How the Organizing Department is Forming a New Salting Program for the Union
Recently, I got the chance to sit down with members of the IWW’s Organizing Department Board (ODB) to discuss the creation of a new training and education program for members of the Union. Aaron Conway-Fuches – chair of the ODB – along with Tegan M. and Rose S., are ODB board members. They are currently developing this program to teach union members how salting works and what strategies can be employed. Salting can breathe new life into an ongoing organizing campaign, or it can start new ones in the same industry or under the same employer. The program, which was approved for development at the 2023 NARA Convention, is meant to be separate and supplementary to the Organizer Training program that the IWW provides to its members. It is meant to focus on how those outside of a shop can get more emboldened and educated on how to help efforts on the shop floor.
For those unfamiliar, salting is when workers seek employment for the purposes of kick-starting an organizing campaign, or to assist an organizing campaign already in motion. Salting can come in a variety of various strategies, depending on what organizing looks like in a specific shop or what the conditions are like in a specific industry. There are five strategies identified by the ODB that will be elaborated on in a future organizing training specific for potential salts: Horizontal expansion, vertical expansion, expanding capacity, growing the union, and what Fellow Worker Conway-Fuches refers to as “pick and choose.”
Out of all the possible strategies for salting, one stood out as the most viable for expanding organizing efforts. As Tegan described: “Horizontal expansion could be the easiest approach, as workers skilled in organizing in one particular industry or with one specific employer can use their experience to expand into other shops or other departments of the same industry.” This can create opportunities for branch members who are aware of ongoing campaigns in their area, or for at-large members of the union willing to assist with already ongoing organizing campaigns in a specific industry. An example of this, according to Conway-Fuches, is Starbucks workers organizing at a cafe, and then the organizing expands to another cafe.
Conway-Fuches cites another strategy called vertical expansion, where the workers use salting to expand organizing efforts along a supply chain or production chain within a particular industry. For example, workers and organizers can assist the organizing efforts of coffee growers by organizing in the distribution or retail sales of coffee. Expanding capacity is identifying an existing campaign and encouraging fellow workers to be employed in a particular shop or industry for the purposes of bolstering an ongoing unionization campaign. Growing the union involves encouraging at-large members to associate with a branch of the IWW, so branch members can assist in either their own campaigns or other campaigns already taking place in the branch. This can be especially helpful for smaller branches with fewer members or resources on hand.
There are some limitations and drawbacks to using salting as a strategy of union organizing. Salting may not be helpful for starting a campaign in a “hot shop,” where turnover is high and workers are burnt out from the brunt of the labor they perform.
“I don’t know that I would encourage seeking out a hot shop to salt in,” said Conway-Fuches, the chair of the ODB. “I think if you have one thrust upon your branch, it might be a more appropriate case for expanding capacity salting. Someone with experience who can strongly encourage people to slow down. The OT101 used to have a module called ‘picking a target’ that we moved away from as a union, because we understand that any job can be one where you organize. It’s not to say that a shop can’t become hot unexpectedly, and employers don’t advertise that when they are trying to hire people, so you can find yourself in that situation unexpectedly. I wouldn’t encourage people to seek it out.”
A particular salting strategy not encouraged by the ODB members, Conway-Fuches added, is when union members “pick and choose” the most available shop or industry for organizing to take place. Rose S. agreed with Conway-Fuches’ perspective, and both emphasized an important point in the discussion regarding this strategy: that prioritizing salting as a way to start campaigns can ignore the possibility of organizing workplaces already available to union members. Conway-Fuches stated: “I think that one risk with salting that we have run into is that some jobs are more important to organize than others. Our view is that as a union every worker should be an organizer. A corollary to that is that every job is worth organizing. It raises the question ‘Why aren’t you organizing now?’ …salting should never be the primary way that we are doing organizing.”
