I’m a Union staff member and honestly, I often have no idea what issues you as an individual are facing. Even when you tell me your issues directly, unless I worked in that department or I know those people, I’m going to have to reach to fully understand what is going on.

I can help you use the mechanisms in our contract. I can advise you on how to organize. I can make sure we buy food or materials for an action. But I don’t live next to you. I don’t work next to you. I’m not experiencing the same day to day pressures that you are.

Some of us staff have close connections in a few narrow spaces, but with so few staff, that overlap is always going to be rare.

But your actual neighbor, the person who is two offices down or the person who joins all the same virtual meetings or is in all the same chats that you are, they already know what you are talking about. They will understand immediately, and it is very likely they are encountering the same issue. When you talk to them, you build community and shared interests.

Those conversations are the backbone of any union, and there will never be a staff member who can take the place of them. When you talk to someone nearby, you share a bond that only a few of you have. You know the same supervisors. You both watch the same office politics. You both may even feel alone, but not if you talk with one another.

I know right now you are thinking of a specific person and a specific issue. That conversation cannot wait.

Walk down the hall, send them a message, call them.

Make the connection.

Then join UNITY next week (link below). We are starting a five week series on Collective Actions. The series will focus on actions that are easy, quick, and realistic to take together.

Talk with your neighbor. Take this first step. Then join us next week to learn where the second step is.

Joey Hicklin – WPEA Organizer & IT Admin