by “Salting” is a union-building tactic in which organizers strategically choose to work for non-unionized workplaces with the intent of helping form a union. Outlined below is a labor-organized approach to this tactic.
By Mel Jackson
An Army of Organizers
Not all salt programs are alike. The most important mark of a good salt program is that it offers real organizing training: that it provides the resources, mentorship, and supportive experience to turn activists into real organizers. Unfortunately, this is relatively rare among unions. UNITE HERE, the food service and hospitality union, is one of only a handful that actually offers real training.
Done well, it can be one of the best ways to become a strong labor organizer and learn how to build worker power. Strong salting programs will have a lead organizer to teach and mentor, an organizing team to hold each other accountable, plenty of organizing skills training, and a clear campaign and path to win.
Regular meetings with a lead organizer are a crucial form of mentorship, as is being part of a team that offers support, solidarity, and – crucially – the knowledge that you’re not alone. Being supported through challenges and learning from experienced organizers are indispensable to becoming a strong organizer yourself. And a mentor and team are there to give you the extra push to do the things that feel hard, whether that’s hanging out with a coworker who’s totally different from you, making hard asks, just picking up the phone, or being persistent about visiting a worker in their home.
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Organizing skills training is likewise indispensable. How do you tell your own stories in a powerful way that connects with someone to both agitate and inspire them? How do you have conversations and ask questions that get to the heart of why someone needs change in their life, and pushes them to feel the urgency of that change deeply? And beyond building the skills to move people in powerful one-on-one organizing conversations, what’s the strategy to win at work? How can we build unity and a worker structure that can withstand everything the boss throws at us? Learning how to identify natural or “organic” leaders in the workplace and create strong worker committees are key components.
But what this training really requires is going through the experience. Ideally, salting through an established program means that you will actually be part of a bottom-up organizing campaign. Recruiting your coworkers to an underground worker committee, strengthening that committee, and then going public and winning against the boss, whether through an NLRB election or taking majority action to force them to voluntarily recognize that you and your coworkers are standing together as a union – these are invaluable organizing teachers.
The most important thing, however, is not only that you are becoming a strong leader and organizer. It’s that you’re learning how to guide and empower your coworkers into becoming strong organizers themselves. They’re going through the experience of fighting against the boss and getting trained on how to win, too. This is one thing the labor movement needs: workers who have this experience, knowledge, and confidence, and who can revitalize their unions into democratic, risk-taking, strike-ready, rank-and-file driven ones. We need an army of organizers, and salting is one way to get there.
Be Strategic
We’re not going to be able to salt every workplace, and we don’t even need to. The labor movement should be strategic about where salts organize. One strategy is to organize key locations in order to set off organizing waves in certain industries or at certain workplaces, picking a target with the hope of having a domino effect by showing what’s possible. Another strategy is to decide to fight in certain ways, like foregoing the difficult terrain of NLRB elections in favor of showing power through majority actions up to recognitional strikes, in order to give inspiration to other organizing workers.
