MEMBER ENGAGEMENT

Members

The true strength of our Union.

We are the ones working non-union when times are slow, yet few care to think how this affects our Union, our strength and our value when we are not willing to help increase our Local Market Share and Contractor Density.

Henry Miller once said, “If you want to hunt bears, go where the bears are”.

If our members can’t or won’t come to their Union hall, our Union needs to go to them. Membership engagement should be the heart of every union. This leads to education and appreciation for what we as a union are and need to be in order for us to see true social and economic growth. It is through Member engagement we get the participation that can set our path forward. When union leadership engages its members, unions become strong and united on all fronts which has an external effect as well. When our Members are speaking highly, promoting and fighting for our Union, we can drastically change our social and economic conditions as well as the industries we work in.

I firmly believe that each and every one of us are Organizers in some of the simplest ways we may not even think about. We can bring our Union back to our 10 founding fathers who set out to organize the un-organized. At this time, we have few Members who have the solidarity and loyalty needed, and I intend to change that, with a level of engagement our local has not seen in far too long.

The Members of our Union are the most important part and I really feel we lack knowing who we represent, knowing our members, their religions, political views, culture, and hidden talents outside of electrical and how or what they are willing to do to help our Union. All of these can help bring us together and build on our strength, and our voice within our industry, the labour movement, our communities and our governments.

This is simple! It all starts with:

Providing the opportunity to hear from our membership outside of our monthly meetings.
Show our Members that their concerns are being addressed
Provide opportunities to be educated not only in skills, but in all aspects of our Union.
Know our Membership
Provide opportunities to activate and encourage participation.

These simple things will grow the bonds in which we need to strengthen our voice in construction, politics and the labour movement.

Internal strength creates external strength and gains in organizing, political, social, and economic conditions. We need to change the way our industry views us, and we can, but the fight to get there will take the strength and heart of us all. It will be long fought, but if we are focused and follow the path of solidarity the battle to maintain it will seem natural.

Stewards

The backbone of our Local Union in the field. An often a thankless job and under-appreciated at times. A job that requires you to know our Local Union Agreement, policies, procedures and benefits. They exemplify the principal qualities of our Union and reflect them unto others.

Our Local has not been utilizing our Stewards effectively for a very long time. If we only look at a small portions of who we represent, then one could argue that we have been doing our part. However, in Commercial Electrical Construction, and Powerline, we have been failing. We pass this on to the Business Rep, who is not in the field with these workers and is only contacted when things go wrong. A Steward should be there to ensure our rules are not violated and to ensure a level of mentorship.

I am a firm believer that every member should take the Steward course. There is a lot to gain from this course and it will make us look even better in the field. When every member acts as a Steward, we champion our Local, we build the best Electrical Worker and we will take back our market share, which dramatically affects our union density.

I would like to bring a Motion to our Executive and Membership, that when permitted to attend a conference we elect one Steward to attend the Canadian Membership Development Conference and the Membership Development Conference. We could host a yearly Election and have the Members Vote on the Steward they feel has gone above and beyond for our Union and Membership in the field.

Committees / Programs

Though committees are under the President’s duties, I will advocate for these to grow. By focusing on getting to know our Membership, this will make forming committees easier and in most cases, committees and the Members can be used in the many facets of internal and external Organizing.

With the diversity of our Membership, we are only limited by our imagination.

Mentorship Program

I would like to establish two mentorship programs that will help build the appreciation and skills of our Members:

Skills Mentorship: These Members will help build the skills and overcome the learning curve from class room to field.
Technical Training Mentorship: Members who have expressed interest in tutoring young Apprentice Members that may be struggling to understand the theoretical portion of our trades.

Education

Our Local Union has two departments of education, the Electrical Industry Training Center of Alberta (EITCA), as well as the training that our Local and International facilitate. In this section we are going to look at both.

One of our best products is our Electrical Industry Training Center of Alberta (EITCA). Our Local has a board of directors to oversee this entity, and as a Local we do have a voice at this table. I want to be that voice to advocate for continued growth and to overcome any issues in a timely manner. We need this for our current Membership, future Membership and the continued success of the contractors and future contractors.

