Ally Stutzman, President of the Santa Cruz Council of Classified Employees, thinks the reason they got an organizing grant from CFT this summer was because they had a clear vision and goals: supporting their members and strengthening the union. 

The grant has allowed AFT Local 6084 to hire a union organizer, Jenny Robles, who was previously Secretary for the local, and Stutzman says her work makes a big difference. 

“We do something called Snacks and Solidarity, where we bring snacks to the sites during members’ break or lunch,” Stutzman said. Robles “talks with the community and sees what’s working and what they wish could be improved.”

Robles sends out emails once a week and helps with the newsletter. She also translates, Stutzman said, since many of the members are Spanish speakers. 

Stutzman noted that the grant, which is $15,000 a semester, has made a huge difference in how members feel about their union. 

“Over the past three months, we’ve gotten countless emails thanking us for our communication and for going above and beyond for our members,” Stutzman said. “We send them notes and little goodies and have meetings at a pizza joint, so we all have dinner together.”

The Palomar Council of Classified Employees also got an organizing grant. Anel Gonzalez, president of the local, says they set lofty goals, like increasing their membership to 90%.  

“We’ve had a strong membership at 85%, but one of the things we’ve noticed is they’re not active, so we’re working on engagement,” Gonzalez said. “With the grant, we allocated money for member organizing.”

Jena Kruhmin, Vice President of Membership, has been leading that effort. She describes their union as a full service one, going beyond negotiating and representing members with grievances. For instance, they have a fund to help those in need and to celebrate life events as well as a scholarship fund members can use for themselves or their families to continue their education. 

They also make an effort to show up on campus, Kruhmin says, at events like the Pride Parade and the Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations. The grant helps them “go big,” she said. 

“The history of the local is not having two pennies to rub together, right? A lot of employees remember those times, so having an injection of funds to go big and have the table and the decorations – it helps us build that sense of community,” Kruhmin said. “On a smaller scale, we’re changing our strategy to do more one-on-ones with our site reps, so the organizing funds are helping our site reps just pick up greeting cards or treats or small things when they’re visiting folks and saying hi.”

Another way the grant helps is with engagement, Gonzalez adds, not just talking to members when they’re asking them to do something for the union.  

“We’re like, ‘Hey, come to the home game for the Palomar football team. We’re having a big union presence there, and we’re catering dinner. Then they come with their family,” Gonzalez said. “This is creating a sense of community within the classified staff, but also a connection to Palomar, so when we do need them to show up to the board, we can say, ‘Hey, we need you at the board meeting. We’re talking about this issue, we need bodies, wear your shirt.’ That sort of thing.”

Gonzalez recently got her master’s degree in Management and Leadership from Western Governors University, and Kruhmin is almost finished with hers in Human Resources from the University of Denver. Gonzalez jokes they got very scholarly when they wrote the grant. 

Both say one thing they’re excited about is that the grant money allowed them to adopt a new database so they can keep more accurate lists. 

“I think this database will take us to the next level and help us internally to be a stronger union,” Kruhmin said. “It will help us show up to the negotiations table and advocate from a really strong data-driven position.”

Data shows them their efforts on engagement are working, Gonzalez adds. They discovered that more than half of their members read a recent email. 

“That’s pretty awesome because we know that according to the marketing gurus, a good email is about 25%, so I feel like our engagement is working,” Gonzalez said. “People really like the visits from our site reps. The site reps sometimes walk around with donuts, for example, and they’re like, ‘Take a donut.’ And people are like, ‘That’s all? You just want to give me a donut, and you don’t want anything else?’ And we always say, ‘Not yet.’”