It is essential to test people's ability to do this work and to learn from other unions. Affiliates deepen the Organizing Institute experience with their own tailored training programs. Mentoring and weeklong classroom training anchor SEIU's staff enrichment program for senior organizers and new union organizing directors. At USWA, the districts have increased the number of organizers trained from 30 to 400 a year. We're seeding the farm.
Training is an investment in the future.
Members who don't become full-time organizers can contribute as volunteers. If the drive leads to a vote and a contract, the member gets a bonus totaling one week of union dues paid per new member organized. Recently, the local won a unit of 640 nurses at a Reno, Nev., hospital. Should the nurses win a contract, the two members who originally phoned in the tip will split the prize, and could have years worth of union dues paid on their behalf. Rounding out organizing training is the AFL-CIO Union Summer program, in which union members and college students spend a month learning about organizing firsthand by participating in an ongoing campaign.