Building a Strong Contract Campaign
Walter Reuther once said “power is the ability of a labor union like the UAW to make the most powerful corporation in the world—General Motors—say ‘yes’ when it wants to say ‘no.’”
To build that kind of power, we have to approach collective bargaining differently.
To that end, we need to look no further than recent bargaining successes, such as the Stand Up Strike and Contract Campaign at Daimler Trucks.
On this page are the tools you need to build a strong and effective contract campaign
What’s a Contract Campaign?
A contract campaign is a collective action plan with a beginning, middle, and end, working towards specific demands that we are trying to win.
A contract campaign has a target—someone who can give us what we want. And a contract campaign involves a series of escalating actions over time which progressively turn up the heat on the target and create the conditions for winning our demands.
The bargaining team and the membership are like jumper cables; they only work when they’re connected. That means we have to bring our workplace power into bargaining, and we need to bring bargaining into the workplace. We do that by building a representative bargaining team and clearly communicating updates in real time.
What the Daimler campaign shows us is that meaningful progress in negotiations most often happens when we create a crisis—like a very credible strike threat—for the employer.
Power is the ability to make management say “yes” when they want to say “no.”
On April 26, 2024, the UAW reached an historic tentative agreement with Daimler Truck after mounting a massive campaign and strike threat against the multibillion-dollar manufacturer.
This case study provides a comprehensive overview of how the workers at Daimler Truck achieved this unprecedented victory and outlines the strategy and tactics that helped them secure major economic gains, including:
- raises of 25% over four years, 16% in the first year
- the end of wage tiers
- the introduction of profit-sharing and Cost-of-Living (COLA) for the first time since Daimler workers first organized with the UAW
- Improved health and safety language
- And more.
The deal delivered on the union’s pledge that record profits mean record contracts and underscored the power of open collective bargaining.
Use this case study as a guide to running a successful contract campaign for your local. Study it and learn the process.
Why do bargaining updates?
- Keeping members up-to-date about negotiations builds unity and strength. It also counters the company’s message. By having bargaining updates, you:
- Build member buy-in. When members can follow what is happening at the table, they are ready to escalate.
- Arm members with information. By understanding negotiations, members can share what is happening with their family, their friends and their community.
- Pressure the company. Management can see exactly how serious members are about winning a strong contract.
Sign your members up for Bargaining Updates
So your local is climbing the campaign mountain, and you are ready to collect bargaining surveys and ask members to sign up for bargaining updates.
When distributing your surveys, whether it’s a digital survey on ActionNetwork, SurveyMonkey, Google Forms or a paper form, you’ll want give your members the chance to properly sign up for email and text messaging updates. First you’ll need to create a form on Action Network that your members can fill out to sign up. Once you create the “Sign Up for Bargaining Updates” form, put a link to the sign up form on the membership bargaining survey.
You can also import anyone that opts in to email and bargaining updates via opt-in checkbox into Action Network so you can email them. Or if you already have access to our texting tool, Mobile Commons, you can create an automatic sync, then request it to be activated.
Create a Bargaining Update section on your SolidWeb site and post updates
Your local is now gearing up to sit down at the bargaining table with the company, and you want to get ready to inform the membership when updates take place. Setting up a “Bargaining Updates” section on your SolidWeb site will create a home base for ongoing talks with the company, and create an atmosphere of transparency, trust with the membership, and also put pressure on the company by laying out the facts about what a fair contract should look like. Learn how to set up a Bargaining Updates section on your SolidWeb site and post bargaining update articles to that section. Even if your local union website isn’t built using SolidWeb, you can still apply the same principles in this tutorial to your website as long as it uses a popular website builder such as WordPress, SquareSpace, Wix or any other website builder.
Distribute your Bargaining Updates via email, social media and text messaging.
So your local is climbing the campaign mountain, and you are ready to post your bargaining update on your website, then send out bargaining updates via text message, social media and email. After posting the update on your website, you’ll need to drive traffic to the bargaining update, but also include the bargaining update in any long form communication you do, such as email. Short form communication like text messaging and social media is appropriate to link back to your Bargaining Updates section and article on your website. The tutorials below outline how to post a bargaining update on your website, then send out the bargaining updates via email, text messaging and social media.
If you need further help and access to tools like a website, mass text messaging(SMS), mass email, or strategic bargaining support, reach out to us. We’re here to help you and the membership win a strong contract.
Get help with your local union’s contract campaign
Apply for SolidWeb/Action Network
Questions?
