AFT.org

For the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), organizing training doesn’t stop in the classroom. Through its mobilization blitz trainings, AFT brings organizers and union leaders together for an intensive week of training with immediate application as participants are sent into the field to put their organizing skills into practice. Action Builder has become an important part of that process.

Jennifer Porcari, Director of AFT’s Public Employees Division, has been with AFT for nearly 30 years. Since 2024, she has used Action Builder to support these trainings, helping teams manage turf, conduct assessments, and capture the organizing data they collect in the field.

We spoke with Jenn about how AFT uses Action Builder and what she’s learned from introducing organizers to the tool.

Live Action Builder demos are held every Tuesday at 3pm ET. Click here to sign up to attend the next one.

Can you tell us about AFT’s mobilization blitz trainings and how Action Builder fits into them?

Jenn: We’ve been using Action Builder exclusively when we do mobilization blitz trainings. I think the first time we used Action Builder was 2024.

We train on our organizing model, and then we put people in the field immediately. It’s only a 7-day training, and Action Builder is what we have pivoted to, and we have been very enthusiastic about all of the opportunities and ways that we can use it.

What do these trainings look like in practice?

Everybody gets divided up into 6 teams. Each team has a lead, and each team has turf. We try to have 6 people on a team so that we can send people out in pairs to house call. The training requires 4 nights of house calling and daily worksite activities.

Action Builder is used for a lot of different things. We use it to cut turf for house calling, to assign each team very specific worksite turf, and we only give folks access for the length of time as the training requires.

So, it’s easy to turn access on and off, just for the trainees to use during that time. The training is intense in the first two days, and then the teams go to work to organize their turf, and to bring more members into the union movement.

“We understand that Action Builder is for us. This is the tool that labor made.”

What do you appreciate most about Action Builder?

I appreciate most that Action Builder is very flexible. We generally will have a data architect on the ground with us. That’s where it works really well, so that they can really pivot when we need to pivot. If we determine that this building needs to move from Turf Team 1 to Team 4, it’s very easy to do.

Additionally, most folks find it easy to use on house calls, and everything is right there on your phone or tablet to use. For worksite activities we are easily able to craft lists and assign activities. 

We understand that Action Builder is for us. This is the tool that labor made. This is the tool that is focused on, first and foremost, how are we going to capture all of the organizing data that we need?

And for us, that is a huge difference. We are the fastest growing union in the AFL-CIO, and Action Builder has helped us get there.

How much organizing can happen during one of these blitz trainings?

Traditionally, when we do a mobilization training blitz, we will not go somewhere unless there’s a thousand doors to knock. In the last blitz that I did, which was in mid-September, we knocked on 685 doors, and, we had about 125 one-on-ones with assessments that we were easily able to put into Action Builder. 

We grew our union by 78 new members, which doesn’t sound like a large number, but these are very mature unions. The ones we were working with were 50 years old. These are unions that have been around for a long time.

But they often don’t have people assessed, which makes me crazy.

“Each time a local leaves a training session with Action Builder, they come right back and ask our data architects, ‘How can my local get this? How can they have access to use it full-time?’” 

Many of the people participating in these trainings are new to Action Builder. How quickly do they pick it up?

It’s getting better. Since now we’re in our third year of using Action Builder, about a fourth of the folks will have used Action Builder, and we don’t need to give them a new login, for example. They already have their login. 

You know, a quarter to a half will be professional organizers, or leaders that have a lot of experience in this, and then we’ll bring in the members who are learning how to build power and organize. And what ends up happening is that each time a local leaves a training session with Action Builder, they come right back and ask our data architects, ‘How can my local get this? How can they have access to use it full-time?’ 

Live Action Builder demos are held every Tuesday at 3pm ET. Click here to sign up to attend the next one.

What role do data and data expertise play in making Action Builder work?

I do think that it makes a big difference to have somebody whose sole focus is data. But this tool can easily be used without a data professional. 

For the leaders and colleagues that are in the field, I want them to use it more, and I don’t understand what their hesitation is. I don’t understand why many of the leaders would still be putting things in an Excel spreadsheet or writing things in a notebook when they should be using this.

We’re on board, 100%.

Thank you Jenn for taking the time to speak with me about your experience with Action Builder!

You can learn more about the AFT at aft.org. 

Want to see Action Builder yourself? Sign up for our next live demo, held every Tuesday at 3 pm ET. Ready to get started? You can sign up for Action Builder at actionbuilder.org.