Our Training Centre was granted the ability to facilitate the technical training for the Electrical Trade. While this is still a work in progress, as we look into the future, I would like to see us have the ability and space to provide this service for all sectors in which we represent. Until that time comes we must support or partner with organizations that may already be further along than we are.

Over the years, the Organizers and the Training Centre have been working hard to build community relationships. Our Training centre has built a reputation in the education departments Alberta-wide, which has allowed for several initiatives to attract new apprentices and new Members by exposing students to a life in the trades. I would like to continue to help build and support these relationship.

Many of our past and present Business Managers have taken advantage of the many courses our International provides. I would like to continue this, and see this grow.

As for the Local training, there are many courses that we could be facilitating. This has fallen upon our Organizing Department, which is running at a fraction of what it should. We have been unable to dedicate the focus needed to develop, promote, maintain and host these programs

We need to look at dedicating one Organizer or hiring a trainer for this task alone.

Business Representatives

Our Business Representatives need to be the cornerstone of internal organizing.

If I am fortunate enough to be elected I will expect our Reps to be just that. These tasks will include but are not limited to:

Working with our President, Stewards and Organizers to establish and develop committees
When possible, job site visits with the President or Member of the Organizing team. Not to speak, but to listen.
Work with the President and Organizers to establish a periodic schedule to check-in with new and returning members

President

We need this role to be independent of all other duties. Our President should be focusing on our Membership and the betterment of it. Under my Leadership, the President will:

Have a full time paid role
Will focus on their obligation to our Constitution
Will focus on working with the Reps and Organizers to build our memberships knowledge and participation.

Organizers

I know by accepting the nomination of Business Manager/Financial Secretary we will need to rebuild our Organizing Department and this will take priority.

I truly believe the best Business Managers are Organizers.

Should I be elected, I will expect everyone in our office to be just that - an Organizer, with aspirations to one day return to the days where every union member was a strong Organizer, Advocate and Ambassador of our Union.

As an Organizer for the last 11 years I can say, we do not have the resources needed without the participation of our Leadership and Members in every sector.

We had three Organizers responsible for the third largest jurisdiction in District 1 (Canada). If we rely solely on this, we will never make the changes needed to regain the market we once had.

Paid Organizers are needed, but organizing happens in the field with the workers, not our offices. Our Members are the true strength of this department. When our Members want to help organize, our Local does not need to incur the cost of employing an army of Organizers when we already have them within Membership.

Strategic Organizing Plan (SOP)

To build a Strategic Organizing Plan (SOP) there is a lot of work that needs to be put in, but the fruit is worth the work.

As an Organizer I could only do so much to get this done. As our Business Manager my promise is to get this done in four easy steps:

Meet with our Agents and Elected Officers, compile a list of what is going right, what is going wrong, what is working in our favour and against us, find creative solutions to bring to the Membership.
Launch a Membership campaign to reach as many Members laying out the above get their input.
Develop a step by step plan based off the information and insight.
Take the plan back to Membership for approval and implementation.

Inside Organizer(s)

We need a dedicated role to focus on course development, maintaining and facilitating courses that will help our Membership gain more knowledge and appreciation for our Local.

We need one Organizer dedicated to dealing with data entry, walk-ins, phone calls, and directing our Membership to organizing opportunities.

Knowing that we are currently working with the lowest number of employees and running a deficit, we will need all Reps, and Organizers to pull together to ensure we are all working as a team. If one is down, or away we will all pitch in to fill those responsibilities.

Outside Organizer(s)

Outside Organizers will focus solely on cultivating friendships with future contractors and future Members outside of our office and will only be required in the office for meetings and strategic planning.

We need full time teams in all our Units. We also need to look at hiring part time or probationary Organizers for booming cities like Grande Prairie and Cold Lake. Two cities that have been or are going to be seeing growth.

One advantage that we have that we are not fully utilizing is our diversity. Yes this does play a major role in Organizing. Remember - think global, act local.