surveys are an organizing tool

As background research for the Archival Workers Collective spring 2022 survey, we looked around for examples of people organizing with surveys. What could be possible beyond collecting and presenting information? Come to find out this has a name: workers’ inquiry. (Thank you, Anna C., for teaching us the term!) You can read an intellectual/political history of this practice at Viewpoint Magazine.

This post collects 19 examples of organizing with surveys in and out of the labor movement, to show what people can accomplish together with a simple questionnaire.

What can we do with a survey?

Among other organizing purposes, surveys can be useful for …

• Building membership
• Building an organizing structure
• Building campaigns
• Building participation e.g. in strategy development, actions, or around bargaining
• Establishing an evidence base
• Meeting unmet needs for information, leadership, and organizing
• Developing strategies, programs, and assessments
• Countering and creating alternatives to the “official” version e.g. management “facts”
• Drawing public attention to an issue

Next, let’s look at instances of surveys that meet each of the above organizing purposes, with an emphasis on why and how. (Note that each example crosses categories.) Who surveyed who? What was the purpose? What did they do with what they learned?

Building membership

Beyond Recovery / #CancelRent

The housing justice campaign Beyond Recovery surveyed union members about their housing and financial circumstances.

In this example, the Right to the City Alliance used a set of demands and a survey to recruit unions and union members to the Beyond Recovery housing justice campaign, also known as #CancelRent. Unions are encouraged to endorse the demands and ask members to fill out the survey. (See also: “Housing Is a Worker Issue: Why the Labor Movement Should Support the ‘Beyond Recovery’ Campaign”)

The survey links housing justice to workers’ rights and economic justice. Beyond Recovery is a national campaign, so the survey responses will likely be used to grow participation and bring more people into political education and organizer training.

Goals

• More people sign up to follow the campaign
• More people join political education & organizer training

Digital Organizing against the Neoliberal University

AFSCME 1072 (staff union at the University of Maryland, College Park) surveyed workers about telework and re-opening concerns.

In this example, a university staff union surveyed campus workers about their concerns for telework and re-opening plans, and what actions they would be willing to take. In organizers’ words:

The survey gave us over one thousand hot leads on people who ‘wanted to take action’ and those who wanted to join the union. Leaders and organizers followed up to recruit new members. We also released survey results to the press to legitimize union positions, changing the dynamic whereby the university refuted individual worker anecdotes with official data. In addition, these survey results gave the union a window into the faculty for the first time. Contacts made with professors have since resulted in direct support of workers through faculty-led petitions and confrontations with management.

Stuart Katzenberg and Todd Holden, AFSCME 1072

The union used the survey to recruit new members and supporters, identify potential activists, collect data to share with the press, and counter administration claims. Their focus is strictly on growing numbers, not necessarily on the kind of structure tests or leader development that other unions have used surveys to do.

Goals:

• Recruit new members
• Recruit new supporters
• Identify activists
• Gather data to share with the press
• Counter management claims

Building an organizing structure

From Climate Strikes to the Union Hall

Through the Young Worker Listening project, workers surveyed peers about climate and job concerns.

In this example, a committee of young workers surveys their peers on “experiences with pollution and extreme weather, the social issues they care about, the ways that climate change impacts their plans for the future, and their confidence in their own job security as well as the economic security of their communities and industries.” The committee’s goal is to organize young workers as climate activists within the labor movement, in order to combat “jobs versus environment” attitudes/action. They are using the survey and a smaller number of interviews as a first step in reaching such workers and bringing them together for small group discussions and workshops.

Goals:

• Organize a network of young workers as climate activists within the labor movement
• Initiate discussion groups

Mutual Aid NYC Volunteer Sign-Up

Mutual Aid NYC surveyed prospective volunteers on their skills, background, access to resources, and interest.

In this example, a mutual aid network surveys volunteers on their skills/experience, background, what kinds of resources they have access to, any accessibility needs, and reason for interest in volunteering. While not a traditional survey, this type of form has the potential to help organize people into working teams, caucuses, and support networks, as well as assigning tasks. Network organizers can also use the results to understand what skills, experiences, communities, and resources are not represented among the group but should be.

Goals:

• Organize people into working teams, caucuses, and support networks
• Assign tasks
• See what’s missing from the group

Building campaigns

9to5 Colorado Climate Justice Survey / Encuesta de la justicia climática en Colorado

The working women’s association 9to5 Colorado surveyed constituents about climate justice issues that matter to them.

