When the Communication Workers of America (CWA) (an international union representing workers in telecommunications, as well as the public sector and health care, airline, and media industries) decided that they wanted to build a campaign to engage their members on healthcare, they called Wellstone Action.
They idea was pretty simple, really - build internal capacity in the union by developing leaders who can organize others, and hold members of Congress accountable by demonstrating the power of one million union members raising their voices for universal healthcare coverage.
This kind of organizing is an innovation for labor unions, which have long been active in electoral politics but in recent years have taken an interest in organizing for policy changes that impact union families. Affordable healthcare is chief among these issues, because CWA has realized that it is just too big a problem to solve at the bargaining table, contract by contract.
CWA decided to invest millions in a program that created organizing jobs for CWA members in more than 120 targeted Congressional Districts across the country. These organizers are responsible for talking with their fellow CWA members, asking them to contact members of Congress with postcards and face-to-face meetings, and ask them to sign a pledge agreeing to CWA's Healthcare Principles.
At the same time these organizers will be talking to other members about healthcare and holding members of Congress accountable, they will also be strengthening their union by asking them to volunteer as part of the Steward's Army, donate to their political fund, and get further training on healthcare and other key policy issues.
Wellstone Action trained these 120 organizers, recruited from the rank-and-file of CWA's membership, on the skills of meeting with members of Congress, making the "ask" of union members and leaders, and targeting. After the training, they will put these skills to use across the country. The campaign will first mobilize fellow rank-and-file members to engage during the 2008 election year, then leverage that power to change policy in the new Congress and Administration.
One participant explained how the training helped her. "I fully understand how this all ties together," she said. "Healthcare, Qwest bargaining, Stewards Army, the 2008 Presidential Campaign, and legislation are all part of a cycle of advocacy."
These CWA organizers will gather again next week in Dallas for a "Train the Trainer" session led by Wellstone Action. This will help the new organizers become leaders of others and foster further internal leadership development in CWA.
Learn more about CWA's Health Care for All campaign at http://www.healthcarevoices.org/
