The Strategic Campaign Registration Program (SCRP) was adopted by the Executive Council in 1999 in order to encourage and protect large-scale strategic organizing campaigns by affiliated unions. Over the past eleven years, this program has assisted many unions with successful strategic organizing campaigns. Large-scale campaigns have been registered for individual affiliates and combinations of affiliates for campaigns ranging in scope from regional to national.
Pursuant to the process established in 1999 and amended in 2005, campaigns submitted for registration through the SCRP are reviewed by an Oversight Committee comprised of members of the Executive Council Organizing Committee. Proposed campaigns are evaluated 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 a campaign registration has been 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 without the need for further determinations by an Impartial Umpire; allegations of interference are brought directly to the Executive Council non-compliance subcommittee. This latter change was introduced in 2005, along with revisions to encourage greater discussion and collaboration between affiliated unions on strategic organizing campaigns and greater guidance to Oversight Panels on how to evaluate and decide whether to approve a registration request when another union(s) has a competing claim or has filed a statement of interest. The cap on registrations was also eliminated.
At the 2009 AFL-CIO Convention, delegates approved Resolution 1, which calls on affiliated unions to “seize the moment for growth, strength and solidarity” and challenges them to “summon the will and dedicate the resources necessary to grow” on a larger scale. Convention Resolution 1 urges unions to commit even greater resources to grow bigger, stronger and faster. It calls for changing the “scale of what we do and the pace at which we do it.” As part of this commitment, the convention delegates pledged to “encourage unions to register more of their organizing campaigns with the SCRP and to decrease inter-union organizing competition.”
SCRP provides a process for avoiding such competition among unions. Its procedures are designed 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. Requirements for early notice, consultation, and facilitated discussions have been built into the process to bring about even greater discussion and collaboration between affiliated unions on strategic organizing campaigns. In addition, through the campaign registration and review process, the AFL-CIO Organizing Department can provide important assistance to affiliated unions seeking to plan,formulate, and commit resources to grand scale strategic campaigns.
Additional reforms have been proposed to increase the utilization of SCRP registration, streamline its procedures, and raise its visibility. The proposed reforms allow for an expanded Oversight Committee to permit more expeditious review, provide for the filing of annual reports of registered campaigns to ensure that only active campaigns remain protected, and require that registered campaigns be publicized through regular distribution to the Executive Council, the Organizing Committee, and affiliates.
These changes are aimed at making SCRP more user-friendly, ensuring that it will resolve as well as avoid competition, and enabling it to provide practical assistance for large-scale, strategic campaigns. The following procedures replace and supersede the procedures contained in the Executive Council’s August 1999 and July 2005 statements:
Procedures and Criteria for AFL-CIO Registration of a Strategic Organizing Campaign
1. 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.
2. The AFL-CIO President will appoint an Oversight Committee, comprised of 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.
3. An AFL-CIO affiliate or coalition of affiliates may 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.
4. 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.
5. 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 facilitate efforts to reach consensus on a proposed campaign, including convening a meeting or conference call of all interested unions.
6. 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:
a. Soundness of strategy and possibility of success;
b. Commitment of resources;
c. 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,
d. Competing claims by affiliates that reflect active contemporary organizing efforts or representation concerning some or all of the employees at issue;
e. Statements of interest filed by affiliates and the basis for their interest;
f. Whether the applicant has made reasonable efforts to address statements of interest and competing claims by other affiliates;
g. For applications within an industry, occupation, geographic area, or employer within the jurisdiction of an AFL-CIO industry coordinating committee, input from such ICC;
h. Whether the campaign is a cooperative organizing effort between multiple unions or a single-union organizing campaign.
7. The Oversight Committee may approve a campaign for registration (as submitted or as modified by the Committee) if it finds that the application is appropriate under the above-listed factors and, where applicable, if it finds that the applicant has made reasonable and good-faith efforts to address issues raised in any statement of interest or competing claim by another affiliate. Where no affiliate has filed a statement of interest and there are no competing claims, the AFL-CIO President, or his designee, may act on behalf of the Oversight Committee.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. An affiliate with a registered campaign shall submit an annual progress report on the campaign to the AFL-CIO. If an affiliate fails to file a report or to demonstrate progress on its campaign, the AFL-CIO may refer the matter to the Oversight Committee for a review and determination of whether the campaign should be de-registered. This shall not be a de novo review of the registration but a review of whether the campaign is progressing in accordance with the initial submission.
11. Campaigns involving unaffiliated unions will not be registered; registration of campaigns involving a union that disaffiliates from the AFL-CIO will automatically be terminated.
12. No affiliate shall resort to court or other legal proceedings to secure or enforce a registration under this program.
13. A summary of SCRP activity, including a list of registered campaigns, shall be regularly distributed to the Executive Council, Organizing Committee and affiliates.