Rose spoke about her own experiences salting in a prior campaign, commenting on how salting can sometimes be used as an “out” for fellow workers who are discouraged from organizing their own workplaces:
“Salting is searching for an external solution instead of looking inward and changing where we ourselves work. We want to organize ourselves. The idea of having a salting program is a sickness where we feel like we can’t do it, so we search for an alternative…I have salted in the IWW. It made sense that it was a place I would get a job at. I did it and was involved, there were moments where it was beneficial and I could do tasks, but at the end of the day that organizing is successful because the workers had done a lot in the OT101 already, like building an organizing committee, and they didn’t have the impression that they needed a salt to be successful. People have to organize themselves.”
Tegan also agreed with Rose’s observation that salting can unintentionally side-step the more important consideration of organizing our own workplaces first, and how some fellow workers might be shy to organize for a variety of reasons:
“Salting can be an impulse we think about because we are afraid of organizing our own workplaces. ‘All of my coworkers are too conservative.’ ‘My coworkers are too liberal.’ ‘My coworkers are busy in the DSA.’ ‘My workplace is too big.’ ‘My workplace is too small.’ I have heard every single one of these things as a challenge in organizing. They are all real challenges. They will not be fixed by you going to another job. You will face additional challenges.”
Rose went on to explain that practices of salting should have an approach of social integration and community building, and should help workers come together and focus on what concerns matter most in any given shop or industry:
“The best way to get any campaign or salting effort off the ground is to become more affiliated and familiar with the workers you know at your shop. A poor application of salting can lead to the idea that we as the union ‘need to go help out workers in some other shop or industry’ that our members might not be immediately associated with, rather than focusing on the shops that we already know that our members are part of.”
Despite these limitations, salting can still have an impact on the efficacy and direction of organizing efforts already taking place, and can provide critical assistance to campaigns that need the extra support. Conway-Fuches expressed hopes that the salting training can get more workers directly involved in organizing efforts in the present:
“We should look at why people aren’t organizing in their own workplaces. If the salting program gets some people to organize who aren’t, I think that is good. Talking to people about why they aren’t organizing is good and important. Looking at why people don’t. They lack confidence, they lack support…I hope it gets more people organizing. I want people to be able to overcome barriers they are facing right now. If it gets more people interested in organizing who weren’t for any reason, I would consider that a success of the salting program and something we would want to build on.”
As for how the IWW plans to fund the program, Conway-Fuches explained that “the broader union has allocated funding that the branches can apply for, and the ODB could encourage members to move to other areas or branches to assist organizing campaigns, assistance with getting licensing to apply to certain industries/jobs, travel expenses for OT101 training, and creating a salting guide for branches with tactics or strategies as for how Fellow Workers can salt workplaces.”
Tegan further elaborated that “the ODB budget is healthy enough to approach a salting program of this scale, and that funding can be applied for through the ODB for various campaigns or salting strategies, with a $1500 limit per request as requested by branches. The budget is carefully considered so that all possible campaign or salting leads in the future can be accommodated for.”
Overall, there are many strategies around salting that can effectively bolster ongoing organizing campaigns, or campaigns that are struggling to meet its goals and form better connections with workers in a given shop.The training program under development by the ODB can help current organizing efforts by providing trained union members more opportunities to join in on workplace organizing efforts.
The ODB hopes that the reintroduction of salting as an organizing tactic, as well as the future training program, can provide feedback from union branches as to how well these strategies are implemented, and how the training program can be modified in the future for better use. Giving feedback on this program is critical to its future success, and allows the ODB to make adjustments to how salting is implemented by the union, or how education to the membership can be adjusted to be more effective and practical. As Tegan put it, ”We can make a decision going into the future to see if this is something we want to keep investing in.”
For the IWW, salting is once again returning to the toolbox of fellow workers, eager to advance the efforts of the union.
Editor’s Note: If you are a member in good standing and wish to take the Organizer Training 101, please email the OTC. If you would like to request a group OT101 with your GMB, job branch, or coworkers, fill out this form.