What Is a MAT?
Simply put, a Member Action Team is a tool to communicate with members and mobilize members around issues they care about. Each MAT consists of Union or bargaining leadership, MAT Chair (s), MAT Captains, and MAT leaders who are responsible for regularly communicating and working with approximately 10 workers. When putting a MAT structure in place, keep in mind that stewards should have a place in the system. Follow the guideline that MAT leaders don’t have to be stewards, but that all stewards should be MAT leaders. MAT leaders should reflect the diversity of the local’s membership—by gender, race, age, job classifications, shifts and so on.
MAT Structure
For the purposes of Local 88 and specifically Bargaining the 2011 Contract the 2 way flow of information will come from the Bargaining Team to the MAT Chairs (sometimes through the MAT Liaison, Grant Swanson and sometimes directly from the team to the chairs) to the MAT Captains (about one per department, these folks will be coming to monthly MAT meetings) to the approximately 280 MAT Leaders down to the 10 members assigned to each (to cover the approximately 2,800 local 88 members at the County), and back up (sometimes skipping steps back to the bargaining team, through feedback forms, emails to the MAT Liaison or the MAT Co-Chairs) to the bargaining team. From now until the start of the official bargaining (Feb.-March 2011) most of the information flow will be up from the members to the bargaining team. Once we meet most of the flow will come down from the Bargaining team, or it will have specific questions (sometimes to specific members or groups of members) to be asked of members so that the bargaining team can have the information it needs to best represent the members. The MAT Leaders to the members are illustrated below.
MAT Leader Responsibilities
- Communicate regularly with approximately 10 specific co-workers (less or more depending on the size of the department or worksite)
- Communicate rapidly with the membership
- Distribute written communications such as union newsletters, flyers, etc.
- Listen to co-workers and learn their issues, problems and concerns, and communicate that back to the bargaining team
- Educate and inform workers on issues that affect them including updates from the bargaining team
- Ask workers for their ideas on how to solve a problem and develop a plan
- Motivate and mobilize members to participate in their action plan on an issue
- Work together with local officers, the bargaining team and other MAT leaders on issues that affect the local as a whole
- Support union goals and values
MAT Captain’s Responsibilities
The MAT Captain’s will be a MAT Leader who is designated to represent the department where they work at the monthly MAT meetings. Your department may have one or more of these members (or 1 plus an alternate in case someone can’t make all the meetings, these meetings are scheduled for the 4th Thursday of each month). They will be tasked with helping to map out and chart their work locations, and help to recruit MAT leaders to reach all of their department’s members (they will be supported in this work by the MAT Chairs and Local 88 leadership). Additionally they will be called upon to help with any department specific tasks as they arise, such as mobilizing for an action, soliciting input about specific contract language of extra importance to your department, and helping to set-up a bargaining research team for their department (made up of other MAT leaders, usually).
How Does the MAT System Work?
To implement a MAT structure — and reap its rewards — local leaders must have a commitment and a plan. Here’s how to build a MAT system in six easy steps:
- Map or chart all of the local’s worksites — the map should be a physical layout and contain: Who — names of workers . Where — location of workers . When — shifts of workers . Whether or not workers are union members.
- Begin the process by having each leader — officer, executive board member and steward — identify 10 co-workers to be part of his or her Member Action Team location assignment.
- Decide on a common communication task — distribute a questionnaire, hand out a leaflet, etc. — and have each leader have a one-on-one meeting with each of his or her 10 co-workers.
- Brainstorm to identify other possible MAT leaders, particularly those who are: • Good communicators • Natural leaders in the workplace • Respected by co-workers
- Approach and recruit new MAT leaders and establish additional MAT leaders (go viral).
- Meet regularly to continue to build the MAT network, continue the one-on-one communications, and continue to monitor and evaluate the network’s effectiveness.
Department Bargaining Research Team
Some departments will want to set up a bargaining research team to do research for bargaining, and specifically how contract language has been applied in your work location and offer alternatives that would help our members do their jobs more effectively and increase their enjoyment of their work. These teams will also occasionally be asked to do research on specific aspects of the contract that the bargaining team needs some support on. These groups will also be asked to help populate the Contract wiki (or annotated contract) to explain either the history of the language (if you know it), or how this language is being interpreted and applied in your location.
“Let the workers organize. Let their crystallized voice proclaim their injustices and demand their privileges.”
—John L. Lewis, founder, CIO
Local union leaders communicate with the membership for a number of reasons — to inform, to educate and to learn from the members what’s on their minds. But there is one reason to communicate that should always be paramount — and that is to encourage, to motivate and to inspire members to act. Whether members are carrying picket signs, voting in an election, coming to meetings or writing letters to the editor — an active union is a strong union.
There are a number of different ways that local leaders can communicate with the membership. These include:
- Regular membership meetings
- Small-group worksite meetings
- Regular newsletters
- Other publications, such as flyers, leaflets, letters and e-mail
- Bulletin boards
All of these methods have a place in a local’s communication system. Above and beyond all of these, however, one method has proven the most effective way to communicate with members: one on one, face to face.
The benefits of one-on-one communication are plentiful:
- Puts a “face” on the union
- Provides immediate opportunity for feedback and dialogue
- Builds connection, relationships and solidarity among members
- Educates officers and leaders about issues and problems affecting members
- The challenges of reaching all members one on one are noteworthy:
- Very time-consuming
- Difficult in locals with multiple work locations and shifts
The solution to these challenges requires planning and commitment, but it is worth the effort: That solution is to develop and implement a one-on-one communication structure called a Member Action Team (MAT).
