NATCA Recognizes Scholarship Winners: Reagan Fowers
Every year, NATCA offers a scholarship program for spouses, children, stepchildren, and legally adopted children of active, retired, and deceased members in good standing for at least two consecutive years. This scholarship is for full-time attendance at accredited colleges and universities within the United States and its territories for an undergraduate degree program.
This year’s prompt asked candidates to examine the factors that can either strengthen or weaken labor unions.
Reagan Fowers, child of Seth Fowers (Salt Lake City Center, ZLC) is among this year’s 20 scholarship winners. Read the essay that Reagan submitted below.
Like every country, committee, and other governing body with an aim to help society, division inherently exists. The world provokes a multitude of divisions; whether it be race, gender, political leanings or other, we can easily fall into conflict. Unions have particular challenges with mastering unity when it comes to fulfilling all the needs of its members. Some members prioritize wages and benefits, while others may prefer a focus on work-life balance and amenities offered by the organization. Differences like these may temporarily divide members, sowing disagreement and discord. However, finding common ground is crucial to ease these tensions and remind members why they chose to be part of a union. After all, the etymology of the word “union” is derived from the Latin unus, meaning “one.” In order to act as one body, the union must utilize tactics to mobilize its members towards one unifying cause–the betterment of their lives as employees, providers, and citizens.
To strengthen unity, unions can set out specific aims to ensure clarity within all of its membership. By outlining the goals of the union, members are less likely to conflict over what they think the union should be prioritizing. These goals should be decided on either with elected representatives or a majority vote in order to properly represent the common aims of the members. Another element to foster unity within a union is by building up the relationships within. A union may host welcoming gatherings, provide support (like scholarships) to members and their families, and promote face-to-face interaction between members. The union is then strengthened by the strong interpersonal connections between members, who are friendlier to each other and more open to collaboration. Humans are a social species, and require positive social interaction to make them feel fulfilled. If a union has happy and fulfilled members, they can better serve each other with confidence and unity. A third method to unite members is through communication. By being transparent with members about how the union is being successful and unsuccessful, clearly organizing strikes and other collective actions, and regularly updating members from the union leadership promotes an overall sense of harmony. Each member, properly educated on the activities of their union, can proudly represent the organization and inform others on how they are fostering change in their workplace. A well-connected system of communication online, through social media or other, can make members feel closer to one another despite potentially being thousands of miles apart.
All of these strategies require leadership making strides towards unity. Leaders can validate their members’ goals, recognizing the different desires of wages, benefits, and more. They must listen intently to the requests of their members and incorporate each and every suggestion into their problem approach. Despite division, leadership must emphasize the common goal of all members: to improve their lives. Repeatedly urging members to remember this crucial fact, to remember the reason they are in a union, can help maintain a sense of oneness within.
