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The materials in this section will assist you in developing a collective consensus around clear, realistic and measurable goals that are framed in a manner that will build worker power.
A recommended way to set goals in a group, is to first define and prioritise the key worker and union problems, and formulate the goals based on those problems. Then you will adjust the goals to make sure they are specific, measurable and realistic.
If you need more or clearer information on the problems that workers are facing before you begin prioritising the problems and setting goals, the section on Participatory Action Research can help you.
We need goals in order to help us focus, to know when we have succeeded. Goals can help us to ground our campaigning, organising, bargaining, organisational transformation or advocacy work in the daily problems that workers and the unions are facing. We need both smaller, potentially winnable goals, and larger goals that include long-term vision.
• Examples of setting goals • Worker problems • Union problems • Defining the goals
Below are two examples of setting goals. Once you have reviewed these examples, we will go step by step on how you can collectively prioritise worker and union problems and then set goals.
Here is another example of setting goals, this time to improve the work of the union by organising informal workers into the union.
First list the most important problems of the workers. To accomplish this, you may want to use the visualisation method. Have participants write the top 1-3 problems on the subject, one problem per paper, using block letters and printing clearly. Gather the papers, sort, cluster and post them on the wall.
There are many problems that workers face, so we will start by prioritising the problems to focus on.
Discuss the criteria that will be used to prioritise the problems. To build the union, we look for worker problems that are widely felt, deeply felt or winnable in part. These are the worker problem that will best motivate workers to get involved.
To collectively prioritise the problems, you can give each participant a number of points or “votes” to award to the subject that she/he/they feel is most important or needs the most attention. They can assign all of their points to a single issue or distribute their points among a number of subjects. Everyone’s points are added up to give a sense of the collective priorities of the group which are then discussed.
Once you have prioritised a smaller number of problems, you may want to have participants vote amongst these problems as to which are the most deeply felt, widely felt and potentially winnable.
Usually, you will want to end up with one to three problems, depending on the size and resources of the union. The table below shows ways that we can make worker’s problems more widely and deeply felt and more winnable.
We need to describe worker problems clearly so that both the workers and the general public can understand and relate to them. To make a problem clearer, ask workers to discuss the problem while one of you takes notes. To make a problem clearer to the general public, get feedback from people who are not involved in the workplace or industry. For example, “There are a lot of accidents when we drive long hours without breaks” is clearer to both workers and the public than “There are health and safety problems for drivers.”
Deeply felt problems are real. They may be more difficult to talk about. Examples of deeply felt problems might be discrimination or harassment based on race, ethnicity or gender; the stigma of HIV/Aids, workload stress or lack of access to education or quality healthcare for our families. Don’t avoid difficult problems just because you might not be able to win. We can always win something powerful, simply by giving voice to worker’s concerns with the wider public.
What do you know about the working conditions and problems that workers are facing?
What have workers done in the past to try and address problems?
List the workers problems.
What are one to three worker problems that are most important?
Once you have determined one to three prioritised worker problems, you will need to identify the problems the union is facing as an organisation. Some examples would be: low worker involvement in the union; not enough workplace representatives; weak communication between union leaders and workers; lack of legal recognition of the union; or being challenged by yellow or company unions.
Union problems are of course, closely related to workers’ problems. If we improve the participation of workers in the union, we are more likely to be able to get a decent salary increase. And if we get a decent salary increase, we can use this gain to grow membership and increase the participation of workers in the union.
In a majority of workplaces, workers do not necessarily link their problems with the problems the union is having. In a strongly unionised workplace, the distinction between union and worker problems will be small. Workers will understand that the problem is not just a low salary, but a need to strengthen their union to get a higher salary.
List the union problems.
What are one to three union problems that are most important?
Would resolving these union problems help address some of the key worker problems as well?
Now that you have defined and prioritised the worker and union problems, all you will need to do is turn the problems from negative to positive statements with an eye to what is potentially winnable.
