The organizing model, as the term refers to trade unions (and sometimes other social-movement organizations), is a broad conception of how those organizations should recruit, operate, and advance the interests of their members, though the specific functions of the model are more detailed and are discussed at length below. It typically involves many full-time organizers, who work by building up confidence and strong networks and leaders within the workforce, and by confrontational campaigns involving large numbers of union members. The organizing model is strongly linked to social movement unionism and community unionism. The organizing model contributes to the discussion of how trade unions can reverse the trend of declining membership, which they are experiencing in most industrial nations, and how they can recapture some of the political power, which the labor movement has lost over the past century.
The organizing model is frequently compared and contrasted with other methods of union organization, such as the servicing model. There is disagreement as to the logistics of applying the organizing model and whether it should focus on organizing existing members, recruiting new members, or both. The prominence of the model and the debate over its worth are seen primarily in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
Definition
The principal aim of the organizing model is that of giving power directly to union members. The organizing model in its ideal type has these features:
Strong emphasis on the importance of personal contact in organizing. Union officials are, according to Heery, Simms, Simpson, Delbridge, and Salmon, "paid", as opposed to being volunteers from the union itself. These are the same people who, had they been employing the service model in their union, would have been offering services to the members, but instead they focus their efforts on organizing the union members to act on their own behalf, rather than simply offering them services. To facilitate this type of organization, organizers will often put in long hours talking to workers about their situation, and what they believe the union can help them achieve. Visits to workers' homes will often be a component of this. Acceptance of the view that workers need to take some appreciable responsibility for winning union struggles and making the union strong. The identification and recruitment of volunteer leaders from among the workforce, to spread information about the union and encourage others to join and take action. Proactive recruitment drives conducted by either the paid organizers, the volunteers from the union, or both. The important part of the recruitment aspect of the organizing model is, according to Heery, Simms, Simpson, Delbridge, and Salmon, ensuring "the principle of 'like-recruits-like' such that the recruiters have the same demographic and occupational identity as those being recruited." Though, there can be unions that employ the organizing model without necessarily emphasizing recruitment.Fletcher, B., Jr., & Hurd, R. W. (1998). Beyond the organizing model: The transformation process in local unions [Electronic version]. In K. Bronfenbrenner, S. Friedman, R. W. Hurd, R. A. Oswald & R. L. Seeber (Eds.) Organizing to win: New research on union strategies (pp. 37-53). Ithaca, NY: ILR Press. https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/322/ As a component of these recruitment drives, Heery, Simms, Simpson, Delbridge, and Salmon also discuss "mapping" of workplaces as a key component of the organizing model, and they also make it clear that the goal of mapping is to "...identify all members of the workplace and rank them systematically in terms of their propensity to become active in the union." Proactive campaigning, involving a large commitment of resources and large numbers of members. Heery, Simms, Simpson, Delbridge, and Salmon assert that this campaigning has to be focused on specific "issues and grievances", rather than campaigning without any specific, tangible goals in mind. Creative campaigning tactics – including demonstrations, street theatre, media stunts, direct action, civil disobedience, music etc. A conception of leadership in which leaders are those willing to take the initiative and contribute effort, rather than one based on authority. It is often the goal for leadership (as the confidence to initiate organization with others) will spread as broadly as possible. Heery, Simms, Simpson, Delbridge, and Salmon also offer "community support" as a key to the success of the organizing model. As a way to maintain or even incite this support from the community, Heery, Simms, Simpson, Delbridge, and Salmon suggest "publicising concessions from the employer". Typically a relatively high level of membership dues relative for industrial—as opposed to craft—unions.
Organizing versus servicing The development of the organizing model is as opposed to the servicing model, and there are various differences between the two models for union structure. Edmund Heery, Melanie Simms, Dave Simpson, Rick Delbridge, and John Salmon talk about how in the servicing model, "...the function of the union is to deliver collective and individual services to members who are dependent on the formal organization and its hierarchy of officers to provide what they require." Heery, Simms, Simpson, Delbridge, and Salmon state that the organizing model is different from the servicing model because it focuses instead on making union members feel "empowered", rather than alienated from the whole union process and environment.
