Organizers From Across CWA Attend Organizing Institute Focusing on T-Mobile Campaign

Organizers From Across CWA Attend Organizing Institute Focusing on T-Mobile Campaign

District 6 hosted an Organizing Institute training in Dallas, TX from June 24-26. This OI specifically focused on CWA’s T-Mobile campaign. A total of nineteen organizer trainees and six organizers serving as Teaching Fellows from across the country converged on Dallas over the weekend to attend the training that began at 1:00 pm on Friday afternoon and concluded at 12:30 pm on Sunday.

The training took the students through the many important facets and stages of an organizing campaign. Incorporated in the training were several “role play” exercises that afforded the trainees opportunities to apply what they had learned in simulated real-life situations. After dinner on Friday night, a special visitor stopped by to conduct a captive audience meeting with the class. This provided the organizers with a true-to-life perspective of what workers seeking a voice in their workplaces will experience.

As part of the training, the Teaching Fellows had built in field trips to actual T-Mobile retail stores. The class was divided into teams of 3 or 4 students with each team being transported to two different T-Mobile stores late Saturday afternoon and early evening. The teams, who would not be accompanied inside the stores by the Teaching Fellows, had to devise their strategy on these “cold calls” while en route with a goal of talking to the workers, getting contact information, making assessments and trying to get the workers to sign up as new TU members. This proved to be a great experience for all groups as they not only encountered many of the roadblocks and reasons for resistance that had been discussed during the training, but they were able to successfully work through them. A couple workers who were extremely anti-Union at the beginning were finally converted to supporters and actually signed up as TU members. Collectively, the OI trainees returned with cards signed by 6 new TU members, contact information on 3 other workers, assessments on a couple “3’s”, an organizing lead on a company that T-Mobile contracts with to repair phones, and even uncovered a potential ULP.

On Sunday morning, the students were paired up and assigned a Teaching Fellow to “home visit” in his/her room. This exercise gave the organizers an opportunity to test their skills and new knowledge in a different but equally important environment.

Student organizers attending the OI were Charlene Johnson (1023), Christopher Brown (2201), Charles Craddock (2201), Rodney Story (2201), Kevin Cross (3802), Alica Posey (3802), Pam Donnaud (3808), Tomeka Cooley-Pettus (4322), Ray Esparza (6229), Tara Schussler (6229), Susan Lopez (6229), James Lee (6301), Kathleen Brammer (6360), Mark Troutman (6360), Sonya Lasseter (6402), Glenda Winternheimer (7011), Ja'Vari McCullum (9413), Scott Efferin (13000) and Steven Wampler (13000).

Serving as Teaching Fellows throughout the weekend were Special Assignment Organizers Darlene Stone (D1) and Cameron Brooks (D2), District Organizing Coordinators Pam Tronsor (D13) and Al Kogler (D7), CWA Representative Judy Graves (D6) and Area Director Mark Franken (D6).

Giving an assist in making the weekend a huge success was Allen Whitaker. Allen, who is President of Local 6171, was Friday evening’s “special guest”, playing the role of a Labor Relations/Human Resources Manager conducting a captive audience meeting during which a couple students asking too many pointed questions or airing objections to the message being delivered had to be escorted out of the room by other managers (TF’s). Drawing from personal experiences, Allen did a fantastically convincing job.

Also playing an invaluable role in the successful weekend were District 6 CWA Representatives Donna Bentley and Jerrell Miller. Both graciously gave up their Saturday afternoon and evening to transport a student team to and from the T-Mobile stores they were to visit.