Utility Workers Union of America
AFL - CIO Local 127

There are two reasons for you to become personally involved in organizing activity outside of your workplace.  First, a healthy, effective union is one in which the members pitch in to do the work, greatly increasing the people-resources of the union.  Second, no matter how skilled professional union staff may be—if there is one at all—there is an extra measure of credibility when an already-organized employee speaks directly to an unorganized worker about day-to-day experiences.  The successes of member-to-member organizing are clear:  one study issued by the AFL-CIO, for example, documents that unions win representation elections in 73 percent of the organizing drives conducted by ordinary members but in only 17 percent of those conducted by professional staff.
—Adapted from The Union Member's Complete Guide, by Michael Mauer