Paths to Power- Organizing without Collective Bargaining

The struggle is ongoing even with a CBA as can be seen by the private sector labor movement across the country.

Also we must remember the National Labor Relations Act that recognizes the right to collective bargaining was the result of a strong labor movement fighting for rights, and was not the beginning of that movement. The men and women of the early unions organized because they knew the only way to win fair treatment and to protect their rights was by banding together to show management that the united workforce would not accept unfair treatment, low wages, and unsafe work conditions.

We in United Campus Workers can relate to those early organizers in many ways. In Tennessee, an “employment at will” state, the chances of public sector employees getting a CBA in the near future may not be the greatest, but that does not mean we should not fight for our rights.

We cannot sit around and wait for someone to give us a CBA, instead we have to fight for strong public funding of higher education with a real living wage for all employees!

We have to fight for fair and consistent grievance procedures! We have to fight against the privatization of needed public services! Our ability to win is based on uniting all of higher education employees in this fight.

The strength of our unity will give us the power to win on these issues and to demand a seat at the table.

Our fight is not a unique one either.

There are public sector organizing efforts across the south and southwest that are fighting for these very same issues. Public employees in North Carolina, Mississippi, Texas, and others states are uniting together to fight exclusion and to improve the lives of workers everywhere.

Together we can win, but it takes all of us. Our union is a democratic one, in which each member is equally important. We must talk to friends and coworkers who are not yet members. If each member reaches out and gets a new person to join, the power of our amplified voice will be so strong it cannot be ignored.

Tom Anderson is the President of United Campus Workers, which is made up of over 1100 higher education employees on over 7 campuses across the state of Tennessee.  He can be reached at mailto:president@ucw-cwa.org or by phone at 865-934-7373.