Jack Fiorito states that the organizing model and the servicing model cannot be considered separate and there needs to be provision for using both models at the same time; Fiorito's research about British union members showed that "...a large number of responses express reservations about the OM or at least the organizing vs. servicing dichotomy suggested. Many of these responses emphasize the importance of service as an aid to organizing (18%) or something that is expected by the members (23%)." Fiorito believes that the organizing model and the servicing model are not mutually exclusive in some cases; there are some instances when the two models could be complementary. The debate over the organizing model versus the servicing model is widespread and multifaceted. Even the goals of the organizing model are debated and disagreed upon.
Internal versus external According to Bill Fletcher and Richard W. Hurd, unions that employ the organizing model often try to apply the above tactics in "internal", not just "external" campaigns. Indeed, many unions that employ the organizing model attempt to win a greater right to organize non-union workers through pressuring an employer through using current members' collective strength. Richard Hurd says that "Throughout the late 1980s the organizing model was used almost exclusively to apply to internal organizing;" however, "...by 1995 the organizing model concept was indiscriminately used to refer to both internal organizing to mobilize members and external organizing that promotes grassroots activism as a way to build support for union representation."
There is debate as to the proper role of the organizing model and whether it should focus on internal or on external applications. Bob Carter talks about the difference between internal organizing and external organizing in the context of the earliest British unions to use the organizing model. Carter says that "...despite the core message of the American model – that organization, rather than recruitment as such, was primary – officers were given individual recruitment targets...placing an emphasis not so much on the changing nature of unionism but simply on short-term recruitment." There is an apparent disconnect between employing the organizing model primarily for recruitment purposes and using the organizing model to facilitate better union conditions for pre-existing members of the union.
According to Fletcher and Hurd, exactly what constitutes internal organizing and what constitutes external organizing is unclear. Jack Fiorito offers an argument about internal vs. external organizing in the context of British unions. Fiorito says that external organizing is "...organizing in new areas...", while internal organizing is "...recruitment in sites where the union has recognition..." Fletcher and Hurd believe that the organizing model should be more focused on external, rather than internal, organizing, and they cite "Organizing Locals" as a good example of how that could be accomplished.
History and context Trade unions originally existed to organize their members democratically, and during their early growth, they typically put a strong emphasis on active recruitment and militant rank and file action, including strikes. By no means did they always unambiguously act in the interests of their members, but they were perceived as organizations that existed to struggle for collective action. Particularly since the end of World War II, however, the trade unions have tended more and more to act as service providers for their members: providing legal advice, training and so on; eschewing mass-based, militant action. During the '60s, '70s and onward, this trend deepened, with union density among the workforce falling all the while, until it could be measured at between 10% and 20% in many industrialized countries. In the context of this history, the organizing model is in principle not so much a new conception, as an attempt to recapture the essence of the labor movement.
The 1980s saw various attempts, in the United States, to compensate for falling union membership. Richard Hurd says that through the adoption of the "Organizing Institute" in the US, the organizing model was able to spread to other countries, as it "...served as a prototype for Australia's Organizing Works and Britain's Organizing Academy." Bob Carter explains the logistics how the organizing model spread across the world. Carter says that "After a visit to the US of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), the influence of the organising approach spread to Australia and New Zealand and back to Britain via MSF." Carter asserts that the organizing model started in the US, went to Australia and New Zealand next, and then went to the UK. David Peetz and Barbara Pocock state that the ways these various countries implemented the organizing model were quite different, and the model looked slightly different based upon these minor discrepancies.
History in the United States According to Richard W. Hurd, the history of the organizing model in the US began from the failure of a "labor law"Hurd, R. W. (2004). "The rise and fall of the organizing model in the U.S." [Electronic version]. Retrieved from Cornell University, ILR School site: https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/301/ to be passed in the 1970s. In addition, Hurd explains that the 1980s were a very troubling time for unions in the US as a result of "the anti-union reign of Ronald Reagan" and "Twin recessions". Both of these factors contributed to the decline of union membership that so infamously characterized the labor movement in the US in the 1980s. In fact, Hurd says that, "The labor movement lost more than one-fifth of its private sector members during the first half of the 1980s." Therefore, US unions were forced to try some new tactics in the hopes of regaining the membership they were losing.