In this example, 9to5 Colorado uses a survey to build membership and gain awareness of climate justice issues affecting working women (their stated membership and constituency) in the state. They collect responses online, through phone banking, and by canvassing in-person. An “internal” copy of the survey might act as a template that phone bankers can fill out based on the responses of people they speak with. The Colorado survey follows 9to5’s shorter and more general national survey on climate.

The Colorado climate justice survey marks the start of a campaign and will be used to drive the campaign, for example:

• Identifying and engaging new core leaders
• Collecting and sharing stories about climate justice issues
• Building a membership database

(See even more survey-related activities in this job ad for a canvasser.)

It’s clear from the survey format that 9to5 considers climate justice to be a matter of housing, infrastructure, health, and economic justice. This is true to the concept “climate justice,” and also shows how climate is related to areas in which 9to5 has already been organizing.

Goals:

• Identify new leaders
• Collect stories
• Build membership database

Building participation

Buffalo Hospital Workers Save Colorful Scrubs

Union stewards at Kaleida Health in Buffalo, NY, surveyed coworkers on an employer-proposed policy.

In this example featured in Labor Notes, union stewards at a hospital surveyed coworkers on the question of whether their employer should dictate scrub colors. They distributed paper surveys via the steward in each area of the hospital. After a few days, they handed out a flyer with the results so far. They used the survey in two ways: first, to show overwhelming opposition to the proposal; and second, as a structure test, or a test of worker engagement and organization. As the organizers recall:

Where there was no steward, or where the steward only got a couple of surveys back, we knew we needed more help. In those areas we asked members, “Who do people go to with their problems? Who speaks up at staff meetings the most, or speaks on behalf of their department the most? Who organizes the holiday parties and gatherings outside of work?” The people named could probably get the job done.

Patrick Weisansal II, CWA Local 1168

The survey doubled as a temperature check on the scrubs issue and a way to identify potential new leaders and organizers to support workers in less involved parts of the hospital.

Goals:

• Temperature check on the issue
• Structure test
• Identify potential new leaders
• Identify less organized areas of the hospital

Philly Teachers Call Off Work In Bottom-Up Campaign

Caucus of Working Educators, a rank and file caucus of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, surveyed teachers on their top contract and social issues, as well as their willingness to act in support of those issues.

In this example, a rank-and-file caucus in a teachers union surveyed teachers on their top contract issues, the most important social issue for their school community, and what actions they were willing to participate in to fight for those issues. They used survey results in several ways:

• To start a contract campaign about the major issues
• To organize a “day of advocacy,” coinciding with International Workers’ Day and Day Without An Immigrant, that demonstrated support for community and workplace issues together
• As conversation starters to get fellow members paying attention to the upcoming contract

The survey and subsequent actions also highlighted what union leadership were not doing.

Goals:

• Start a contract campaign
• Organize a “day of advocacy” linking community & workplace issues
• Highlight what union leadership were not doing

Bus Drivers Stand Up to Retaliation and Win First Contract

A new union of DASH bus drivers in Alexandria, VA, surveyed the bargaining unit on members’ major concerns

In this example, a newly formed bus drivers’ union (with ATU Local 689) used surveys to elicit major contract issues and reach members of the bargaining unit who had voted no to unionizing. The survey helped develop talking points for going public and energized members to participate in strategy and show up to demonstrations.

Goals:

• Identify major contract issues
• Reach members who voted no to unionizing
• Create public talking points
• Energize members

Unbossed: A Black Domestic Worker Agenda

The National Domestic Workers Alliance surveyed its members about major workplace, economic, and community issues, in order to establish a political agenda.

In 2020, a campaign organizing domestic workers asked its most active members to name the workplace, economic, and community issues impacting them most. They used the results to identify priority issues for political work. (See also “Unbossed: Black Domestic Worker Organizing is Redefining the Future of Work”) The campaign used the survey to involve members in setting its broad political agenda, which includes demands that could be met at federal, state, local, or employer level. A key activity building on the agenda is getting domestic workers more involved and talking to each other, especially since many are alone on the job.

Goals:

• Identify priority political agenda
• Involve members in setting agenda
• Connect isolated workers

Establishing an evidence base

Hungry at the Table: White Paper on Grocery Workers at the Kroger Company

A group of union locals surveyed grocery store workers at the mega-chain Kroger about their working conditions.

