Organizing is very much a Team Effort!

Toronto, ON – To say that the IAM’s new Organizing initiative has been successful would be an understatement with 3,253 new members joining the Canadian ranks since January 1, 2018.

To keep that momentum going there has been a strong emphasis placed on forming Local Lodge and District Lodge Organizing Committees to assist organizers in growing the union. On May 10-11th, IAM Grand Lodge Organizer Scott Jackson, IAM District Lodge 78 Business Representative/Organizer Ropy Bhansingh and IAM Transportation District Lodge 140 Organizer Sam Jabbar, facilitated Local Organizing Committee training for Districts 78 and 140.

“Under the new Grand Lodge Organizing initiative, we educated the committees that not every industry or group is suitable for the IAM or its Districts to organize,” explained Jackson. “We utilize the SWOT principle, which means on any given target, we study its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. In some cases the opportunities may be there but the potential threats to success may outweigh the strengths and so on.”

“We described the use of existing membership to find and develop new targets,” said Bhansingh. “An organizer can only do so much on their own, organizing is very much as team undertaking. We explained the difference between a lead and a target and how to find both. We also conducted role playing on how to talk to a cold lead.”