The decision you have to make, as an individual represented by a union, is really no different from your obligations as a member of society. You can choose not to keep informed about union issues and not to participate in the daily life of the union. Then, just as with what happens in the larger society, you can gripe about who's running the union and the decisions they make. But there is an alternative, of course: since your union is nothing more than a collection of individual members, you can choose to become involved, and in doing so shape what your union is and what it does.

So, if you want to "own" your union and to share in the members' responsibility of running it, what can you do?

• Educate Yourself
• Be a Set of "Eyes and Ears"
• Show Solidarity
• Be a Union Emissary
• Get Involved

The union is you and your co-workers; you have it within your power to make your union an ever-more-effective fighter for workplace rights and justice.