In 2021, four locals of United Food and Commercial Workers commissioned a survey of Kroger grocery store workers in three regions. The survey report covers topics like wages, food insecurity, housing and homelessness, workload, schedule, safety and respect, and how well the parent company has been doing financially. It concludes with a list of recommendations for changes the company should make, as well as proposing private-public partnerships to counter food insecurity.

This type of survey report functions as an evidence base for unions entering contract negotiations. It has gotten a ton of press coverage (see e.g. “A Horrifying Report Shows the Miserable Working Conditions at Kroger”) and may help reinforce union demands, although it’s not clear to what extent the recommendations overlap with proposed contract clauses. Regardless, there is value in clearly explaining the issues in a way that workers recognize and members of the public can understand.

Goals:

• Expose issues like pay, food/housing insecurity, and growing profits at the expense of workers
• Recommend company steps to counter food insecurity
• Create an evidence base for contract negotiations

Meeting unmet needs

UAW Dissidents Push Second-Tier Workers into Contract Talks

UAW members in Detroit, MI, surveyed fellow members for their opinions on a two-tier pay structure.

In 2011, a two-tier pay structure among UAW autoworkers motivated a group of union members to survey Detroit-area peers for their opinions about two-tier. They published summary results and complete comments on their website. Each comment is credited with the type of worker (Tier 1, Tier 2, Temporary) who submitted it. In the absence of an official union contract campaign leading into negotiations, this survey was one of several rank-and-file actions to share information and organize workers around the issue of eliminating two-tier. Other examples were banners at public events, flyers and websites with demands, selling shirts, and publishing worker-led analyses of the tentative agreement.

Goals:

• Share information and organize workers
• Step in where union leadership discourages contract campaigns and limits member access to bargaining

482Forward & Mothering Justice: Michigan K-12 Student and Parent Support Form During COVID-19 School Closure / Formulario de apoyo para padres y estudiantes de K-12 durante el cierre de la escuela COVID-19

Two parent organizations in Detroit, MI, surveyed school communities about emergency needs during COVID-related closures.

In this example, the Detroit-area parent organizations 482Forward and Mothering Justice partnered up on a survey to learn about emergency needs of their members and communities during COVID-related school closures. The survey asks respondents to submit needs, questions, contact information to join a list, and volunteer availability. The organizations used the survey to build a volunteer network, learn what needs to prioritize, and determine whether its actions were sufficiently responding to the needs.

Goals:

• Learn what needs to prioritize
• Build a volunteer network
• Determine whether actions sufficiently respond to needs

Developing strategies

The Union of Academic Student Employees & Postdocs at the University of Washington Annual Equity Surveys

UAW 4121 and the University of Washington jointly survey union members on equity issues, as specified in a contract clause.

By contract, UAW 4121 (The Union of Academic Student Employees & Postdocs at the University of Washington) issues an annual equity survey to members, covering experiences with harassment, reporting, and impacts on career development. In most years, the survey report concludes with recommendations for university policy. The survey is a clause in the collective bargaining agreement (Article 20, Section 6). The 2020 survey report summarizes the nature of the clause:

The UW-UAW Equity Survey is enshrined in the collective bargaining agreement between the University of Washington and UAW 4121, the union that represents academic student employees (ASEs) and postdocs at the UW. The contract stipulates that the survey be conducted annually and be jointly administered. The survey asks ASEs and postdocs to provide an account of how they have experienced and witnessed harassment, how well they are able to access various institutions and resources, as well as their experience of campus climate.

Equity Survey Report 2020, jointly administered by the University of Washington and UAW 4121

The union uses the survey to:

• Identify equity issues and patterns
• Issue recommendations for university policy
• Inform strategies to improve equity, such as the Empowering Prevention & Inclusive Communities (EPIC) training program and organizing efforts stemming from the Anti-Discrimination Working Group 
• Assess the effectiveness of strategies
• Hold university administration to account for fulfilling their part of the survey planning and following up on recommendations

Goals:

• Identify issues and patterns
• Recommend university policy changes
• Develop union training to improve equity
• Assess effectiveness of strategies
• Specific accountability measures for administration

Countering the official story

International Student Workers Key to Chicago Grad Strike Victory

GEO Local 6297 at the University of Illinois Chicago surveyed international students about their financial circumstances

In this example, a graduate workers union surveyed international students (pursuing degrees in the U.S. under visas) to understand their financial circumstances. The survey supported other organizing steps, such as:

• Forming an International Caucus within the local
• Prioritizing issues affecting international students in the new contract
• Informing students of their rights as workers in the U.S.
• Countering a university survey of the same group
• Engaging student in advance of a strike action

Goals:

• Prioritize issues affecting international students in new contract
• Inform students of rights as workers in the U.S.
• Counter a university survey
• Engage students leading into strike action

People’s Budget Chicago

People’s Budget Chicago surveys residents about the next year’s city budget.

