International Operating Engineer - Fall 2019

Stationary Engineers
Local 30 Achieves Success Through
a Culture of Organizing
THE IUOE’S COMMITMENT to
organizing under General President
Callahan through the International
Organizing Grant and other programs
has helped grow membership
throughout the International’s
jurisdiction. Having served as a lead
organizer for Local 30 before being
elected Business Manager in 2014,
William Lynn knew that simply talking
about organizing wasn’t enough. It
takes resources and building a culture
of organizing within the membership.
Upon taking the helm of Local 30,
one of Lynn’s priorities was developing
an aggressive organizing program
at the Local that would reverse the
trend of sluggish growth and build
union density for the next decade.
He immediately reached out to our
International’s leadership about
participating in the grant program
and, with the IUOE’s support, real
resources were dedicated to the Local’s
organizing efforts.
Business Manager Lynn
implemented a strategic research
division that would do the necessary
work to develop strategies aimed at
increasing union presence in key
industries like higher education, power
generation, gaming and entertainment
sectors in New York and Connecticut.
New organizers were brought in to do
the critical groundwork in campaigns.
More importantly, however, union
members became the core of the
Local’s organizing approach.
Creating Infrastructure
and Increasing Capacity
At the annual Local 30 Shop
Steward meeting in 2014, one of the
key presentations focused on having
organizing conversations and the basic
framework of campaigns. The goal was
to engage with the over two-hundred
union shop stewards about the process
of organizing and provide them the
tools they would need to have the
right conversations with non-union
engineers at nearby facilities.
Local 30 representatives then
followed up the training by meeting
with stewards and members at job sites
to reinforce strategies and urging them
to connect with their non-union peers
in their personal and professional
networks. This phase was centered
on increasing organizing capacity by
empowering member leaders and
challenging them to do more to build
union density.
In addition to membership trainings
on organizing, the Local made sure
to address all campaigns in every
newsletter, every member meeting and
through their newly established social
media channels. Local 30’s Facebook,
Instagram and Twitter accounts all
focused on organizing campaigns.
Newly organized workers were invited
to talk about their experiences at
union meetings. In addition, allies in
campaigns, like the students at Sarah
Lawrence College who launched a
campaign to support the workers
joining Local 30 that culminated in an
occupation of the President’s office,
also attended and spoke at union
meetings.
An Aggressive and Public Approach
Over the last five years, Local 30
has consistently held rallies, delivered
petitions to university presidents
and corporate boards, attended town
council meetings to address worker
grievances, and taken other very public
steps during campaigns to eliminate
fear, build solidarity and pressure end
users.
During a campaign at a power plant
in New York State, for example, workers
were facing intense pressure from their
multi-national corporate employer. On
the eve of the vote they were greeted at
the plant gates by over one hundred
Local 30 members supporting them.
The demonstration snarled traffic on
the local road and put the employer on
notice that the union would negotiate
the same way it organizes – with power
behind it.
Just this summer, the Local
embarked on an organizing campaign
at the Guggenheim Museum in New
York City, the last remaining nonunion
world class museum in the
area. Management chose to fight the
workers’ organizing drive and the union
responded with a public campaign that
landed in the New York Times and
several other industry publications
which are closely followed by workers
in the community. As the public
pressure grew, the Local 30 members
at the Museum of Modern Art signed
petitions of support and delivered them
to the over one-hundred Guggenheim
workers in the bargaining unit. The
Guggenheim workers overwhelmingly
voted to be represented by the union
and Local 30 is currently in first
contract negotiations.
Since the fall of 2014, IUOE Local 30
membership has grown by 33.5% and
is now over 5,200. With the support of
the International and the commitment
of its members, Local 30 has built a
reputation as an organizing union and
continues to do the necessary training,
research and outreach it takes to keep
that reputation.
Local 30 Business Manager and
International Vice President William
Lynn remains focused on increasing
density through organizing campaigns.
“There aren’t any easy answers or
shortcuts to bringing workers together
to take on their bosses and fight for
their union,” he says. “Movement
building work is challenging and takes
resources, commitment and grit.”
“Like all IUOE Locals, we’re faced
with obstacles in organizing that we try
to overcome only to face new ones after
we do. It’s necessary as a stationary
Local to continue to organize our
jurisdiction and make sure employers
know that we’re a fighting union that
will set standards in industries.”
“Every Local 30 member is
committed to this and with the
continued support of our General
President and our brothers and
sisters in the IUOE, we will climb the
mountains we have to in order to
defend our union.”
16 INTERNATIONAL OPERATING ENGINEER
FALL 2019 17