HippoBLOGamus

Continued from Part 2

Telling the Stories of Workers

As the eldest of nine kids in a working-class family in Western Kentucky, I’ve always felt an affinity for people who work for a living. But I also understand how that old economic self-interest can overrule the higher good. How else can we explain why so many union members continue to shop at Walmart, a renegade anti-union employer that will shut a store before it recognizes a union? In fact, I let self-interest skew my judgment when I was working as an opinion writer for the Indiana Daily Student.

It was back in 1972, when I was a junior. I criticized the staff workers at IU, represented by the Communications Workers of America, my union most recently, because they were seeking wage gains the administration said would result in an increase in tuition. We were struggling students, doing the best we could to maintain our balance in a financially challenging situation. The university was about EDUCATION, after all.

Looking back now, I’m ashamed of that editorial, because it did not recognize the sacrifices and needs of the struggling workers and their families, who were treated not much better than the indigenous Bloomington “Cutters” in the brilliant movie, “Breaking Away.” For all my working-class roots and sensibilities, I couldn’t get past my own narrow interest in that case.

At some point, about 30 years later, I abandoned the pose of objectivity and became an unabashed advocate for workers and their unions. I want to focus our discussion on excellence in labor journalism, on what it takes to be an advocate – and the differences between advocating for your union with members, and advocating for your members with the general public. In each case, however, you have to understand the motivations of the audiences.

In the case of labor journalists, you are telling stories about workers – advocating on their behalf,  and on behalf of the union they have formed to create a better life for themselves and their families. But that story can be substantially different as you move from one audience to the next – from union members to the general public.

You no longer are working to get like-minded people to act, but you are trying to persuade a largely ignorant and cynical audience. Thus, the language you use, the arguments you make…will determine whether you will win hearts and minds, or simply confirm preconceived notions about you and your union.

Read Part 4

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