For example, the problem “Inadequate worksite delegate support and education” could be restated as a positive goal “Build worksite delegate support and education”. It can be broken down into smaller more specific objectives as well, such as “Create a one-to-one mentoring program for Worksite Delegates” and “Hold monthly delegate workshops” and “Interview and survey delegates to determine delegate workshop topics”.
Thank about how to set small goals while still keeping sight of the larger goal. For example, your overall goal might be to stop outsourcing. You can also set a more tactical goal of getting displaced workers into other jobs, while continuing the overall fight against outsourcing.
For example, the problem might be that the employer wants to reduce the workforce by half. Or our goal might be to lessen the negative impact on workers, or our goal might be to put a complete stop to the workforce reduction.
Don’t avoid difficult but important problems because you might not be able to win. We can always win by giving voice to worker’s concerns with the wider public. For example, the goal may be to simply be to publicise the negative impact that the proposed workforce reduction will have on customers and the public.
Be very specific about the goals. For example, if you do not have enough shop stewards, set a goal to train and support a specific number of new ones by a certain date.
When you are setting goals, think about whether it would be helpful to secure wins into a written collective agreement or law.
Review and adjust your goals to make that they reflect the wider long-term vision of the workers and the union as well as the more immediate concrete things that need to be done.
At a worker’s assembly of the Colombian flight attendant union (ACAV), the need for single rather than shared hotel rooms was identified as deeply concerning to a majority. The union problem was that few flight attendants were involved in confronting the company about their concerns and instead complained to the union and to each other. The issue had been raised for years in collective bargaining with the company LAN Colombia, with no success. The workers discussed how they could describe the problem in such a way that the public and people unfamiliar to the issue would understand it. They restated the problem from “Cabin crew want single rooms” to “No one, including cabin crew, should have to sleep in the same room next to someone they do not know, who may smoke, act irresponsibly or violate your privacy.” The LAN Colombia flight attendants created a survey that they would distribute to all domestic flight attendants through their workplace networks or arbolitos (link).
Their goal was to collect 70% of the surveys within three weeks, involving all flight attendants in one-to-one conversations.
How has the quality of your work at LAN Colombia been affected by having to share a room on overnight flights? ◻ I am afraid of a possible sexual assault ◻ I am exposed to contagion of viruses with possible complications in my health ◻ I lose sleep because they wake me up numerous times while I am resting ◻ I am exposed to tobacco smoke ◻ I am exposed to drug use ◻ I am exposed to chemical and perfumes from other flight attendants that I am allergic to ◻ I cannot have private conversations with my family or friends, and it distresses me to experience this lack of privacy ◻ I cannot process my personal emotions in private ◻ I cannot use the bathroom or shower when I need to because of the other person. The other person sharing the bathroom and hair dryer does not practice the best cleanliness and hygiene ◻ I am late in preparing for my flight because I have to wait my turn to use the bathroom ◻ I am exposed to light when I need darkness ◻ I am exposed to noise (music, people speaking, television) when I need silence ◻ I am exposed to a room temperature that is not good because I cannot adjust the air conditioning to my needs, and this can produce health problems for me ◻ Other __________ 2. The unionised flight attendants at Avianca and LAN Argentina are assigned individual rooms, but in LAN Colombia only those with 30 months of seniority who are flying internationally are assigned to individual rooms. Why can’t LAN Colombia provide this benefit during domestic flights? ◻ LAN Colombia wants to save money at the expense of hardworking domestic flight attendants ◻ The flight attendants who fly domestically and who have less than 30 months of seniority deserve less than the others ◻ Other____________ 3. I want us to make a submission to LAN Colombia expressing the necessity of having individual rooms based on the reasons above. ◻ Yes ◻ No The union distributed the results of the survey through the workplace communication networks (arbolitos). Workers made submissions to the company during bargaining and won the issue in the collective agreement.
Rewrite each union and worker problems you have listed as a positive goal.
Review and adjust your goals to make sure they are specific, measurable and realistic.
Adjust your goals to make sure that they contain both the long-term vision of the union and the practical concrete steps to be taken.
