Interview With A Union Organizer
Here's the truth from former union officials and organizers
In this special union-free video series from LRI, professional organizers step forward to help employers expose the half-truths and distortions unions typically use when trying to convince voters to support union representation.
Your employees will hear from a genuine insider about an organizer's tactics and motives. The modern myth of unions as democratic organizations is debunked; voters find out what really happens when a union gets its foot in the door. After watching Interview with a Union Organizer, your voters will know the shocking truth about union representation.
Use Interview with a Union Organizer as your maximum impact message before the 24-hour insulated period begins. It's sure to be the final nail in the union's coffin. For even more impact, schedule personal appearances in conjunction with showings of the video.
Organizer's Stories and Video Previews
Natasha Gordon - Interview with an SEIU Organizer
Natasha has always wanted to help people. This is why she became a nurse. When she went to work for a hospital in a state that forced her to join the Service Employees International Union, she became convinced the SEIU was simply another way of providing help.
Because she was a natural leader, the union singled her out and trained her as a full-time organizer and business rep. Soon, she was working on organizing campaigns, helping negotiate contracts, and handling employee grievances. But when she was sent to a health care facility that had been SEIU-represented for 20 years, she began to experience the reality of failed union representation: grievances that were never investigated, sub-standard pay and benefits, carefully orchestrated bargaining sessions that produced no real improvements. But she found the greatest obstacle in her fight to adequately represent members wasn't management - it was the SEIU.
Natasha tells her story with passion, and at times, even humor. Health care employees who - as Natasha puts it - are in danger of being "rolled over by the purple and gold" deserve to hear this candid interview. Health care employers who face a campaign against one of the few unions that is becoming larger and more influential must be sure Natasha's story reaches every voter. Natasha is available for on-site appearances.
The Natasha Gordon Interview is also available in a non-SEIU version, ideal for any health care setting.
Preview Natasha Gordon (SEUI-specific) (Requires password)
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Preview Natasha Gordon (Requires password)
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Jim Teague - Interview with a Steelworkers Organizer
Jim Teague didn't set out to rise to the national executive level of the Steelworkers. He was working at a mill and simply signed up to attend an organizer training class. To his surprise, the tactics he was taught were virtually the same as what he learned one summer selling vacuum cleaners door to door. He was good at selling vacuum cleaners and became even better at selling the Steelworkers.
It wasn't long until he was a shop steward, then a member organizer. The union noticed his natural talents and offered him a job with the international. During his more than 18-year career with the Steelworkers, Jim was a union salt sent in to secretly organize union-free employers, directed other salts, and oversaw organizing campaigns and strikes.
Eventually, he rose to be executive director of strategic planning and corporate campaigns for the international. Jim came to intimately understand how the Steelworkers functions - a union which he describes in his interview as "the most controlling of all unions." He blows a hole in the organizer's sales pitch that members will form their own union and make decisions for themselves. It is rare that someone who attained Jim's position ever steps forward to reveal the inner most workings of a large international union. No campaign against the Steelworkers is complete - or winnable - until employees view Jim Teague's Interview with a Steelworkers Organizer video.
A non-union specific Interview with Jim Teague is also available.
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Joe Brock - Interview with a Teamsters Organizer
"I was born wearing Teamsters diapers," says Joe Brock. He's not exaggerating. Joe's father was a high-ranking Teamsters official. Joe remembers going as a child with his father to picket lines and talking union business at the dinner table. When he got a job as a truck mechanic, of course it was in a shop represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
Soon he was a union steward, then an organizer and business agent. Like his father, Joe eventually became a top officer at a large IBT local on the east coast. When he decided to seek a higher position in the international and challenged the established leadership, he was suddenly branded a traitor and became the target of constant harassment within the local that he ran and even at his home.
Union bureaucracy and business as usual defeated Joe's attempt to make the Teamsters responsive to the needs of its members instead of the personal desires of its leaders. But the union bosses who defeated him could not stop his dedication to the welfare of employees - and to informing them about the IBT.
Joe's Interview with a Teamsters Organizer video blows the roof off of the union's organizing tactics, collective bargaining manipulations, and cynical representation of members. "When they teach you how to organize members, they don't teach you the truth," says Joe. But after seeing this powerful interview, your employees will know the truth about the Teamsters. Joe is available for on-site appearances.
A non-union specific Interview with Joe Brock is also available.
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Alex Casillas - SPANISH and ENGLISH
Alex was not a paid organizer; he was an hourly employee who worked from inside to promote the union. He was part of a small group of supporters who initially circulated union cards, talked up the union among friends and co-workers, and eventually became the core of the union's in-house organizing committee.
After the union won, Alex joined the bargaining committee. But he soon saw the big gap between what organizers had promised voters during the campaign and what the "professional negotiators" were willing to settle for in order to get a contract signed and begin collecting dues. Alex recalls how the union scaled back employees' expectations of what collective bargaining could "realistically" achieve. After months of negotiations, he and his co-workers were presented the choice of either accepting a contract they did not like or going on strike.
