, I compared my attendance list to the shop list. We had seventy-three percent participation. Better yet, the picketers walked into work talking and laughing about the picket. They didn’t look scared. |
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> | Member and Management Response |
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< | I was relieved, and so were the three members who had helped bring co-workers to the picket. Management was less relieved. They hired a guard and held a “fire drill” that turned into a union-bashing meeting. The general manager even bolted the bathroom window shut because he thought I was sneaking into the plant through it. Fortunately, the members found all this funny rather than intimidating. One woman talked back to the GM at the fire drill. When the contract expired two weeks later, the members volunteered to picket the plant itself. Seeing their managers frightened of them – simply because they had marched around like strikers – had shifted their sense of the balance of power. |
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> | On the day of the picket, the first to arrive were not members, but two managers who planted themselves across the street to videotape us. When members arrived, we learned chants and practiced patrolling the gate to the lot, which stood in for a client’s delivery entrance. One worker drove his minivan to the gate so we could simulate a delivery. We obstructed the “truck” by patrolling and taking our sweet time to get out of its way. After the picket, I compared my attendance list to the shop list. We had 73% participation! Better yet, the picketers walked into work talking and laughing about the picket. They didn’t look scared – but the managers with the video camera did. |
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> | I was relieved, and so were the three members who had helped bring co-workers to the picket. Management was less relieved. The general manager hired a guard and bolted the bathroom window shut because he thought I was using it to sneak into the plant. He also held a “fire drill” that turned into a union-bashing meeting. Fortunately, members found all funny rather than intimidating. One woman talked back to the GM at the fire drill. When the contract expired two weeks later, members volunteered to picket the plant. Seeing their managers frightened of them – simply because they had marched around like strikers – had changed their sense of who had the power. |
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< | Result |
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< | A few weeks after those real pickets began, we won the members’ best contract in 30 years. It included their highest raise in all that time, and they got their vaccines. The contract did not contain everything the workers had hoped for, but it represented an important break from the past. |
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> | Result
A few weeks after those real pickets began, we won the members’ best contract in 30 years. It included their highest raise in all that time, and they got their vaccines. The contract didn’t contain everything the workers had hoped for, but it represented an important break from the past. |
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Conclusion |
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< | A practice picket can give members confidence and pressure management into a better contract. A practice picket’s success lies in that members and management do not have the same perception of it. Members see it as a way to try out something they have a right to do on their own time. Managers see it and imagines a strike. The confidence members derive from the picket collides with management’s newfound fear, and the balance of power shifts. Thus practice pickets recover some of the power that a no-strike clause takes away. |
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> | A practice picket can give members confidence and pressure management into a better contract. Members see it as a way to try out something they have a right to do on their own time. Managers see it as a prelude to a strike. The confidence members derive from the picket collides with management’s newfound fear, and the balance of power shifts. |
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