Strategic Organizing & Target Analysis

1. Strategic Organizing &Target Analysis

2. ThinkingStrategically Politicians Workers Suppliers and Vendors Middle Managers Competition Officers, Shareholders Board of Dir. Target Customers Financial Institutions Gov. And Regulatory Agencies The Media Social Justice Groups Religious and Charitable Other

3. Is Your Target Realistic? • Should Be Manageable Size When Compared to YOUR Resources • 10-15 Ideal for Most Organizers • Are There Identifiable Issues? • How Do You Know? • What Sources Will You Use Beyond The Employees?

4. Number One Research Source For Organizers?

5. Seven Research Topics • Workplace justice issues • Social justice and regulatory issues • Employer’s labor relations record • Basic power structure analysis • Employer’s financial condition • The employers strategic plan • Impact of industry changes

6. Workplace Justice Issues Research Topic #1

7. Information needed Identify problems for the workers that will drive the social justice message for the campaign Unfair firings Layoffs Workplace discrimination Healthcare Pension issues Unreasonable demands for concessions Information needed Wage and hour violations Mandatory overtime Part time work Temporary work Subcontracting Plant closings ULP’s Shifting jobs overseas Workplace Justice Issues

8. Workplace Justice Issues (Continued)Informational Sources • Law suits. • Often employer misdeeds will result in a lawsuit or civil action. • You can search and retrieve all federal court records at: • www.courtlink.com or at • www.marketspan.com

9. Workplace Justice Issues (Continued)Informational Sources • Newspaper Articles • www.northernlight.com • For newspaper articles that have a online searchable database of past issues go to • www.metalab.unc.edu/slanews/internet/archives.html

10. Workplace Justice Issues (Continued)Informational Sources • Safety and Health Issues • OSHA 200 logs can be requested at the OSHA Regional Office • The Regional Offices will be listed on the OSHA web site www.osha.gov • Employer violations and inspection data can be found on the OSHA web site • www.osha.gov

11. Workplace Justice Issues (Continued)Informational Sources • Pension and health and welfare coverage • Search for the ERISA 5500 forms online at • www.freeErisa.com

12. Other Social Justice and Regulatory Issues Research Topic #2

13. Other Social Justice and Regulatory Issues • Information needed • Environmental record • 10K report can be found at: • www.freeEdgar.com or • www.tenkwizard.com • The environmental defense fund web site can be found at: • www.edf.org

14. Other Social Justice and Regulatory Issues (Continued) • Search the Envirofacts web page at the US Environmental Protection Agency Internet Site: • www.epa.gov/enviro/index_java.html • Environmental Organizations such as: • www.sierraclub.org • www.foe.org • www.greenpeace.org

15. Other Social Justice and Regulatory Issues (Continued) • Major Litigation • Major litigation will also show up in the 10-K report for public companies • www.FreeEdgar.com • www.tenkwizard.com • Other Litigation • www.knowx.com • www.tracersinfo.com

16. Other Social Justice and Regulatory Issues (Continued) • Other Litigation • County and Federal courthouse records can be checked in the city where the company has its headquarters. Check the internet at: • www.courtlink.com • www.marketspan.com

17. Other Social Justice and Regulatory Issues (Continued) • State and County Regulatory Agencies • Many states and local governments have searchable databases online. A good site to discover which government agencies are online is: • www.info.gov/stalocal.htm • You can search items as licensing requirements or past inspection reports

18. Other Social Justice and Regulatory Issues (Continued) • FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) • The following web site will tell you how to file a FOIA, as well as the agency to submit your request. • www.aclu.org/library/foia.html#request • For a list of FOIA addresses at federal agencies go to: • www.uscg.mil/hq/g-s/g-si/g-sii/sii-2/foia_add.htm • For a list of FOIA resources by state go to: • www.reporters.net/nfoic/web/index.htm • GRAMA

19. Other Social Justice and Regulatory Issues (Continued) • Corporate Welfare: State and local Subsidies to Corporations • Check at good jobs first • www.goodjobsfirst.org • Provides information on local and corporate subsidies.

20. Employer’s Labor Relations Record Research Topic #3

21. Employer’s Labor Relations Record • What other unions represent units and where. • Will unions at other organized units be willing to engage in solidarity activity? Has there been coordinated bargaining among unions within the company. • Have other Union represented in the past (UNICORE Database)

22. Employer’s Labor Relations Record (Continued) • Anti Union Consultants • Has the company hired one and who are they? • www.aflcio.org/unionbuster

23. Employer’s Labor Relations Record (Continued) • Union Busting LawyersGetting backgrounds of individual lawyers • There is a national legal directory published by Martindale-Hubbell. • Martindale-Hubbell on the internet • www.martindale.com

24. Basic Power Structure Analysis Research Topic #4

25. Basic Power Structure Analysis • Is the company public or private • A list of public companies can be found at: • www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/srch-edgar or • www.sec.gov/asec/cf/alist.txt • This will give you all public companies starting with “a”. To view “b” change alist to blist and “c” to clist and so on.