Alex tells this compelling and persuasive story in both his native Spanish and in English. Every workforce facing a representation election deserves to hear his intimate experiences of working on an organizing campaign and the disappointments of bargaining for a contract agreement that was never reached. Alex is available for on-site appearances.
Visit his Web site for more information
Preview Alex Casillas ENGLISH (Requires password) Running time 23:58
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Preview Alex Casillas SPANISH (Requires password) Running time 23:46
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Amed Santana - SPANISH
Amed came to America as a young immigrant from Cuba. At two of the companies where he found work, he was instrumental in convincing his fellow workers to vote for union representation. The union took notice and paid for him to be trained as a professional organizer. Soon he was working exclusively on campaigns targeted at Hispanic voters. During his career as a paid professional organizer, Amed was employed by the following unions:
- Carpenters & Joiners
- Communications Workers
- Service Employees
- Steelworkers
- Needletrades
Besides organizing Hispanics, he also attended contract negotiations. He wanted to still believe that a union could improve the lives of members, but his real world experiences at several different unions told him otherwise. After a union was voted in, nothing really changed. This is why Amed has agreed to speak out in LRI's first Spanish language Interview with a Union Organizer video. His heartfelt message needs to be heard by every Spanish-speaking workforce that is being pressured - probably by organizers much like him - to support unionization. Amed is available for on-site appearances.
Preview Amed Santana (Requires password) Running time 26:48
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William "Scotty" Scott
Scotty used every trick in the book to organize workers. Now he speaks out about union lies and deceptions. He began his union career when just a teenager working as an apprentice for a construction company. Over the next 27 years he became involved in virtually every aspect of organized labor. From organizing employees to contract negotiations, Scotty has been there and done it all. Now Scotty spends his time and energy setting the record straight about union organizing tactics and failed representation. He blows the whistle on collective bargaining negotiations and abuses of union power. The only thing more powerful than Scotty on video is Scotty in person. His no-holds-barred appearance at question and answer sessions following the video is a powerful testament to the dangers and disappointments of union representation. Scotty is available for on-site appearances.
Preview William "Scotty" Scott (Requires password) Running time 22:00
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Steve Beyer
Steve Beyer was a full-time professional organizer - the union version of a young executive on the fast track. He rose quickly from organizer to administrative assistant to president and business manager of a local representing 14,000 employees. He was appointed chairman of the international's organizing committee. Next stop in his career would likely have been union headquarters in Washington, D.C. But there was a problem: The union was causing more conflict for employees than it was resolving. He saw how his union sowed seeds of discontent to justify itself to employees. Steve negotiated scores of contracts, taught cutting edge organizing techniques, staged work stoppages, and became more disappointed by the union's inability to improve people's lives and futures. Today, he is helping expose the half-truths and distortions organizers use when trying to convince employees to support union representation. Steve is available for on-site appearances.
Preview Steve Beyer (Requires password) Running time 17:06
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Clarence "Popeye" Goddard
For 40 years, Clarence "Popeye" Goddard worked for the other side organizing employees, handling grievances, negotiating union contracts, and even serving as a district union president. He learned every trick in the organizer's book, and probably invented some of his own. Now, this former insider is speaking out to help inform voters about the disappointments and dangers of union representation. Popeye speaks with the intimate knowledge of a trained union professional who attended all the organizer schools and learned all the union tactics. He made a career of promising voters many of the same things your employees are being promised today. This is why it's vitally important that voters hear Popeye's story before election day.
Preview Clarence "Popeye" Goddard (Requires password) Running time 25:14
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John Sullivan & Charles "Smitty" Smith
Once, John Sullivan and Charles "Smitty" Smith were gung-ho union supporters. They organized together to bring a union into their workplace; they were elected officers of their local. Then the harsh truth began to dawn on them.
Today, John and Smitty are spreading the word to employees about the dangers of union representation. Their story of disillusionment and frustration with the labor movement helps set voters straight about organizing tactics, union-negotiated contracts, internal union politics, and unionized working conditions. Combined, John and Smitty have 23 years of union experience. Employees need to hear their powerful, persuasive story. John and Smitty are available for on-site appearances.
Preview John Sullivan & Charles "Smitty" Smith (Requires password) Running time 15:00
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Matt Perovic
Once, Matt was a rank-and-file union member, then he became a union steward. He soon went to work for the union as a full-time business agent and organizer. Eventually he became director of organizing for the entire union and was an elected union trustee who helped manage the members' multi-million dollar health and welfare fund. He had a big salary and lots of perks.
But inside, he was fed up with corrupt union officers and bargaining negotiations that left members worse off than when they started. When his efforts at internal union reform failed, Matt decided to use his vast insight into how a union really operates to educate and inform people faced with the choice of whether or not to support union representation. His no-holds-barred interview gives employees the unvarnished truth about unions. Matt is available for on-site appearances.
Visit his Web site for more information
Preview Matt Perovic (Requires password) Running time 13:25
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