The creative challenges of fostering a voluntary membership

When the Society’s collective agreement with Ontario Hydro took effect on Jan. 1, 1993 – its first collective agreement since certifying as an official labour union in 1989 – it could finally rely on the Rand Formula for collecting and sustaining membership dues.

In Ontario labour law, the Rand Formula, also known as “automatic check-off” or “compulsory check-off,” requires all workers covered by a collective agreement to pay union dues to the union certified as the employee’s official bargaining agent with the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB). The employer is legally required to withdraw union dues from the employee’s paycheque and transfer it to the labour union.

It’s named after Supreme Court of Canada Justice Ivan Rand, who enforced the provision in his arbitration decision while overseeing a dispute between the United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 200 and Ford Motor Company in Windsor, Ontario. The union had gone on a 99-day strike, calling for “union shop and check-off.” They were demanding that they be the sole bargaining agent of the workers, and they wanted automatic dues deductions. The union was energized by the victory won by American Ford workers in 1941, who successfully negotiated the two demands.

The Rand Formula, which has since been enshrined in Ontario labour law, ensures that all workers who benefit from a collective agreement are contributing to the costs of administering that collective agreement. Through the democratic process, workers can make decisions on how to spend collective funds.

"But for most of the Society’s history, union membership was voluntary. This meant that the Society had the longstanding task of recruiting and sustaining its membership."

But for most of the Society’s history, union membership was voluntary. This meant that the Society had the longstanding task of recruiting and sustaining its membership, which it accomplished through a variety of creative strategies.

Delegates' Council, 1974.

Cheri Funston worked for the Society of United Professionals for 35 years. She started as a secretary in 1987 and retired as Administrative Team Supervisor in 2022. Her historic knowledge of the Society sheds some light on how its voluntary membership shaped its culture and operations in the years before certification.

“You had to be recruiting all the time,” she explained. “You really wanted, first of all, to keep the amount you were bringing in at a certain level to help pay for your services. But you also just wanted to keep your numbers up.”

She said they would run membership drives every year, where the Society saturated employees with information. She first started at the Society during one of its drives and saw first-hand the vigorous outreach efforts employed in these periods.

“We always printed a membership brochure that went out on a regular basis, and it would have a sign-up paper in it. It would explain what the Society does and the benefits of belonging,” she said.

Registered members had the benefit of voting in Society referendums and elections, and they would receive Society publications. But a non-member could belong to the bargaining unit despite not paying dues and would still be covered by the collective agreement. Funston said the Society would still be required to represent these employees in grievances with the employer. They reaped the benefits of representation without contributing financially.

However, grievance representation provided an opportunity for the Society to recruit. “A lot of times, if you were representing someone who was a non-member in a grievance – and I think we did a pretty good job of winning grievances – then you would approach them to sign a card.”

According to Funston, the employees would frequently sign cards because they saw first-hand the direct benefit of belonging to a group like the Society. Election and referendum periods were likewise opportunities to build the membership.

While non-members could vote for a collective agreement, explained Funston, they couldn’t vote for their representatives. “For a lot of people, that became an important thing. So, you would use that as an opportunity,” she said.

In those years, the Society’s executive board was a lot smaller, with approximately 8-10 members, as Funston recalls. Elected principal officers were volunteers, and often only served one-year terms. Society delegates focused on recruitment in addition to looking after the basic needs of members. Delegates would connect with new staff in the workplace, who served as potential members.

Funston saw a variety of creative campaign drives during her time at the Society. One drive, she recounted fondly, capitalized off the relationships that employees held with the Society’s elected representatives.

The Society took pictures of delegates and unit directors and put them on posters, alongside a description of their union activism. With the photo, it would say something like “‘so-and-so’ has been involved in grievances for years solving problems for his members,” said Funston.

“I think it was really successful because people would see the picture of the person and recognize them. I think that really spoke to people.”

BROADCASTING FROM SOCIETY HEADQUARTERS

The Society’s outreach strategies were very much informed by the technology of the times. And there is perhaps no better example than the Society Newscast, which was in place throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. Funston herself would record a message on tape recorders, and members could call a specific number and hear a weekly update from the association.

“The senior staff officer Darlene Booth used to write them. She would include whatever happened to be going on – if there were significant grievances, what was going on in negotiations, that sort of stuff,” said Funston.

“And then on Friday afternoon I would record the newscast from the written document. It was usually one page long. That was recorded on two tape recorders.”

Funston would practice the script in advance, especially when there were difficult words or names to pronounce. “You didn’t want to start the recording and then wreck the name, because then you had to do it all over again. You couldn’t just stop and pick up.”

She said the newscast was very popular. “People really liked it a lot, mostly because it would give you really up-to-date news, because they were doing it every week.” And through this medium, updates were accessible for the Society’s few sight-impaired members.

Other Society functions were also impacted by the technological climate. “We didn’t have a lot of technology compared to what we do now. Everything was mailed out to people.”

“We did something called the ‘delegram,’” said Funston. It was a delegate-specific mailout sent monthly. This was just one of the many documents and brochures mailed out, in lieu of the Internet, that kept members informed of the campaigns, finances, and negotiations of the Society.

During the era of voluntary membership, the absence of the Internet also heightened the importance of travel to connect the executive to Society members. With much of the Society staff in the central core of Toronto, annual general membership meetings were planned in remote locations, and executive members would visit to build connections between the Society and its more isolated membership. These visits were recruitment opportunities.

When the Society transitioned to the Rand Formula after unionizing in 1989, the Society had newfound stability, new resources, and new capacity to organize outwardly. Perhaps the silver lining of having a voluntary membership was that the Society developed a truly membership-driven culture, something that has endured the test of time.

Members Jogendra Singh and Andy Poray at a 1986 Delegates' Council.