Training and Standards I have conducted workshops with four groups of organizers who were trained by the Institute. What organizers, especially novices, need is rigorous training in how to deal with the specific problems they will encounter. Classroom training is worthwhile, but field work under the guidance of seasoned instructors is far more important. AFL-CIO leaders have spurned suggestions that the O.I. program needs to be transformed in light of current organizing goals. Their response to mounting evidence of its inadequacy is to increase its budget, as though throwing money at problems will solve them.
Union organizers have the most difficult and challenging job in the labor movement.
In addition to special skills, they must possess leadership qualities that can attract non-union workers to the cause. With so much invested in organizing campaigns, unions can't afford to have incompetents in charge. After all, any professional training program uses objective standards to certify the competence of its graduates. It sounded more like a vague yearning for economic justice than a resolute call for action. Meanwhile, the AFL-CIO passed up a golden opportunity to emerge as the champion of society's underdogs when downsizing hit millions of workers and they needed help badly.