Values-Based Organizing: United Steelworkers Learned How to Truly Meet Workers Where They Are
How values-based research with Grow Progress made field organizers at United Steelworkers more effective at persuading workers towards unionization
For over 80 years, the United Steelworkers (USW) have been a powerful force in the fight for fair wages, better labor practices, and workplace safety. They’ve championed workers across industries like steel, paper, forestry, manufacturing, and mining.
As they continue to battle both sentiments of anti-union and union ambivalence, USW had to ask themselves: Were their tried-and-true messaging tactics still as effective as they once were? Could they learn more about the neutral middle and persuade them to become union promoters?
They partnered with Grow Progress and used the Grow Progress suite of tools to find out.
Understanding Their Audience
Grow Progress ran an Audience Understanding Survey (AUS) to better understand the attitudes, values, and beliefs of blue collar workers across the U.S when it comes to unions. An Audience Understanding Survey with Grow Progress prompts respondents to answer not only standard demographic information, but also almost 80 value-based questions. Respondents then answered a series of open-ended questions about unionization and provided written responses in their own words.
The Audience Understanding Survey results highlighted that 42% of their audience said they would remain neutral if their coworkers started unionization efforts. When the USW team dug further into the worldviews of this neutral group, they discovered values like patriotism, tradition and a sense that “things were better in the good old days.”
Crafting and Testing Their Messages
With the knowledge of what values to speak to when trying to persuade this neutral group, they used Grow Progress’ Persuasion Sandbox, a tool designed to craft compelling messages based on your indicated values and persuasion mechanisms, using the power of generative AI.
USW then ran Rapid Message Tests (RMTs) to determine which messages were most effective at moving people from a negative or neutral stance about unionization towards a supportive one. They found one message was most effective: a message that spoke to nostalgia; the idea of unions being a way to get back to the “good old days” and ensure financial security and dignity for everyday people.
Bringing Organizers on Board
The next step for the United Steelworkers team was to get buy-in from their Field Organizers to then incorporate these messages into their conversations with workers.
Yet, USW found that just simply sharing the results of their test didn’t go far enough to get Organizers to understand the true effectiveness of speaking to someone’s values – especially when that person’s values are different from your own. While the Rapid Message Test showed what worked, it wasn’t enough to present the findings to their Organizers; the Organizers needed to believe in the approach themselves.
To overcome this hurdle, the USW team tried something innovative. They had their Field Organizers answer the same set of values-based questions that respondents answered in an Audience Understanding Survey. The USW team showed the Organizers the difference between how they answered the values-based questions and how the neutral group of respondents answered them to drive home the idea.
Aha—the lightbulb flickered on for many organizers. Suddenly, the reasoning behind the new messaging clicked, and organizers felt more willing to change their tactics.
Messaging That Makes a Difference
This messaging shift had an immediate impact: As soon as the organizers put this concept to the test, they were better able to bridge the gap with workers. In one instance, after winning a decertification election (where workers vote on whether to remove a union), an organizer coached pro-union workers on how to respond to anti-union coworkers.
The next day, a younger pro-union worker used one of the new talking points, saying, “For me, there’s nothing more American than being able to vote for things. That’s what we did yesterday, and that’s democracy, and we voted for the union.” The anti-union worker, who had started the decertification effort, had no response—he simply walked away.
In another case, workers were nervous about talking to their pro-Trump coworkers about unions. An organizer reassured them by framing union voting as a core American value: “Voting for a union is as American as apple pie. This country was built on voting.” That simple reframing gave workers the confidence to start having those crucial conversations.
The Takeaway
“Grow Progress’s tools provided us with information about the general working population’s views about unionizing based on questions we asked…being able to test what we specifically we wanted to know—interest in unionizing, as well as interest in active participation in union campaigns—took our understanding a step further.”
By using a Grow Progress Audience Understanding Survey, USW was able to better understand the values of the people they needed to persuade, develop powerful messages that speak to those values, and help organizers see why that messaging would be effective to share.
“Grow Progress’s tools provided us with information about the general working population’s views about unionizing based on questions we asked. We already have access to broader opinions on unionizing from sources like Gallup, but being able to test what we specifically wanted to know—interest in unionizing, as well as interest in active participation in union campaigns—took our understanding a step further.
This, coupled with the information of respondents’ values, is hopefully a significant step in shaping how our organizers approach workers and helps give them tools about how to tweak their approach in the future.”
United Steelworkers give us a powerful reminder: speaking to values leads to more effective persuasion.
Ready to find the messaging that resonates with your audiences? Learn more about Grow Progress’ Audience Understanding Surveys and Rapid Message Tests, and be sure to sign up for our newsletter and never miss a beat.
