Category Archives: Membership Building

DO IT LIKE BEZOS DID Those looking to build membership in their union can learn a very important lesson from recalling how Jeff Bezos built Amazon from a single product bookstore into a mega-retailer. The short answer is that while … Continue reading

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WHY NEGOTIATE OVER MIDTERM AGENCY CHANGES? Some unions are very aggressive about demanding to bargain over every management-proposed midterm change while others act like these changes are not worth their time—and we never understood the latter group.  Those unions are … Continue reading

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WHAT UNION REPS CAN DO THAT EMPLOYEES CAN’T All employees do not have equal legal rights.  Union representatives have far more rights than most.  In fact, they have far more rights than the average manager. So, if you hear anyone … Continue reading

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HOW THE AMAZON WORKERS BEAT THE UNION BUSTERS Given that any good a union can do for its members depends on them first organizing and voting in a union, it is vital for union supporters to stay up with the … Continue reading

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ARBITRATING CASES FOR NON-MEMBERS:  MUNCHAUSEN-BY-UNION SYNDROME Any union leader who thinks dues-paying members’ money should be spent arbitrating cases for non-members is —  Out of his/her mind Has a low self-image A coward Uniformed about the law Keeping their own … Continue reading

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NFFE BECOMES A BENCHMARK UNION In real estate it is Location, Location, Location. In unions it is Membership, Membership, Membership that is the single most important, quantitative measure of the quality of a union. For years we have shined a … Continue reading

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NAMING GRIEVANTS: A SOURCE OF UNION POWER  Two members come to you, the union steward, complaining that the manager is no longer following the agreement’s provision about how to distribute overtime and they want to grieve.  After they leave, you … Continue reading

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10 THINGS TO DO AT FORMAL MEETINGS Unions make serious mistakes when they fail to cover every formal meeting in their unit or when they fail to train their stewards in how to tap the full potential value of these … Continue reading

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HOW UNIONS CAN BOOST MEMBERSHIP AND OFFICIAL TIME Now that FSIP has announced that it is going to reduce unions’ official time allotment if the unions do not increase their activity on behalf of employees, unions need to step up … Continue reading

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WE STAND CORRECTED; CONGRATS NFFE! No sooner had we posted the story about AFGE reporting 18 consecutive years of membership growth and concluded that they outdid everyone else then we learned that NFFE rocked the federal sector labor community by … Continue reading

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