By Susan Zachem

Fun in the sun for Detroit 2C this summer was a new organizing blitz that reached 92 shops and produced some good results, according to local Pres. David R. Jacobs.

"We had a good time this year," said Jacobs. "Our blitz program has led to a lot of new members in Local 2C" and led to more member involvement, he said.

This summer's campaign of handbilling non-union shops involved more than 50 Local 2C members, plus four volunteers from St. Paul 1M and International Organizer Bert Haft.

This year the local targeted the Ypsilanti/Ann Arbor area. Jacobs said it was selected because more than 3,000 non-union print industry workers are employed in that area. Another reason, he said, was to provide additional union shop opportunities for the Local 2C members employed at Pollard Banknote in Ypsilanti.

Jacobs said his local contacted Local 1M for help in Ann Arbor and the local responded by sending four "top notch" volunteers: Local 1M Executive Vice Pres. Dean Stanton, Vern Hall, Kirk Vogland, and Vice Pres. Joe McMahon. The Local 1M volunteers joined with Haft and Local 2C Organizing Co-Chair Gayle Niskala to form the team that blitzed Ann Arbor shops with handbills.

The Local 1M team "came for the learning experience," Jacobs said. "They wanted to assess the information about the blitz program that they had been following through the Graphic Communicator."

Local 1M's Stanton said the group returned to their local "very excited. We just thought it was an excellent beginning point to get back into organizing in a more active manner."

Taking advantage of this momentum, Local 1M, together with Twin Cities 1B and St. Paul 29C, developed a handbilling blitz targeting about 25 shops in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area that was set for the end of August. For a first-time program, Stanton said, the locals got a good response from the members and enlisted about 30 volunteers for the handbilling.

Jacobs said that, so far, three groups from Ann Arbor have contacted his local for follow-up information. In addition, he said, the largest shop – with more than 300 workers – gave the handbillers a "very warm reception." He quoted one worker as saying: "We have been waiting for you to come for a long time." The local is now developing a formal organizing campaign geared toward that shop.

Jacobs emphasized that the blitz concept is patterned after the tried-and-true principle of mass advertising to saturate a geographical area with a message. The message in this case is that Local 2C is there, ready, and willing to help.

And while handbilling for organizing isn't a new concept, Jacobs noted, "it's an extremely inexpensive form of advertising that works."

The blitz campaigns also have produced some very worthwhile side benefits, Jacobs said. "It teaches the members that a picture is worth a thousand words. When our people see and talk to non-union shop people, they learn what it means to be in a union shop," he said.

Both Jacobs and Stanton said their locals have received encouragement from their members' union employers. Stanton said the GCIU contract employers that Local 1M told about the blitz program "have been very excited and glad this is happening. So, we believe it will benefit our employers as well as our members," he said.