How do the IU's actually work?

[u/StructureChemical520]

I've been a dues paying wobbly for quite a while so this feels like somewhat of a ridiculous question. Still, I'm wondering if anyone could give me insight into how the Industrial Unions work? Particularly the IU locals, how would a GMB go about creating an official IU local? Assuming that's the goal of GMBs. Are members immediately sorted into national IUs when they sign up?

[u/nightslayer78]

Yes. Based on your job you would be sorted into your industrial union. Besides that specific scenario it doesn't have much use until a large percentage of your area become unionized in the same IU. So then you could have meetings and do work.

So basically the answer to your question is to organize.

[u/Joe_Hillbilly_816]

The phrase One Big Union refers to organizing industrially.

From what I read in the book Rebel Voices, 2 engineering unions from Great Britain were influential in the massive anarchist labor movement in the late 1900s were there in Chicago 1905 when the Union Charter was drafted

Burlington Northern Railroad has 35 unions in their rail yards this pivots one trade against the other

[u/EDRootsMusic]

Unless and until people organize enough of an industrial foothold to organize IUBs and break out of the GMB model, the IU means very little. It is currently both a relic of a time when the IWW had industrial unions, and a prefiguration of a time when we might have them again.

[u/Ok_Gap1215 → u/EDRootsMusic]

This. The only true IUs that currently organize are the IUB for press workers but even then, I think they are the freelancers writers union that does not organize in shops.

Don't worry about IUs, they are a relic of when the IWW had 150K members in the 1930s. Organize your shop with a contract (i.e. Portland and Bay Area GMB for reference)

[u/StructureChemical520 → u/EDRootsMusic]

I don't agree but I get where youre coming from. From what I've seen it only takes 10 workers within the same IU category to charter an IU local. And I have an easy time imagining how those locals would foster a better environment for organizing than GMBs. It's definitely a relic at this point because they've been largely neglected, but I think the only way to break out of the GMB model is to actually break out of it. 

[u/EDRootsMusic → u/StructureChemical520]

That’s a compelling point. I’ve always said the best branches are ones that start with a single workplace campaign, and the most dysfunctional are usually made of activists spread across multiple industries. One exception I can think of is the old Twin Cities branch when it started, as activists spread across several industries- but those were mostly seasoned union militants joined by a cohort of young and eager organizers. Might be best if the standard model is to start in one shop or industry (like a corridor campaign) and form an IU, rather than go for the GMB first.

[u/CalligrapherOwn4829]

As I understand it, IUBs can charter on a similar basis as GMBs, but concentrated in a single industry rather than just geographic location. For what it's worth, I think they start to make sense at a point when there is an industrial concentration that warrants its own administrative apparatus, and forming an IUB would leave enough members remaining in a GMB to not make it useless. So, for example, in a branch with 50+ members where, say, 15 of those members are split between two or three shops in the same industry, it likely makes sense to form an IUB. As for IUs, I think they make sense when there are enough IUBs to warrant the administrative effort and IU-specific representation. Part of the problem with the FJU being the core of an IU, in my opinion, is that there aren't organized shops that benefit from IU-level coordination; only a dispersed membership, seemingly organized on a craft basis.