In August 1999, the Executive Council adopted the Strategic Campaign Registration Program (SCRP) in order to encourage and protect large-scale strategic organizing campaigns by affiliated unions. The program permits affiliated unions to seek AFL-CIO approval and support for strategic organizing campaigns through an application and review process administered by the Organizing Department and overseen by an Oversight Committee comprised of five members of the Executive Council Organizing Committee.
Under the program as adopted in August 1999, the Oversight Panel is directed to evaluate proposed campaigns on the following factors:
- Soundness of strategy and possibility of success;
- Commitment of resources;
- Competing claims by other unions that reflect active contemporary organizing efforts or representation concerning some or all of the employees at issue.
Once registration is approved, the AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions endorse and support the campaign, and no other AFL-CIO affiliate is permitted to organize, affiliate with or seek recognition for employees who are subject to the campaign. Registered campaigns also receive Article XXI protection in any Article XXI proceeding involving workers covered by the campaign.
Since its inception, the SCRP has registered a number of large-scale organizing campaigns for both individual affiliates and combinations of affiliates, ranging in scope from countywide to nationwide and for durations of one to three years. The program has helped encourage and protect strategic organizing; at the same time, experience has demonstrated the need for modifications and improvements in two areas.
First, Oversight Panels have on several occasions expressed the need for additional guidance from the Executive Council on how to handle objections to a registration request from other affiliated unions, and particularly how to evaluate the third criteria, i.e., competing claims by other unions. In most cases, requesting unions have been able to reconcile or accommodate concerns or objections expressed by affiliated unions, and those registration requests have been approved. In a few instances, however, affiliates have objected to a request because they have an interest in, actually represent, or are seeking to organize workers within the scope of the request. In situations where the Oversight Panel has determined that one or more unions is actively organizing or currently represents workers within the requested campaign, the Panel has denied registration on grounds that the current criteria do not authorize it to approve a registration under these circumstances. The Panel has also denied registration to a campaign when numerous unions objected to its scope and the Panel determined that the requesting union had not sufficiently addressed those concerns.
Through the campaign registration and review process, SCRP has aided affiliated unions seeking to conduct strategic campaigns while at the same time helping to generate substantive consultations among unions interested in a specific campaign or with a stake in the particular industrial, occupational, or geographic sector at issue. The proposed reforms to the SCRP application and review process are intended to bring about even greater discussion and collaboration between affiliated unions on strategic organizing campaigns, by building requirements for early notice, consultation, and facilitated discussions into the process. At the same time, the revised procedures provide greater guidance to the Oversight Panel on how to evaluate and decide whether to approve a registration request.
Second, experience has revealed a shortcoming in the procedure for providing Article XXI protection to registered campaigns. As presently structured, an affiliate with a registered campaign faced with interference from another union must invoke Article XXI and receive an exclusivity award from an Impartial Umpire before the affiliate is permitted to seek recourse before the non-compliance subcommittee for any subsequent interference. This intermediate step is unnecessary, and the revised procedures eliminate it.
The proposed reforms eliminate the cap on registrations, so that unions may seek registration of more than one campaign each year. The reforms establish the principle that affiliated unions should not resort to court to secure or enforce a registered campaign. Finally, the revised procedures specify that registration is available only to national and international unions that are affiliated with the AFL-CIO. Registrations involving unaffiliated unions will not be approved; approved registrations involving unions that disaffiliate will be automatically terminated.
The following procedures replace and supersede the procedures contained in the Executive Council's August 1999 Statement.
Procedures and Criteria for Obtaining AFL-CIO Registration of a Strategic Organizing Campaign
- Any national or international union affiliated with the AFL-CIO, or coalition of affiliated unions, is permitted to apply to register a strategic organizing campaign.
- The AFL-CIO President will appoint an Oversight Committee, comprised of five members of the Executive Council Organizing Committee reflecting a cross-section of affiliates, to administer this program. Oversight Committee members will serve for two-year terms, and may be re-appointed.
- An AFL-CIO affiliate or coalition of affiliates will submit a strategic organizing campaign plan to the Oversight Committee. The plan must provide detailed information on the overall campaign strategy; staff, material, political and other resources committed; employee groups covered; and schedule for completion. The applicant must also provide a summary of the plan that will be provided to affiliated unions upon request.
- Notice of the application will be provided to all affiliates, and a summary prepared by the applicant of the strategic organizing campaign plan will be provided to any affiliate upon request.
- Any union may file a statement of interest concerning the proposed registration, which shall set forth the basis for the union's interest in the campaign (e.g., the union currently represents workers in the industry or area, the union is actively seeking to represent workers within the scope of the campaign, etc.). All statements of interest shall be promptly forwarded to the applicant with a request that the applicant make reasonable efforts to address the issues raised. The AFL-CIO will convene a meeting of all interested unions and facilitate a discussion in an effort to reach consensus on a proposed campaign.
- The Oversight Committee, through a three-member Panel of its members, will undertake a rigorous review of the proposed campaign. The Committee will approve (as submitted or as the Committee modifies) or deny an application for registration based on an analysis of the following factors:
- Soundness of strategy and possibility of success;
- Commitment of resources;
- Whether the proposed campaign is in an industry, occupation, geographic area, or employer where one or more affiliates other than the applicant already have a significant presence. If so, whether any such affiliates filed a statement of interest, and the efforts by the applicant to accommodate any such statement of interest.
- Whether the application is within an industry, occupation, geographic area, or employer within the jurisdiction of an AFL-CIO industry coordinating committee. Such an application will not be approved without the express consent of the committee.
- Statements of interest filed by other unions, their basis, and whether the applicant has made reasonable efforts to address them.
- Competing claims by other unions that reflect active contemporary organizing efforts or representation concerning some or all of the employees at issue, and efforts by the applicant to resolve these competing claims.
- Whether the campaign is a cooperative organizing effort between multiple unions or a single-union organizing campaign.
- The Oversight Committee may approve a campaign for registration (as submitted or as modified by the Committee) if the Committee finds that the applicant has made reasonable and good-faith efforts to address issues raised in any statement of interest by another union, and that the registration is otherwise appropriate under the above-listed factors.
- The same process and criteria shall govern requests for extensions of registered campaigns, except that the Oversight Committee shall also consider actual resources expended, and actual progress made, during the period of initial registration, as well as the extent to which another union has actively interfered with the registered campaign.
- A strategic organizing campaign approved by the Committee shall be entitled to the following benefits:
- The AFL-CIO and its affiliates will endorse and support the campaign;
- No affiliate will be able to organize, affiliate or seek recognition for employees who are subject to the campaign;
- The campaign will receive automatic protection under Article XXI without the need for a further determination by an Impartial Umpire. A union may bring allegations of interference with the campaign directly to the Executive Council non-compliance subcommittee, which shall consider the matter after notice to the union alleged to be interfering, and a reasonable opportunity to promptly cure any violation.
- An affiliate with a registered campaign shall submit an annual progress report on the campaign to the AFL-CIO Organizing Department, which shall forward the report to the Oversight Committee.
- Campaigns involving unaffiliated unions will not be registered; registration of campaigns involving a union that disaffiliates from the AFL-CIO will automatically be terminated.
- No affiliate shall resort to court or other legal proceedings to secure or enforce a registration under this program.