by James Parks, Nov 5, 2007

When the female leadership of the Postal Workers (APWU) discovered the majority of the nonmembers they represented were women, they didn’t just mourn about this gap in union membership. They organized. 

Although the APWU represents all clerical, maintenance, motor vehicle and support service workers at the U.S. Postal Service, under federal labor law, the workers do not have to join the union. Some 20 percent of the workers the union represents at the nation’s 37,000 postal facilities are not members. 

Inspired by the discussions of woman-to-woman organizing during the 2005 Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) convention, the 17 women who were elected national officers approached APWU President William Burrus with a plan to focus on recruiting women.

The result: Since March, some 7,184 workers have joined APWU. The success of the Women’s Organizing Campaign isn’t limited to women—many male workers are among the new members.

Elizabeth “Liz” Powell, APWU’s Northeast regional coordinator and a member of the union’s executive board, says:

We know we’re losing people in the union movement. We wanted these women to know they are part of the future of our union and that the more there are of us the more we can influence what happens at the bargaining table and in elections. We’re in contact with these women every day and we know what’s on their minds. 

The campaign is planned by women, for women and is promoted by women and addresses issues that matter to working women, says Judy Beard. Beard, a former APWU staff member who was recently elected as the union’s director of retirees, says:

Women work, cook, transport the kids. We looked at things from a woman’s perspective. Sometimes women don’t sign up because of the way they are approached and who approaches them.

Burrus agrees:

Union membership should reflect the workplace and the union leadership should reflect the membership. Workers have no individual voice in the workplace. They only have it when they join with other workers and that’s [what makes] the union.

The women union leaders coordinate the campaign in conjunction with the union’s Organizing Department. They began by sending letters to every woman who’s not a union member, while explaining the program to local and state union leaders. The committee’s first steps involved sending packets to 83 local and 17 state unions. The packets included buttons, stickers, balloons, fliers, brochures, T-shirts and—most critically—union sign-up forms. Local union leaders and workers set up tables in post offices and talked with women workers, explaining the benefits of joining the union. 

The message is straightforward: Juggling the responsibilities of work and home often seems impossible—especially for women, who frequently bear a disproportionate share of family burdens. Somehow, working women manage to get it all done.

The women leaders stressed that the tools that help working women and men cope all are union-made: family and medical leave, the right to bid on the jobs that best suit women’s   hectic schedules, the opportunity to use sick leave for dependent care, job security and family-supporting wages.

Powell, Beard and the other officers traveled across the country to explain the program, and have taken part in organizing events in San Antonio, Fort Worth, Baltimore and Fort Wayne, Ind. Thomasine Derricks, president of APWU Local 181 in Baltimore, Md.,  says:

This was a tremendous effort and having the national women officers to come down and talk to the workers really turned them around. This campaign made us a lot stronger—we signed up 25 new members, about one-fifth of them men. If every union made this concentrated effort, the union movement would really benefit.

Now the campaign is really taking off, Beard says:

People are calling saying “We’re ready to do an organizing drive” without us being present. It’s really exciting.  

Burrus says the idea of a women’s campaign makes good sense for the union and the workers:   

The decisions union members make determine their pay and benefits. The actions we take affect their lives and their livelihood in a fundamental way. How can they sit on the sidelines and not get involved? There is simply no valid reason for refusing to join.

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