Union Plus

CWA Local 6203 Secretary-Treasurer Janice Bell was at the 2009 CWA Convention in Washington, DC, when she realized how much Union Plus could help her organize new members.

“Before the convention I was not terribly aware of Union Plus, but when I started reading the material in my convention packet I was elated and something clicked in my brain,” Bell says.

Benefits Help in Right-to-Work States

Local 6203 is in Lubbock, TX, where each AT&T hourly employee has to be signed up to join the union since Texas is a right-to-work state.

Now, Union Plus members-only benefits are integrated into the local’s presentations during new employee orientation. “New hires generally are very interested in the benefits and this has helped recruitment,” she adds.

Information on how to access the various programs is only made available once people join. The benefits help potential members realize that it doesn’t cost to be a member-it pays!

“I even know a couple of people who joined the union because of the pet insurance. You never know,” says Bell.

Union Plus Provides Organizing Resources

To learn how you can be using Union Plus benefits to help recruiting and retaining members, visit UnionPlus.org/Organizing.

Texan Jim Murnan certainly knows the ups and downs of elevator installations and servicing. For over 20 years, he had been an apprentice and then a mechanic in Local 21 of the International Union of Elevator Constructors.

For the past five years, though, Murnan, now a union business rep, has been organizing members in the 700-member, Arlington, Texas-based local. As one of the local’s two business reps, he has to cover a territory that stretches from Louisiana to New Mexico and involves over a dozen major companies. And if that’s not challenge enough, he has to buck the Texas anti-union, right-to-work laws.

That’s where the Union Plus program makes a big difference. “It really helps sell the union, especially with new hires,” he said. “They already have some benefits, and they’re afraid of possible work stoppages. But Union Plus is only available to those who sign up, and we do a good job of telling them what they gain.”

“We once organized the largest non-union elevator company in the state,” Murnan recalled, “and one guy didn’t want to join because under union rules, he’d be downgraded from mechanic to apprentice. But when we showed him that with the Union Plus mortgage and credit card programs, he’d be making more money, he joined.”

Local 21 has an advantage over some other unions: new hires must come to the union-run apprenticeship training facility once a week. “In order to get to the school,” said Murnan, “they have to go through the main lobby, where we have Union Plus displays and racks of literature.”

In addition, the promotional material is included in the new member packets, and Murnan and his colleagues make a point of explaining the benefits.

“The biggest selling point, Murnan explained, is the mortgage program. “It saves them a ton of money,” he said, “about 35 percent of the new people go for the program” But everybody participates in the credit card. “Most members have that.”

Murnan said he knows that many members use the Union Plus website, and that he himself says he’s used the Union Plus car rental discounts in the last year. “It’s a great program for us,” he said.

During her first 3 years on the new job in Lynn, MA, Denise Clark focused exclusively on her work as a purchasing agent for the Lynn Community Health Center, always trying to get the things the clinic needed at the best possible price.

She still performs that role quite well, but she’s become much more interested in helping the members of her 1199/SEIU chapter utilize their collective buying power through Union Plus – and at the same time building the power of the union.

“I had no previous union experience and was really grateful when I started working here under a union contract that provided protection, stability and wage increases,” says Clark. “But I did not start getting involved until contract negotiations last year.”

She “stepped up” to become a steward, and before she knew it, she became acting chair of her chapter. At about the same time she “sat down at my computer and discovered a world of benefits” she had known nothing about.

It was the world of Union Plus, and she began bringing other members into that world.

She started going to each of the 17 sites where the clinic operates, training one or two people on how to use the Union Plus Web site to locate and use the entire range of benefits and discount programs. They, in turn, would introduce the other union members to Union Plus.

Aided by the availability of union bulletin boards at most clinic sites, she put up displays and kept them stocked “with every Union Plus brochure I could get.”

The “train the trainer” approach – combined with the steady and visible promotion of benefits – created widespread knowledge of and interest in the various programs. “This has helped members feel much better about the union,” she adds.

“Just the other day, a member called me about the great deal she got on computers for her sons, and recently I’ve felt like a Union Plus travel agent, telling everyone about the various vacation-related savings on things like condo rentals and amusement park tickets.”

Clark points out that as members learn about the Union Plus benefits, many have become more interested in learning about their rights on the job and in getting involved in the union.

“Before this organizing started we had only two stewards. Now we have 12 and I believe that our promotion of Union Plus had much to do with it.,” she says proudly. “Our union is stronger today: by organizing around the available buying power we have through Union Plus, we’ve helped increase our union power too.”

Government Employees (AFGE) Local 933 President Ben Mahan faced some challenges when he took his oath of office in January 2006.

He was the new president of a local union in Detroit, MI, that didn’t have a union or agency shop provision in its contract and the local didn’t have enough income to pay its bills. Before he assumed office, Mahan, who has worked at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Detroit for more than 21 years, had service as a steward as his only prior experience in union activism.

Mahan’s predicament: the local needed to pay its bills, but if dues increased, he was worried he’d lose members.

The local decided to increase dues just about one year ago. But despite that increase, Local 933 has 150 more members today than when Mahan took office.

How did Mahan solve this dilemma? The local began a benefits-oriented recruiting drive in the months before the dues increase.

He credits much of positive-and many might say unexpected-growth to publicizing Union Plus benefit programs and a few other benefits the local came up with on its own.

Mahan and other leaders produced a booklet on the entire range of benefits and gave one to each employee, along with fruit, popcorn and pizza at various gatherings.

He himself knew little about Union Plus previously, seeing “only an occasional flier on an obscure wall.  The first thing I realized is that if you do offer benefits, you have to let people know about them.”

