Organizing from the Building Level Up!
Edwena Miles, a teacher at Northwest Middle School in Guilford County, as recently as August 2020 said, “I just thought I didn’t need to be a member of GCAE. I thought, ‘that’s great, but let other people do that.’”
The pandemic changed her mind. She became a member, started attending mass meetings and connected with a GCAE leader to find out how she could help with the union’s rapid response COVID petition campaign. That GCAE member leader had a one-on-one with Edwena and later invited her to attend a book study about the union movement for active members. The GCAE members who led the book study noticed how engaged Edwena was in small group conversations, although she was quiet in large group discussions, and asked if she’d be willing to serve as her school’s building leader, with the support of an organizing coach. Edwena wasn’t sure about it but said yes.
Within a few weeks, Edwena was practicing having one-on-one conversations with her coach and then scheduled one-on-ones with all 10 GCAE members in her building to assess their interest in helping her build an organizing team. Eventually she met with other staff, from custodians to TAs, and teachers who hadn’t become members.
“I invited them to fill out a survey about what staff believed should be included in the Board of Education’s budget request, and at the same time also invited them to a block party GCAE organized as part of the statewide We Heart Public Schools Tour, where a group of cafeteria workers from across the district announced their campaign to get the County Commission to raise their wages to $15 per hour.”
Although she was happy at getting a lot of staff to participate in the survey, she was a little disheartened by how much more success other GCAE building leaders seemed to be having, as measured by the #Red4Ed photos posted on the GCAE Facebook group every Wednesday.
“I was so nervous when I decided with my coach to set a goal for myself. By the end of the semester, I organized a #Red4Ed photo to show the County Commission the broad support for cafeteria worker raises. I made a flyer, and I enlisted teachers at other grade levels and staff in different departments who seemed interested in helping with the campaign to help pass them out and collect RSVPs.”
The big day came. Edwena had hand-lettered signs that read “$15 Raise Now” for staff to hold. Would the people who said yes attend? All of her relationship-building had paid off. Of all the GCAE members who attempted their first #Red4Ed, hers was the largest, with almost half of her building staff participating.
That first step led to continued growth and participation in NCAE/GCAE for Edwena. She became a coach of the pioneering Organizing Fellowship in GCAE, she is the organizing co-chair of the GCAE Organizing Committee, is the middle school director on the GCAE Executive Board and is a member of the NCAE Membership and Organizing Committee.
Are you interested in building the skills needed to organize your co-workers? You’re invited to attend our Summer Leaders training. Complete the interest form here and a member of our team will be in touch.
