Using Hustle to Develop Labor Leaders

Building leadership is one of the cornerstones of volunteer organizations.

For unions, that means helping workplace leaders become leaders of their union. These leaders in the workplace become the face of the union and help to organize their co-workers and fight for a voice on the job.

Recently, UFCW Local 653 in Minnesota started including Hustle in their leadership development programs. UFCW Local 653 used peer-to-peer texting for both an external and internal campaign. In both campaigns Union Leaders used Hustle as a way to engage their coworkers in conversations and invite them out to upcoming events.

In the past, leaders would try to reach their coworkers on the phone or in the workplace and really enjoyed how fast they could reach out over text:
“Hustle was very easy. It was simple, straightforward and I was able to zip through the contacts fast. It took me less than an hour to get through 200 contacts,” — Alex Kunau, Union Steward

In their external organizing efforts a whopping 33% of workers responded via text message! Being contacted by a colleague that the workers knew and trusted during the organizing campaign was a positive experience for both the Union Leader and the co-worker:
“Ninety-nine percent of the people [we Hustled] were happy to be contacted by a fellow union member.” — Alex Kunau, Union Steward

Jess Alexander, an organizer for Local 653 preloaded the messages and set up the Hustle workflow for 653 members: “We’ve had about 20 different members use Hustle and it’s always easy for them to get up and running. I set it up and make sure all our messages are ready to go and then it only takes a few minutes for members to download the app, log in and start sending.” Jessica Hayssen, Communications Director for Local 653, agrees: “Hustle is an easy and effective leadership development tool to reach a lot of people quickly. Once a potential leader says yes, it is a snap from there.”

Hustle is a great way for organizers to talk to the membership. The positive experience for the leaders, the speed at which they could reach their coworkers, and the promising response rates, shows how Hustle is an effective leadership development tool for Union Leaders trying to build a better workplace for themselves and their coworkers.

UFCW Local 653 has plans to train all Union Stewards in their local to use the Hustle app in 2018. We’re so excited to support them and the amazing work they do!