In this example, a racial justice advocacy group created an online survey that solicited residents’ input on the next year’s city budget. Chicago United for Equity (CUE) ran the survey in parallel with small group sessions in nine neighborhoods affected by inequity, in partnership with community-based organizations. Survey takers could watch videos and look at photos of group participants presenting their budget ideas. They were then asked the following:

• How they would allocate $100 across 6 areas (health, housing, education, community resources, infrastructure, carceral system)
• Between 2 randomly paired ideas, which should receive additional funding?

Chicago organizers argued that the allocations as officially presented didn’t reflect results of the city’s own budget survey (see “Building People-Powered Budgets”). Outcomes of the People’s Budget included:

• Presenting alternative processes and ideas to the official processes and ideas
• Modeling participatory budgeting, which can become an organizing goal

In 2022, the People’s Budget shifted focus to how funds are allocated for and within Chicago Public Schools. Called the Young People’s Budget Chicago, this effort attempted a student-led process to answer the question, “What do our school communities need to be safe & thriving?”

Goals:

• Present alternatives to the official city budget and public input process
• Model participatory budgeting
• Prioritize ideas of residents most affected by inequity

(Note: The image above shows an older version of the People’s Budget homepage archived in March 2022)

Drawing public attention

Free Library staff complain of workplace bias, harassment

The staff union at the Free Library of Philadelphia revived a workplace bias survey after management shut it down.

In 2019, the Free Library of Philadelphia staff union resurrected a workplace bias survey after management shut it down for receiving too many negative responses. The survey asked public library workers “whether they had experienced or observed bias in the workplace” and (from what I can tell) shared anonymous responses in a forum where all staff could see them. The union also shared survey results with reporters and members of the Philadelphia City Council.

By reviving the survey, the union responded to:

• Evidence of rampant harassment and discrimination in the workplace
• A defensive administrative action

The union publicized survey results to show evidence of a terrible work environment and management’s lack of follow-up. There are likely to be both union members and members of management involved in the harassment that staff reported (as aggressors, targets, allies intervening, and bystanders turning a blind eye) so one open question is what steps the union can take to also address this issue within its own ranks.

The following summer, library staff pressed their concerns through an open letter from Concerned Black Workers of the Free Library of Philadelphia and a union petition calling for a vote of no confidence in library leadership. These moves escalated and built upon the survey action while drawing even more public attention.

Goals:

• Share responses with staff, reporters, city council
• Highlight lack of management action on workplace bias
• Respond to defensive management action
• Prepare the ground for future staff/union actions

(Note: The image above shows the Inquirer article as archived on June 21, 2021. Web crawlers didn’t capture the featured photograph.)

COVID-19 and Garment Workers

The Worker Rights Consortium surveyed garment workers on working conditions & suppliers on treatment from buyers, during the pandemic.

In mid-2020, the think tank Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) conducted two surveys in the garment industry. The first solicited information from garment workers about their working and living conditions during the pandemic. The worker survey reached people in Bangladesh, Cambodia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Lesotho, and Myanmar. It asked workers about their dependents, brands they sew for, pandemic changes in their employment status and income, and access to food/nutrition.

The second survey asked garment suppliers about their labor practices and treatment received from buyers, during the pandemic. The supplier survey focused on Bangladeshi businesses. It gathered information from business owners about whether buyers honored payments/orders/contracts, how they treated workers, and whether buyers funded furloughs and other employment changes.

In addition to surveys, the organization conducted parallel research by following news reports of garment factory closures, analyzing trade data, and interviewing workers. Although WRC mostly issued research reports, statements, and articles, it also turned survey outcomes into three consumer-oriented actions:

• Created a Covid-19 Tracker: Which Brands Acted Responsibly toward Suppliers and Workers?
• Partnered with a consumer campaign targeting labor practices in the industry
• Issued guidelines for infection control and COVID-related workers’ compensation

Goals:

• Track brand behavior towards suppliers and workers
• Gather evidence for consumer campaign
• Issue guidelines for workers’ comp and infection control

Global Samsung: A report on unsustainable labor practices

Reporters at the South Korean news agency Hankyoreh surveyed Samsung factory workers about their working conditions.

