Vera Newton, a scheduling clerk at Ford’s Louisville, Ky., assembly plant, volunteered for her first organizing assignment just a few months ago--in January. The UAW Local 862 member was on her third assignment when Solidarity magazine caught up with her in rural Ohio two months later.

In that brief time, Newton spoke to hundreds of unorganized workers while making home visits on behalf of the UAW.

"Home visits," says Newton, "give workers that important one-on-one visual contact with the union and the opportunity to talk to a real live person about their issues."

For organizers, she adds, "home visits are 25 percent talking and 75 percent listening. It’s so painful sometimes to listen to people talk, to learn how severe their issues are. People are so afraid to talk sometimes, afraid of losing their jobs."

Newton says she gets a "real sense of pride knowing that my union is reaching out to parts suppliers. I feel very strongly about organizing. It is rewarding to know I can make a difference in someone’s life by bringing the union to them."

Organizing parts suppliers is essential to UAW-Big Three auto workers, Newton says, because it improves opportunities to network with suppliers, increases product quality, and prevents outsourcing to low wage, non-union shops.

Newton feels she is representing other Local 862 members when she is volunteering on organizing assignments. But she also encourages other workers, especially younger union members, to become volunteer organizers themselves. She brings that message back to the Ford assembly plant as well as to the Derby City chapter of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), where she was recently elected president.

"If you want to know more about your union, this is a good stepping stone," says Newton.

"Organizing, talking to people, and finding out their issues gives you a feel for what other people’s lives are like. It gives you a better understanding of how important it is to be union."