I am a Shop Delegate for and member of the Bandaid Brigade Campaign, IU 610. We are an IWW shop union at an undisclosed private EMS agency in OH, connected to and supported by the Northeast OH GMB.
Background and contextual information: We work in Emergency Medical Services and are made up of EMTs, paramedics, and various drivers. Our shop union currently has a fluctuating membership of around 20 members out of about 40 total workers at our site. We have been organizing for about 9 months. We do hold and report on our monthly or bi-weekly organizing meetings to the Northeast OH GMB’s Branch Organizing Committee and the ODB.
I am reporting a recent direct action that our shop organized and carried out: We identified a small but impactful issue at our shop: none of the ambulances at our site have signs inside of them to indicate their height to the driver. The heights change from ambulance to ambulance. This is important to know so we do not smash the tops of our ambulances while driving under bridges, awnings, or other overhangs. This issue had been explicitly, but individually, brought to the attention of our Operations Manager. No change was made. Lo and behold, a new EMT knocked off and broke the lights on an ambulance while going under a facility’s overhang that was too short, just a few inches. This EMT and Fellow Worker indefinitely lost driving privileges.
And so, at an Organizing Meeting we proposed and approved to organize a march-on-the boss (MOB) to have this issue addressed. Within this organizing meeting, the Meeting Chair requested all willing and able members to identify themselves, schedule and carry out an Action Meeting for the MOB to determine all the specificities, and report back to the rest of the Shop Union.
At the following organizing meeting, the report given from the Action Meeting laid out the plan for the MOB: a specific date/time and location (the office was chosen because it was small and easy to pack), a reasonable timeline for the demand to be met (3 weeks), potential short-term and long-term retaliation from our managers, 4 different but specific talking points (testimony, a practical angle, financial angle, and a professional angle), the Fellow Workers who were going to lead each point, as well as who was to introduce the issue/demand and also give the signal for us all to exit uniformly and without hesitation. Further identified elements were the minimal number of participants needed day-of to still carry out the action, the watch person, who would enter the office first and alone to check and make sure it was only our immediate manager there and give us the all-clear to enter the office. This person then watches the door for other managers, and then finally an Interrupter.
On the day of the action, the Fellow Workers participating in this action (the Action Crew) arrived at the base, some on shift, some off shift. Waiting outside, we were given the all-clear signal and managed to pack the small office with about 8 workers: half were speakers and half were only comfortable with helping take up space. The action went according to plan but did require some minor adjustments as it went. Our manager was more surprised than anything. Initially, our manager tried to argue, but the Interrupter only needed to intervene once or twice before he (the manager) realized there was something different about the office and decided to let us say our piece. At the end, he loosely agreed to our timeline, signal was given to exit, and we filed out of the office without another word.
The Action Crew walked outside and met by the ambulances and were cooling off from the action, as some were going to go back home and some were going to get on shift. After a few minutes, our manager came outside, silently walked past the crew with a tape measure and began taking measurements of all of our ambulances. Within a few days, all of the ambulances had height indicators inside and we haven’t had a height related incident since. The following month, that new EMT had their driving privileges reinstated.
At the following organizing meeting we had a debrief. Here are some of the things we learned and are reflecting on:
- The MOB was much easier to carry out than we thought. We were over prepared, but were able to adjust things as we went. It took approximately 1 minute.
- Different managers, different tactics. We knew things would have gone differently with other managers, and so we chose the path of least resistance. We may not always be able to do that.
- Volume is underrated. Just having Fellow Workers simply pack the room and claim space, while by itself cannot lead a MOB, substantially affected our manager’s response in our favor.
- Debriefing is really important. In this, we found that some Fellow Workers did not initially realize we had won this battle, because the demand was so quickly met. Additionally, there was actually some discouragement in the process because we had put in so much effort and preparation for a 60 second action for a simple demand.
- You can minimize risk, but you cannot get rid of it. Another manager could have walked in during the action, someone could have forgotten their angle, someone could have gotten excited and mentioned it to the wrong worker and ruined the action from the start. There are many variables,and some that we cannot really prepare for. We all were inoculated prior and knew that organizing requires risk.
These are the major highlights of this action. Please feel free to reach out, if you would like more details or if you have questions. Also, please go and (at least try to) organize your workplace, if you have not already. No more excuses!
In Solidarity, FW Krobar | X424069
“These men are all talk; What is needed is action — action! “ – John Brown