Throughout 2019, reporters at Hankyoreh published the outcomes of surveying Samsung workers in nine cities in India, Indonesia, and Vietnam, about their working conditions. They were following leads about workers getting sick and/or dying from working conditions, while the company fought efforts to unionize. The survey and parallel interviews showed close ties between Samsung and local governments. Local agencies allowed factories to be located in special economic zones exempt from government ministry oversight, while local police helped suppress labor organizing. (Listen to an interview with reporter Lee Jae-yeon on the Belabored podcast, 15:35-36:05)

The reporters conducted the investigation in order to bring South Korean attention to the scope of the problem. Although labor abuses and union-busting at domestic Samsung facilities were well-known to South Koreans, the public had not “acknowledged the problem” in Asian factories as a first step towards addressing them.

(Read the series: part I, part II, part III, part IV, part V, part VI, , part VII, part VIII)

One indirect outcome of the investigation has been a French court case charging Samsung with deceiving consumers by “making false claims about respecting the rights of workers at its Asian factories.” Although similar complaints were initiated several years earlier, French NGOs filed a new round of complaints citing the Hankyoreh investigation as evidence.

Goals:

• Bring domestic public attention to labor abuses abroad
• Provide evidence for legal investigations and complaints

All of the above: 9to5

From its earliest days in the 1970s, the working women’s organization 9to5 surveyed office workers about their working conditions as the foundation of many different organizing tactics.

Bringing all of the above organizing activities together, 9to5 used surveys for several different purposes throughout its evolution from a discussion group, to a local “organization for women office workers,” to a national association and union. [Most information below is from Knocking on Labor’s Door: Union Organizing in the 1970s and the Roots of a New Economic Divide by Lane Windham; the documentary 9to5: The Story of a Movement (2021); and “Organizing 9to5” by Amanda Lauren Walter, Karen Nussbaum, and Ellen Cassedy.]

At first, the discussion group grew its membership by handing out a newsletter and survey outside major area employers and subway stops. 9to5 later used survey responses to hold a public forum and meet with the Boston chamber of commerce.

Under such headlines as ‘We DO Have Rights’ and ‘“Girls” till We Retire,’ they aimed to change the lens through which female clericals saw their own jobs. Meanwhile, they insisted that ‘we must get together as office workers, not only as women,’ and so kept readers updated on local union organizing at hospitals and insurance companies. They saw themselves as part of a larger working women’s movement.

Windham, Knocking on Labor’s Door, p. 156-7

As the association grew and began to meet setbacks, members developed a caucus-based organizational structure with committees of office workers from different industries. Each committee initially used surveys to raise awareness among workers without confronting employers:

For instance, while the insurance committee passed out leaflets and surveys in front of Travelers Insurance, New England Mutual, and other major Boston insurers, they did not yet confront these companies directly about their employment practices and pay. Rather, they used their surveys to build a report on the insurance industry, which then formed the basis for two public forums.

Windham, Knocking on Labor’s Door, p. 159

Follow-ups to surveys tended to include forums reporting results to the public and press, proposing legislation and regulations, and lobbying state government officials. 9to5 also moved into more confrontational tactics such as civil rights and class action lawsuits against employers, passing out leaflets to workers and shareholders at events, and public opinion tactics like issuing awards to the worst employers in various industries. They continued to run surveys whose findings led directly into demands, such as equity in hiring/pay/promotion, respect on the job, training, and benefits. Unfortunately, although the organization and its committees pursued changes in maternal leave, they decided against demanding childcare; this proved to be a dealbreaker for many Black members in particular.

Starting in 1975, 9to5 also organized as a union (SEIU Local 925) using surveys as the first step in signing up new members. A survey would lead to a series of follow-up 1:1 conversations with union members, then getting people to sign a union card. Local 925’s first campaign and win was among librarians at Brandeis University.

Conclusion

Surveys can be a powerful tool for building groups and campaigns, engaging members, gathering evidence, meeting unmet needs, and shaping public narratives around issues that matter to archival workers. We hope our survey and these examples can be useful in your organizing!

To share feedback on the AWC survey, including ideas for how to build upon it, please contact us at awefund@gmail.com.