Local 933 also utilized bright, prominently displayed posters downloaded from the Union Plus Web site, constant promotion on the local’s Web site and displays in the union office.

“When you can add value to membership and people know that they can get their dues money back in the form of savings on things they need, it makes it much easier to get them to join,” Mahan says.  “I just knew that taking this approach was the right thing to do.”

He points out that the local now has fewer people dropping their memberships and even supervisors are flocking to the union.

Best of all, the growth in membership and the positive feelings “allow us to do a better job in our core mission of representing our members,” he says proudly.

The rate of membership growth has increased over time and Mahan is optimistic that the membership-and the local’s strength and effectiveness-will continue to grow as well.

At the Trane American Standard plant in Tyler, TX, members of IUE/CWA Local 86783 are not only manufacturing residential air conditioners; they’re building a stronger local by promoting Union Plus Programs.

Vince Leibowitz, the local’s lone staffer and a member for the past year, brought his skills and experience as a political organizer along with him to his new job.

“I had worked with Local 86783 previously on political campaigns,” he recalls, “and after contract negotiations last year, the elected leadership and I worked out a plan to use benefit programs to strengthen the union.”

In the past the local had promoted Union Plus Benefit Programs with positive results, but over time “it had fallen through the cracks.”

The local did some education about current Union Plus Programs for both officers and stewards, ordered all the available Union Plus literature, and also put together a program of additional discounts at local businesses.

Leibowitz notes that Union Plus has helped the local answer that perennial question that unions get from members when it’s not contract time and they’re not having a problem on the job: “What is the union doing for me?”

The campaign began last October, with the local’s 65 shop stewards personally delivering packets of information to all members. “They answered questions when they could and brought back questions to us when they didn’t know the answers,” Leibowitz explains.

The local also began promoting the benefits (with prominent banners) on its Web site, ordered free displays from Union Privilege for the union hall posted flyers there and continued to utilize stewards to provide updates and reminders. Stewards get update emails on the benefits programs and other union matters every other day.

At the beginning of this year, the local reordered and distributed literature, heavily promoted various Union Plus Programs in its quarterly newsletter and made training about Union Plus an integral part of regular training for stewards.

The emphasis on promoting benefits “has started to make a difference,” Leibowitz beams.

“Not a day goes by now without at least one member calling in or dropping by to talk about one benefit program or another. And we’re hearing from members we haven’t heard from before.”

Leibowitz notes that Union Plus has helped the local answer that perennial question that unions get from members when it’s not contract time and they’re not having a problem on the job: “what is the union doing for me?”

“Members really appreciate it that the union is trying to help them save money and make their dollars stretch further. And it doesn’t hurt that while the company offers its own benefit program for employees, the one we have is much more expansive,” Leibowitz adds.

“It’s always a good thing when members are in more contact with the union and stewards keep reporting that members are talking about things like savings hundreds of dollars on their auto insurance,” he continues.

In fact, Leibowitz has been hearing so much positive feedback from members that he’s decided to switch himself over to Union Plus Auto Insurance and to begin ordering medications for his three dogs through Union Plus Pet Savings, too.

Though it is in a right-to-work (for less) state, the local has about 90 percent of eligible workers signed up as members.

But Leibowitz thinks the local can do even better and that Union Plus can help.

“Our current plan is to begin integrating Union Plus Programs into our internal organizing and it will be part of our orientation materials for new hires,” Leibowitz explains.

“Check back with us in a year. I bet you’ll find that the percentage of eligible workers in the union has gone up.”

Terri Friend has played a number of different roles in the International Association of Machinists (IAM) including serving as a local union editor, an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) coordinator and now as an organizer on the IAM staff.

We talked with her about the various ways she has utilized Union Plus benefit programs.
Q. How did you first find out about Union Plus benefits?

A. It was when I became a local EAP coordinator in the late 1980s. Other IAM members doing this work told me about them.
Q. What got you interested in doing EAP work in the first place?

A. Earlier in my life I lost several family members in a very short period of time and had something of a personal crisis as a result. Thus I know from first-hand experience about the tendency to be overwhelmed and not know what direction to go in. I got help on my own, but I came to appreciate how valuable it is to have someone to point you in the right direction.
Q. So how did you utilize Union Plus in EAP work?

A. I kept Union Plus brochures on display in my office and found a variety of the programs to be very helpful. I must have helped well over 100 people with the legal benefit. Lots of people who are having drug and alcohol or marital problems really need a lawyer to consult with. I also found that other programs like credit counseling and health savings discounts came in quite handy in various situations.
Q. You later also became editor of your local union publication. How did Union Plus fit in there?

A. I signed up for monthly Leader Update emails and was always running ads and information on the latest programs. I found that members really appreciated this. By the way, we won an award for our promotion of Union Plus benefits on our local Web site too. You can get Union Plus Web link information here.
Q. Did you heed your own advice and utilize Union Plus benefit programs?

A. I used the Union Plus Mortgage program to finance the purchase of my house and it was just as advertised. It was easy and fast and saved me money. I’ve also sent flowers using that benefit program.
Q. We understand that you do not get to spend much time in your house these days?

A. That’s right. Now that I’m an International Organizer, I feel like I live and work out of my car more than anywhere else, but I still always have Union Plus brochures with me. The members-only benefits are an excellent organizing tool. They can make a difference in successful organizing drives. For some people they can be the biggest selling point. Just recently someone signed a card after being impressed by the scholarship program.
Q. How would you sum up the role Union Plus has played for you?

A. Union Plus helped me personally with my mortgage, helped me help lots of individual members and now help me build the union. I’m grateful for the Union Plus benefits.