Fact: More than half of AFSCME’s 1.6 million members are eligible to retire in the next 10 years. Fact: Your union needs to recruit, engage and educate younger members to step up and carry on the legacy that yesterday’s and today’s AFSCME leaders have built. Fact: The recruitment, engagement and education process is under way.

    On Sept. 9, 10 and 11, about 160 members of Wisconsin’s three AFSCME councils — 24, 40 and 48 — met in Milwaukee to attend the 2010 Wisconsin Next Wave Conference. Held Sept. 9-11 at the Wyndham Milwaukee Airport Hotel, the conference was designed for (but not limited to) would-be AFSCME activists age 35 and under. The idea: provide them with the tools and connections they need to become union leaders.

    The Next Wavers in attendance included representatives from DC 48 Locals 2, 33, 47, 170, 502, 550, 594, 645, 952, 1654 and 2754.

    After a Sept. 9 overview of what Next Wavers could expect during the days ahead, participants went to work first thing Friday morning, Sept. 10. They cleaned, painted, pruned and completed other tasks for three area non-profits. On Friday afternoon, Next Wavers did member-to-member door-knocking or phone-banking on behalf of two AFSCME-backed candidates: U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold and State Sen. Jim Sullivan. They capped off a full day’s work by participating in the “Right Wing Believe It Or Not!” rally at Clas Park on the Milwaukee County Courthouse’s south end.

    From myth busting to workshopping. On Saturday, Sept. 11, Next Wavers attended workshops. The program began with a session titled “Myth Busting for Public Employees.” Presented by AFSCME lobbyists John Grabel and Susan McMurray, the session offered Next Wavers tools and tips they could use in conversations with folks who don’t quite get it when it comes to public employee wages (“Public employees make too much money”), benefits (“They’re too rich”), pensions (“They’re bankrupting state and local governments”) and, well, the union, in general (“It has too much influence in politics”).

“Sisters and brothers, you are the future,” AFSCME International Secretary-Treasurer Lee Saunders told the Next Wavers during a Sept. 11, 2010, address. .

    How to bust these myths? In short: Speak to the public interest, not the union’s self-interest. Talk about values. Talk about the unique role of public service — you’re here to serve, not to make a profit. It’s a presentation that’d benefit all AFSCME Wavers, be they “Next” or “Now.” As Grabel noted: “If we don’t speak up and talk about the work we do, who’s going to? We need to make our voices heard.”

    After the general session, Next Wavers split off into groups to attend two (of seven total) workshops. Their choices: “Social Networking: How to use social networking and other online tools for organizing”; “Shop Talk: How to communicate with your union brothers and sisters in the workplace”; “Labor History: How did we get here, and where are we going? How to build our future”; “How Leaders Develop: What knowledge, skills and experiences contribute to the growth of union leaders”; “Lights, Camera, Direct Action! - How locals build power for their memberships by engaging in direct action”; “Mentoring 101: Skills to support and help develop young members as labor leaders”; and “How to Run an Effective Meeting.”

    In the “How Leaders Develop” — led by DC 48 staff rep John English and Local 952 President Chip Wall — English reminded the dozen or so session attendees while they’d all shown up that morning: “Within five years, 50 percent of our union leadership will be ready to retire,” he said. After English and Wall related their respective career paths, session attendees shared their stories about what prompted them to get involved and/or consider entering the leadership track. “Notice anything in common?” English asked. “Either everybody got pissed at either the leadership in the union, or the boss — or both.”

    English and Wall then delineated the four key stages in the development of a leader: finding your voice, developing your skills, figuring out the politics of your local union, and setting the agenda/developing a plan.

    “Try to look at your local and how it’s run,” English said. “In general, that close-to-the-vest [leadership] style is going by the wayside, and I’m glad. We need to be more inclusive.”

    What are the characteristics of a leader? Attendees came up with a list of a dozen skills and traits (must be a good listener/communicator, critical thinker, mediator, self-motivated, open-minded, inclusive, honest, etc.).

    English added a couple more: a thick skin and an ability to check at the door the desire to be liked.

    “You’re never going to make 100 percent of the people happy — it ain’t gonna happen,” he said. “You’re going to have to make some tough calls.”

    To lead, you’ve got to know where you’re headed. To know where you’re going, you need to know where you’ve been. Enter the Next Wave “Labor History” session, which was conducted by DC 48 staff reps Calvin Lee and Malou Noth.

    The dozen or so participants in the afternoon “History” session talked a bit about labor’s storied past. They also connected a series of key social, political, scientific and economic dots — historical mileposts, all — and came up with a makeshift “big picture,” of sorts. In so doing, they couldn’t help delving into labor’s acutely personal present, with an eye on what’s to come. All roads, participants concluded, lead to union members stepping it up on the engagement/involvement front.

    “Our union’s at a crossroads, and the current leadership isn’t going to solve these problems — it’s going to be you guys who decide what this union is going to be,” said DC 48 Executive Director Rich Abelson, who sat in on the discussion.

    Stepping up to greatness. It was a sentiment Next Wavers had heard all weekend, and they’d hear it again. During the conference’s closing session. Local 502 President LaTonya Johnson, one of three conference MCs, introduced AFSCME International Secretary-treasurer Lee Saunders, who as Johnson noted “has been especially strong in championing the Next Wave.”

    Saunders took to the stage and did what he does best: galvanize, energize and enervate. He connected a personal 9/11 experience (“I was in New York City — the DC 37 office building was a block and a half away from Ground Zero”) with the public service mission (“The first folks on the ground were public employees”) and the intrinsic value of same (“It makes me mad as hell when you’ve got politicians saying [we] don’t provide important services — it should make you mad as hell”). He mentioned a few of those politicians by name and reiterated the need for AFSCME to stay on top of its political game.

    “I know members are frustrated with politics, but let me say this — we’ve got to continue to the political and legislative activity,” he said. “We’ve also got to do something else: keep the people we help elect accountable.”

    Corporate America must be held accountable, as well.

    “The gap between the wealthy and working families is wider than it’s ever been,” Saunders said. “We’re at a crossroads — [do we] go forward as a nation that values labor, or slip backwards to a time when what you could accomplish [in life] depended on where you started out.”

    Whether we go forward, backward or sideways, Saunders said, will depend on the decisions next-generation leaders — the Next Wavers — make.

    “Sisters and brothers, you are the future. You are our future,” he said. “You’ve got a great union. Let it be greater.”

    New rules of engagement? What did Next Wavers think about the conference? Some said they appreciated the event’s scope. A few, including Local 952’s Jason Otto, said they’d also have preferred a little more workshop time — and that they’d have preferred the workshops to be conducted on Friday, with the volunteer work, canvassing and phone-banking taking place on Saturday. Others said the conference was a great way to connect with like-minded brothers and sisters seeking new ways to make a difference — not to mention re-charge their batteries, given that many conference-goers already are AFSCME activists. Bottom line: Many Next Wavers knew coming in what one of their biggest challenges is: coming up with more effective ways to get their fellow members involved, as Local 952’s Otto noted.

    Getting members geared up is always a challenge. But on the “get ‘em geared up” meter, the Next Wave conference rated pretty high.

    “The Next Wavers really wanted to know more about the union — how we got to where we are, the challenges we face politically, where we need to go,” said DC 48’s Abelson. “I think the young folks really have a handle on the risks they run if they don’t play a part in addressing these challenges.”