New Presidents Orientation produces great ideas
 

December 17, 2009

It’s hard to build an inclusive local over distances of several hundred kilometers and multiple worksites, some of which you don’t know. That’s just one of the many challenges facing new presidents who came together for the New Presidents Orientation, December 7 and 8, 2009

From left to right across the back: Rob Gale, David LeDrew, Brian McDougall, John McEwan, Nicole Carron, Jeff Scobie, Ric Bresee, Randy Snider, Vera Tsotsos,  Ron Dorscht, John Strong, Carolyn Averill,  Barb Thomas (facilitator), Kay Singh (facilitator), Mary Elizabeth Schultz.  From left to right across the front: Silvana Cacciatore-Roy, Debbie Morphew,  Colleen Arvisais-Petzold, Krista Maracle, Eric Davis, Smokey Thomas (OPSEU president), Tracey Lombardo, Tom Young,  Bruce England.

“I don’t know the members at some of my sites and I don’t know how to reach them,” explained one president. “I guess I’ve been trying to do it all myself, and what we’re saying here is that we need to delegate and share the leadership,” reflected another.

Smokey Thomas also had things to say about the experience of trying to lead a local, when he came to swear in the new presidents

“They never told me what was involved when I moved from acting steward, to acting vice-president, to acting president,” he recalled, laughing. “At least, now, you’ve got some education to support your efforts.”

Central to local building is recruiting and equipping effective stewards. When we began sharing strategies, local presidents took comfort from the common challenges they faced, and their own ability to contribute good ideas they had already tried.

We’ve combined the approaches of these local presidents with ideas we’ve been collecting from other local presidents throughout the past four New Presidents Orientations.  We offer them here in the hopes that these will be helpful ideas for strengthening stewards in your own local.

Recruiting and training new stewards

Make the union  more interesting to members

• organize social events so that people get to know each other

• meet and greet during the work day with a staff rep

• arrange for union drop-in times at a regular time each week, in the workplace if possible or the cafeteria. Have coffee available and something going on that’s attractive. Schedule several people from the LEC to be on duty at different times.

• Christmas coffee and cake break in the workplace; use occasions and holidays people are celebrating

• Supper and billiard party

• Family event at the bowling centre with activities and prizes

• Purchase union flags to be used at union events

• Have pizza delivered to your different units in mid-winter when people need a lift. Fly the union flag to show where it’s from

• Sponsor wellness events in the workplace; include local practitioners who do massage, yoga, stress relief, etc

• Party at the legion hall with beverage tickets

• Co-sponsor events with community organizations on topics and issues of interest to different members

• Develop a local website that’s about union and more

Develop a local structure that supports stewards

• Build a current e-mail list and use it so stewards can also contact each other; keep the list current

• Include stewards on committees

• Provide opportunities to ask questions and discuss issues on a regular basis

• Steward meeting every two weeks

• Ensure your stewards have specific members instead of being generally assigned. See OPSEU constitution #29.1.1, “the members in each working area shall elect one or more shop stewards from among themselves.”

• Read out “duties of a steward” from the Constitution

• Swear in stewards with the oath for stewards in Constitution

• Support resigning stewards to identify and mentor potential new stewards

Have clear tasks and materials

• Break down the tasks for people who want to do something (newsletter, organize a social event, etc) but don’t want to be “real” stewards.

• Recruit “information stewards” with specific roles to contact other members

• Help stewards develop specialties – e.g. accommodation, overtime, etc.

• Distribute stewards’ kits (packages with union cards, contact lists, union structure, grievance forms, etc)

• Use pocket steward guide distributed at Convention

• Develop useful, short tools on workplace issues that stewards can give to members, and use as talking points

• Focus groups – involve stewards in talking to groups of members about current workplace issues to gather information and to involve their memberships

Support people’s questions and learning

• Start with what people already know and build on that

• Get back to stewards quickly when they e-mail or call

• Maintain individual contact with stewards so they can call for help or have a specific mentor to call on.

• Send fresh people to Convention, regional education, and other events

• Follow-up after training and meetings to further discuss issues arising

• Lunch and learns on topics affecting the roles of stewards

• Mentoring program that buddies up new and veteran stewards, e.g. 1 LEC member takes on 1 or 2 stewards with shadowing on various aspects of the job

• 1-day working session in the local for stewards with their staff reps

• Encourage new stewards to take regional training

• 3-hour evening sessions in the local, with the staff rep using new OPSEU Stewards courses

Build belonging and community

• Introduce yourself as president and provide a briefing to all new stewards

• Invite stewards to LEC meetings – introduce new stewards to other activists

• Access funds for accommodation to ensure inclusiveness

• Build connection between stewards so they can help each other

• Provide childcare and public transit allowance, particularly for part-time and temp stewards

Make meetings more interesting

• Invite speakers on current issues to your meetings

• Vary meeting times and locations so all stewards can attend something; have two meetings in the same day at different times

• Feed people

• Provide incentives, prizes, etc

• Provide education on current issues at all meetings – steward, unit, GMM and LEC meetings, including guest speakers, films, info sessions on workplace issues, etc

• Try out new formats at meetings so people find them interesting and want to come

• Deal efficiently with the business at meetings so there’s more time for discussion and education

• Use meetings to update mailing lists, sign up members