How to Map a Workplace for a Union Campaign

1. Start with a list the union controls

Labor Notes puts the baseline plainly: an active union needs to know where all its members and non-members are, and how to contact every represented worker. It also warns against trusting management to produce that list. The union should keep its own and check it against whatever list arrives with the dues check.

For each worker, record a personal email, a cell phone number, shift or start time, department or location, and whether they are a member. Then add what helps the organizing: who their steward is, whether they are a leader in their area, and which union actions they have joined.

If there is no list yet, start with any employee list you can find, and be discreet about how you get it. Ask each steward to check the entries for their own department, add new hires and remove people who have left. A list is only as useful as it is current.

• Personal email and cell phone, not work accounts.
• Shift or start time, and department or location.
• Member or non-member, and who is assigned to talk with them.
• Union actions they have taken part in.

Sources: Labor Notes, "Count Noses" (Rebuilding Power in Open-Shop America)

2. Draw the workplace, then look for patterns

Labor Notes suggests starting with a physical map of the workplace that shows where people work and where they move during the day. Use colored dots for members, non-members, stewards, activists and supervisors. Build and read the map as a group.

As you read it, ask the same questions about every area. Gaps that look random on a list often turn out to be one shift, one department or one language group that the union has never reached.

• Work groups: who is grouped by job, area or shift, and which groups are hard to reach?
• Social groups: who carpools, eats lunch together or speaks the same language?
• Identity: does the union reach every group, and do stewards reflect the workforce?
• Membership: where are members and stewards clustered, and where are the biggest gaps?
• Issues: what are each group's biggest problems with management, and which could collective action fix?

Sources: Labor Notes, "Count Noses" (Rebuilding Power in Open-Shop America)

3. Find the informal leaders

Every workplace has leaders nobody elected. Ask co-workers who they go to for advice, who they ask for the facts and who they admire. The same names come up again and again. Labor Notes describes a nurse known on his floor as "the mayor."

A leader is someone with followers: people who will sign, wear the sticker or come to the rally when that person asks. Leaders often map to groups, such as the night shift, the newest hires or one department. Put each one on the map next to the group they move.

Spend time with these people first. Learn what they care about and help them start the conversations. They are the ones who keep co-workers' trust when an anti-union campaign starts.

Sources: Labor Notes, "Count Noses" (Rebuilding Power in Open-Shop America)

4. Start where the gap is biggest

With the map in front of you, pick the area with the most non-members and start there. Labor Notes gives two examples. The Milwaukee Teachers Education Association picks six schools each semester and writes a plan for each. The Indiana State Teachers Association codes schools red below 50 percent membership, yellow above 50 and green above 70, so leaders can see which buildings need help.

In the same guide, the Eastern Howard Education Association split its non-member list so each committee member talked with two or three people. Those conversations surfaced a shared issue, a raise system tied to criteria teachers found unrealistic. The union bargained a pay scale instead, and membership rose from 56 to 70 percent.

Sources: Labor Notes, "Count Noses" (Rebuilding Power in Open-Shop America)

5. Chart progress by area and shift

The simplest chart is your list sorted by work area and shift, marked to show members, non-members and people nobody has asked yet. Note each steward or activist who is signing people up and each leader you hope to recruit.

Labor Notes suggests a large version on the wall and a spreadsheet people can carry. Whatever form it takes, update it after every round of conversations, so the next plan starts from what actually happened.

Sources: Labor Notes, "Count Noses" (Rebuilding Power in Open-Shop America)

6. Keep the map off employer systems

Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act protects employees' right to organize. Under Section 8(a)(1), the NLRB says an employer may not spy on union activity, create the impression that it is spying, photograph or videotape peaceful union activity, or coercively question workers about their own or co-workers' union sympathies.

A workplace map holds exactly the information those protections cover: who supports the union, who leads, and who has not decided. Keep it on accounts and devices the union controls, not on employer email, shared drives or company phones. Limit who can see the full map to the people doing the organizing.

Labor Notes adds a practical point: the map also shows good places to talk with co-workers away from supervisors.

Sources: NLRB, Interfering with employee rights (Section 7 and 8(a)(1)); Labor Notes, "Count Noses" (Rebuilding Power in Open-Shop America)

When the map is working

The map is working when every area has someone assigned, every steward knows which names are theirs, and the chart changes after each round of conversations. If a shift has no one assigned, recruiting a leader there is the next task.