GCIU General Board member Arthur McCullough, right, works with International Organizer Bert Haft during a housecall to promote the GCIU.

A new GCIU organizing campaign makes a good point: To grow our union, everybody has to pitch in and do the many tasks that must be done to convince prospective new members.

This point was illustrated in October when General Board member Arthur McCullough, vice president of New York 1L, journeyed to Hanover, N.H., grabbed some handbills, and knocked on doors to educate printing plant workers about the benefits of joining the GCIU.

It all came about when Montpelier-Barre, Vt., Local 745C Pres. Daniel L. Brush, who represents workers at a printing plant in Montpelier, heard about interest in joining the GCIU among workers at a sister plant in Hanover, N.H.

To check out the apparent interest, the call went out for volunteers to come up to New Hampshire, knock on doors, and speak to plant workers in their homes. McCullough volunteered and joined up with International Organizer Bert Haft to make the house calls.

They had a chance to speak with some of the workers and their families and tell them how GCIU membership could make their lives better.

"It was a good thing that Art McCullough took the time to come up and help us make housecalls," Haft said. "We are trying to spread the word that organizing is everybody's concern, and this shows that message is being heard."

McCullough agreed that making housecalls was "going back to the basics" of a good organizing drive. He spent three days, teamed with Haft, going to the doors of potential members from the plant and was hopeful that the future will bring success.

"We still have quite a way to go and will have to knock on many other doors, but the reception we got was very promising," he noted.

Brush said that his local union members "really want to get involved in organizing," and this is just a first step.

"[Our local members] live in the most liberal state in the nation, and we should be highly unionized and we're not. We want to ensure that our union doesn't overlook this region," Brush added.

Haft said that organizers will monitor the progress over the next few months and decide whether to launch a formal organizing effort.