PSRP activists swap advice on campaigning

The AFT PSRP leadership conference last month came chock-full of advice from activists on how to optimize campaigns, whether they focus on organizing, politics, a living wage or community service.

AFT President Randi Weingarten shared thoughts on campaigning with up-and-coming PSRP leaders.

PSRP co-chairs Carl Williams and Sarah Wofford led the proceedings. Williams is president of the Lawndale (Calif.) Federation of Classified Employees, a former school custodian and president of California's classified members. Wofford is an accounting specialist for Rogue Community College and president of the Oregon School Employees Association. Both are AFT vice presidents.

Eighteen AFT locals sent paraprofessionals and school-related personnel to Chicago April 10-12 for the conference.

"We understand how hard it is to walk away from our jobs because there often are no substitutes for us," Williams told the crowd. "And it's hard to leave our families. But this will be so helpful as you do some strategic planning for your local."

"Our job is to support you," PSRP director Lauren Samet added. Sometimes it seems like we toil alone, she said, but the truth is we're all in the same place. Samet invited the PSRPs to consider what needs to change. Education funding? Living wage legislation? Meaningful input in school decisions?

The answers came thick and fast. From Oklahoma: Stop privatizing public schools and start adequately funding them. From Illinois: Pay PSRPs a living wage. From Virginia: Stop "right-to-work" laws that hobble unions. From Pennsylvania: Stop laying off PSRPs only to hire more administrators. From Florida: Get out the vote. From Oregon: Stop wage theft. From Missouri: Recognize us and compensate us for our licenses, certificates and degrees.

AFT President Randi Weingarten presented the idea of campaigning as concerted action-taking an idea or aspiration and building enough power to make it real. "That's what we call campaigning," she said. "How we create the infrastructure and also the 'sizz,' because if you don't create a culture, it doesn't matter how great the idea is." Weingarten said union members need to trust one another. "If we do it alone, it won't work," she said. "That's the essence of unions, that's where we get our power."

Weingarten noted that the Fairfax County (Va.) Federation of Teachers, operating in a so-called right-to-work state, was recently able to win collective bargaining for public sector workers.

"If we focus on affordability, on the issues people really care about, and prioritize, and have each other's backs, and bring all of this to the November elections," she said, that's how we can win a working-class tax cut. "You should not be paying more taxes than rich people," she said. "You should not be paying more taxes than Elon Musk."

Building a campaign

The PSRPs used a workbook to design a campaign. Like scaffolding on a building, each campaign needs a vision, goals and a plan. Each plan has transitions and inflection points, and considers who should be involved, like rank-and-file or executive board members. Each team also considered how they would know if the plan is working. They decided on goals and metrics, with data to know if the plan is going well or not going at all.

Nothing expresses pride in work more than a school bus tattoo.

Members asked themselves: What is one thing you wish your local could accomplish that you haven't yet been able to? For example: We're only able to consistently engage about 15 members between contract fights. Other questions: What is something you think gets in the way? How many new members are engaged? What wins have become possible?

Goals, they said, should be widely held and deeply felt. They should communicate a clear understanding of need. For instance, one clear goal expressed by New York City's new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has been free public buses.

As part of the exercise, participants considered SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound) and SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats). They considered what it would take to pass a living wage law by 2030. The members asked themselves: For everyone or just school employees? Is this goal specific enough? Is it realistic? Is it attainable? Do I have research to back it up?

In the middle of this discussion, Williams inserted: "We don't want a livable wage. We want a thrivable wage." His comment drew spontaneous applause.

On Saturday, participants considered serious challenges, such as workplace violence, and how to stop them. They also considered more workaday problems facing nearly all PSRPs, like support staff being left behind when teachers get raises, and literally being left behind during school field trips to work through multiple lunches.

Other participants spoke of teachers' overload spilling onto them. PSRPs often are asked to do more: to be mentor, coach and school nurse. All of this with no sick time and only a couple of personal days. And the last thing they want is a sick co-worker, be it a bus driver or food service worker, interacting with students and staff.

So, what do school staff want? For starters, one job that makes ends meet. For another thing, training. Much of their turnover is driven by lack of training. They often don't have a good idea of what their jobs are. While teachers may get a week of new-hire training, paraprofessionals get one day. If there isn't someone to help them, they feel lost. One important job of the union, participants said, is helping to orient new support staff when they come on board.

Goals and execution

The PSRPs discussed three requirements for goal-setting: Your goals must be winnable, widely held and deeply felt-like the importance of having more than one adult in a classroom if a child has a seizure. Your union may want to build a campaign around a long-term goal.

What issue is widely held and deeply important? Salaries, said Renee Freeman, a paraprofessional with the United Federation of Teachers in New York City. Members want a living wage. They don't make enough to pay for rent or groceries, she said, yet negotiations always start with current salaries. This is how UFT members decided to launch their RESPECT check campaign demanding $10,000 annual bonuses.

Participants agreed: PSRPs make so little money that some of them have to sell their blood plasma to pay the rent. That is not right.

Another important issue is the serious shortage of special education paras. Enough staffing is needed to prevent dangerous situations like biting, kicking and punching.

PSRPs were advised to:

Survey members. Especially if you have a widespread problem, poll members. Get your members and the community talking about the issues that matter. Write an op-ed for local media from your union president and letters to the editor from members. If you think it will be more effective, have the op-ed come from both the local PSRP leader and the local teacher leader. Among the points to make: Children are not receiving services because of short staffing.