26. Basic Power Structure Analysis (Continued) • Is the company a Subsidiary of a larger Corporation? • Subsidiary information can sometimes be found at Hoovers along with financial information. • www.hoovers.com (pay site) or • www.yahoo.com once on yahoo go to “stock quotes”

27. Basic Power Structure Analysis (Continued) • Private Companies • Utah Dept of Commerce: Division of Corporations • Dun and Bradstreet • Provides a D&B Supplier Evaluation Report that can be ordered on the internet at: • www.dnb.com

28. Basic Power Structure Analysis (Continued) • Non-Profit companies • The IRS list of non profit companies is on the Internet at: • www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/search/eosearch.html or • www.nonprofits.org or • www.guidestar.org/search/index.adp or • http://Bbb.org/about/pas.asp

29. Basic Power Structure Analysis (Continued) • Profiling key people at public companies • Top executives and board members • Search the internet for SEC filings • www.FreeEdgar.com • Or find an individuals links to a company at: • www.edgar-online.com/people/ or other information on people at • www.anywho.com or • www.tracersinfo.com/

30. Basic Power Structure Analysis (Continued) • Check your companies web site. • Companies in general are very proud of their business. • Sometimes post an informal annual report on their web site • Companies post names of officers, customers, distributors subsidiaries etc.

31. Basic Power Structure Analysis (Continued) • Check National and Local Newspapers • May of which are online • Web site that have links to many newspapers include: • http://Ajr.newslink.org/daily.html (The American Journalism Review) • www.newspapers.com • www.amcity.com (American City Business Journals) • http://metalab.unc.edu/slanews/internet/archives.html Links to newspapers that have archives on line

32. Basic Power Structure Analysis (Continued) • More Newspaper links • UnCover is a fee-based database of current article information • http://uncweb.carl.org • Northern Light on the internet • www.northernlight.com

33. Basic Power Structure Analysis (Continued) • Courthouse Records • Search the links below for federal, state and some local court records • www.courtlink.com • www.marketspan.com

34. Basic Power Structure Analysis (Continued) • Identify the interlocks • Interlocks are companies that are linked to one another through members of the board of directors. • The bios on the board members in the proxy statement will list the companies that each board member is affiliated with. These are interlocks. • Often there is an underlying business relationship behind interlocks. • www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/srch-edgar

35. Basic Power Structure Analysis (Continued) • Identify the principle investors • The proxy statement list any investor that has a five percent or more holding in the company. • Identify the lenders • Read the list of appendices to the 10-K report. Often there will be references to lending agreements between the company and lead lending institutions.

36. Basic Power Structure Analysis (Continued) • Identify the Major Customers • The rank and file membership is often in a position to have a detailed understanding of which products are beings shipped to which customers.

37. Basic Power Structure Analysis (Continued) • Identify key relationships with politicians • Center for Responsive Politics • www.opensecrets.org/home/index.asp • Search by typing the company name. This will indicate whether the company has a political action committee that has contributed to candidates. Also search by top executives and board members.

38. Employers’ Financial Condition Research Topic #5

39. Employers’ Financial Condition • Information needed • Sales • Profits • Liquidity • Debt • Sales and profits will be found on the company's income statement, liquidity or the availability of cash to meet upcoming expenses can be analyzed by reviewing the Cash Flow Statement, and debt will be analyzed by reviewing the Balance Sheet.

40. Employers’ Financial Condition (Continued) • Sites that may provide the financial information we are looking for are: • www.hoovers.com • www.companiesonline.com • Read item #7 on the 10-K report: • Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Issues.

41. Employers’ Financial Condition (Continued) • Independent analyst reports • Are readily available on public companies. You can find them at: • www.multexinvestor.com • Independent analyst reports on a company's financial performance. Often these reports project financial performance in the coming one or two years.

42. The Employer’s Strategic Plan Research Topic #6

43. The Employer’s Strategic Plan • 10-K Report • First section of the 10-K report is titled: “Item #1: Business” • This will provide a general background of the company and its performance in the industry • Company analysis by Wall Street Journalists • www.thestreet.com

44. The Employer’s Strategic Plan (Continued) • The Dow Jones Website • Allows you to search their vast number of publications including the Wall Street Journal • www.dowjones.com

45. The Employer’s Strategic Plan (Continued) • Business Magazines • Such as local business journals, Forbes www.forbes.com and Fortune www.fortune.com may also contain articles that explore a company’s strategic plan. For local business journals in 30 cities on the internet go to: • www.amcity.com

46. The Employer’s Strategic Plan (Continued) • Message Boards • Message boards are company linked lists of messages that any individual can leave for others to read. • http://messages.yahoo.com/index.html

47. Impact of Industry Changes Research topic #7

48. Impact of Industry Changes • We now want to focus on the company’s strategy, will technological changes cause job shifting etc. • Internet sources for all sorts of business information are: • The “Wall Street Research Net” www.wsrn.com/home/companyResearch.html and “Just Quotes” a similar service www.justquotes.com

49. Seven Research Topics • Workplace justice issues • Social justice and regulatory issues • Employer’s labor relations record • Basic power structure analysis • Employer’s financial condition • The employer’s strategic plan • Impact of industry changes

50. Summary • Research the 7 topics • Use the information to break the relationships that exist with the target. • Never try to take on two many relationships at once. • Start with 3 and then add more as you put the pressure on the target.