Organizing for the Long Haul: Colonizing to the Rescue?

Abstract

In the U.S. labor movement, politically committed young people have chosen to work in the service, retail, hospitality, and telecom sectors to aid union recruitment drives from the inside. Known as “colonizers” in the past, they are now commonly referred to as “salts.” Their organizing experience, in unorganized workplaces, is different from that of full‐time union staff members assisting unionization efforts from the outside. The union that recruits, trains, deploys, and supports “salts” gains adherents who help launch and sustain strategic organizing efforts measured in years, not weeks or months. This account of inside organizing experiences in several different industries illustrates the importance of building workplace committees strong enough to survive antiunion campaigning by private sector management. Several of these case studies also reveal the tensions that can arise between the goals and directives of organizing unions, and the priorities of rank‐and‐file workers, some who may not even know that a fellow organizing committee member is acting, undercover, as a union agent.