If you're speaking or writing, jot down three main points. Keep it simple. You're not going to have that much time. Remember: You may know what an IEP (individualized education program) is but not everyone does. You are the expert; give a specific example and describe how it affects kids. Include facts like the top things PSRPs do for children every day, and what students' days would be like without them.

Don't be afraid to speak plainly. If you're getting nowhere with elected officials, and you suspect they're only interested in their own jobs, be blunt. Say: "If you don't care, we'll need to put somebody in office who does care."

Bring the classroom wherever you go. If your elected officials or media don't acknowledge the existence of school support staff, ask for a hearing or an editorial board meeting. If your points still aren't getting across, ask parents to explain what happens when there's high turnover. Kids thrive on consistency and suffer without it. Or hold a rally including students, parents, PSRPs, teachers and allies. You have to keep pushing. Don't let them scare you.

Make your problem someone else's. If the problem is high heat in the school kitchen, publicly shame district officials, who probably have air conditioning in their offices. Invite them to come do your jobs for a day and remind them that a medical emergency at school could become a major issue for the school board. Someone is more likely to solve their problem than your problem.

Convey urgency. If you're attending a school board meeting as a group, make it clear that this problem needs to be addressed right away. Pump up attendance by organizing rides to the meeting and providing childcare.

A PSRP from Texas described how temperatures on Austin school buses were reaching dangerous, triple-digit levels. Hundreds of parents complained about their children coming home faint and soaked in sweat, and the school board is now taking action. "This was a dire situation," she said.

A support staffer from New Mexico spoke about the district's "careless budget" that didn't provide the supplies children need to learn. More than anyone, PSRPs can offer a reality check. "Are you kidding me?" she asked. "They're trying to do this when we need that?"

Useful tactics

PSRPs took a few minutes out of their packed schedule to run a conga line.

Part of being a local union leader is learning to have organizing conversations. Everything you ask people to do should make the union stronger. Learn about their jobs and concerns. Correct any anti-union info they're hearing. A lot of members pay dues but are never activated as a member.

Introduce yourself, explain your job, express urgency and be persistent, saying, "We need to figure out what to do."

Some questions to ask: "If you could change one thing about your job, what would it be?" "How long have you worked here?" "Have you heard the news from the school board meeting?" "Is there something you need that you're not getting?" "What's going on at your school?" "Girl, did you know about our union?" "Would you like to meet some other paras?" "Tell me a little about your day." "What do you mean?" "What's that all about?" "Why do you think they're doing that?" "What would you do if you had more money?"

Ask open-ended follow-up questions, like, "How do you feel about that?" Let them talk. Don't feel the need to jump ahead. Be curious and the information will just come out. Also feel free to press them: "If premiums go up so far you can't pay, what's your plan?" The more you agitate, the more they'll think about it.

"Will you join together with your co-workers by signing this union card?"

"Do you want other people to decide for you, or do you want the opportunity to be heard?"

Show them the union's vision: "By working together as a union, we can fix what's not working."

Good data helps

The leaders also learned how to use membership data to help with engagement. Data is a cycle that's never finished, requiring improvement and processing. The leaders got tips on using the Action Network database, where they can not only count members but email newsletters, send petitions and broadcast messages. If you're not yet using it, contact [email protected]. And for broadcast texting, contact [email protected].

Participants discussed the challenges they face keeping tabs on members-for example, what to do if the school district doesn't want to share data on new employees.

"Data is so critically important to how we do our work," Samet told them. "If we can help, contact AFT PSRP."

They also discussed small actions locals can start with to mobilize members. If you have a T-shirt day, only members should receive T-shirts and you'll want to see at least half of your members wearing them. Similarly, a "button-up" day for wearing union buttons is a good way to show solidarity as you go into bargaining.

Or walk outside for a break together. There are dozens of activities you can choose from, including identifying unfair labor practices, mapping and charting the worksites of members and potential members, gathering signatures on a mission statement, making a benefits comparison or collecting quotes from supporters.

If you have nonmembers showing up for a picket or other job action, a good question for them is: Why aren't you a member?

How to know when members are ready to engage in collective action? They ask: What's the plan? How can I help? Call an in-person meeting for all members. Ask what they're willing to do.

One local held a mock funeral to lay its measly 1 percent raise to rest. Another classic move: After their boss sneered that they'd only taken their jobs while waiting to get married, AFT members protested in wedding dresses.

Leaders were asked to think about an action they'd like to do within the next month: buttons, hats, a cookout, a social media campaign, rallies or a fake funeral.

Some inspiration

Participants created vision boards to express their priorities and goals.

The PSRPs had some fun, too. In three minutes, each table created a PG-13 playlist of five songs for "change" to be shared throughout the conference. And each group picked one song as their anthem, with singers and songwriters ranging from Cynthia Erivo to Merle Travis to Aretha Franklin.

By the end of the conference, participants had done all the things co-chair Carl Williams advised them to do: They'd participated, enjoyed the moment, met people and exchanged phone numbers. They had fun and learned a thing or two. "Not only will you leave here with a little education," Williams promised, "but equipped to deal with the challenges we face every day."

In her closing remarks, co-chair Sarah Wofford told the PSRPs how proud she was to be in the room with them. Still, she'd heard someone say "I'm just a member" and reminded them that we're never "just anything."

It's a scary time, Wofford acknowledged, but: "You guys are amazing. I feel like you're going to agitate, elevate and organize. I want to make sure you leave here knowing that we have each other's back, because the AFT supports you."

[Annette Licitra]