Workplace mapping and finding organic leaders

Chart who works where, who listens to whom, and where to spend organizing time

On this page

Workplace mapping, often called wall charting, is how you understand the real power structure of your workplace. It is not only who works where. It is who listens to whom.

Not legal advice

This is a learning aid, not legal advice. Examples use Ontario law. Confirm every rule against your own collective agreement and the law where you work.

This is sensitive data

Because a map records how co-workers feel about the union, this is sensitive data. Do not store it on employer networks, and do not pin scored names on a public board. Download the template and keep the file on a personal device.

Officer Learning module

Use Module 7 when you want to practise the next step with a scenario and a checklist you can bring to a meeting.

Mobilizer & Bargaining Partner

Opens in Excel or another spreadsheet app on your own device.

When to map, and who holds the file

A map helps you plan organizing work: a membership drive, a bargaining campaign, or a department that never hears from the union. It does not replace the intake file for one member’s case.

When to map. Build it before you ask people to sign or vote. Skip a full map if you only need notes for one member; use Steward 101 instead.
Who holds it. Two or three trusted stewards keep the file. Do not put it in a group email, on a shared employer drive, or in the local’s public cloud account.
Where not to keep it. Never pin a scored map on a public union board, never store it on employer cloud, and never photograph the wall chart.

A score is a planning note, not a verdict

Duty of Fair Representation still applies. A member scored 4 gets the same representation as a member scored 1. Mapping tells you where to spend organizing time. It does not decide who you represent.

Duty of Fair Representation

Step 1: The physical map

Start by listing every co-worker in your unit. Group them by:

Days

Student Services
Library

Nights

Student Services
Front desk

Weekends

Library
Cafeteria

Department or unit
Shift (days, nights, weekends)
Physical location (which floor, which building)
Break schedules (who eats lunch together)

Takeaway

If you do not know who is in a department, you have found a blind spot in your communication tree.

Step 3: The 1-to-5 assessment scale

Once you have your map, honestly assess where every co-worker stands. Use this standard organizing scale:

Organizer

Supporter

Neutral

Anti-union

Unknown

1: The organizer.. Actively volunteers, comes to meetings, and brings others along.
2: The supporter.. Votes yes, wears the button, and supports the union, but will not actively lead or organize.
3: Undecided or neutral.. Does not know much about the union, is worried about how management will react, or is not interested yet. This is where you spend most of your organizing time.
4: Anti-union.. Speaks against the union and sides with management. Do not spend organizing time debating a co-worker at 4. They still get full representation.
5: Unknown.. You do not know where they stand. Your immediate goal is a 1-on-1 conversation to turn this 5 into a 1, 2, 3, or 4.

Where to spend time

Spend organizing time with co-workers at 3 and with those at 5 you have not met. Recruit those at 1 and 2 who are already organic leaders. Do not argue with co-workers at 4.

1-on-1 conversations

A score of 5 stays a 5 until someone talks with that co-worker. Keep the conversation short, listen first, and update the map the same day.

Listen. Ask what is going on in their area. Do not pitch the union before you have heard the issue they already care about.
Connect. Name that issue, then say how the union already acts on it: a clause, a grievance, or a meeting they can join.
Ask. If they are ready, ask them to join or to bring one co-worker to the next conversation. One ask, then stop.
Log it. Update the score the same day. Once you have talked with someone, their score is no longer 5.

Takeaway

Bring a co-worker who is a 1 or a 2 when you talk with someone at 3. Organic leaders open doors that a steward badge does not.

Membership signup playbook

Worked example: Student Services days

This is a fictional Student Services day shift. The names and scores are for teaching only and do not describe a real workplace.

1. Week 0, list everyone
Write every name on days and nights. You already know the day-shift cluster; nights are still blank.
2. Find the organic leader
Co-workers gather at Priya’s desk after policy emails. Mark her as an organic leader and a 2.
3. Run the 1-on-1s
Listen to Sam about dues. Ask Alex, who has never been asked. Do not debate Riley in the lunchroom.
4. Name the blind spot
Nights still have no assigned steward. Quinn is the night-shift organic leader; Morgan is still a 5.

Teaching example with fictional names, not a real workplace. Download the same rows as a spreadsheet in the files section.
Name	Shift	Organic leader?	Score	Notes
Priya N.	Days	Y	2	Co-workers gather at her desk after policy emails
Jordan M.	Days	N	1	Volunteers and brings Priya's cluster
Sam K.	Days	N	3	Unsure about dues; listen first
Casey L.	Days	N	3	New hire; asked Priya how to do the job
Riley P.	Days	N	4	Defends management; do not debate
Alex T.	Days	N	5	No 1-on-1 yet
Morgan D.	Nights	N	5	Blind spot: no steward on nights
Quinn H.	Nights	Y	2	Night-shift cards and gifts

Takeaway

Jordan (a 1) should take the next 1-on-1 with Sam. Priya (a 2) is the person Casey already trusts.

Keep the map current and private

A map that is six months old is a rumour. Update it after 1-on-1s, and keep paper and files where members and managers cannot browse them.

Update the same day. After every 1-on-1, change the score that day. An out-of-date map gives you wrong answers.
Paper stays locked. A paper wall chart belongs in a locked private room, not on a bulletin board that members walk past.
Never photograph it. A phone photo is easy to forward and hard to take back. Copy names by hand if you must move the chart.
Revisit before a drive. Look again before a membership drive or a vote. Blind spots such as nights, weekends, and satellite sites are the next organizing work.

Privacy warning

Never build your map on a work computer, employer-provided Office 365, or an employer Google Drive account. Keep mapping files on your local, personal device to protect your members.

Write down less than you think you need

A record of who talked to whom about work can hurt the people in it if it reaches the wrong hands. Keep what the next conversation needs and nothing else.

Keep these. The date you talked, the issue in a few plain words, what the person agreed to do, how they want to be reached, and your next step.
Leave these out. Health, family, money, immigration, religion, politics, discipline, and your opinion of the person. None of it helps the next conversation.
A grievance is not a note. If a coworker describes a possible grievance, harassment or a safety hazard, bring in a steward. The details belong in that process, not on a map or a card.
Keep it off employer systems. No work email, work drive, work chat or shared office printer. Use a personal device with a screen lock, or paper that stays locked up.
If a phone or a sheet goes missing. Tell your local president the same day. Say what was on it and who is named, so the people affected can be told and the device can be locked or wiped.
When someone steps back. The records belong to the local, not to the organizer. Hand them to the committee lead and delete personal copies. Honour any request not to be contacted.

A simple test

Before you write a line, picture the supervisor reading it. If that would cause trouble for your coworker, do not write it.

If your union already has a campaign tool

Many unions run bargaining campaigns in a tool chosen by the central office. Ask before you start a second list. Two records of the same conversations drift apart, and one of them ends up wrong.

One home for conversation records. If your union names a tool for the campaign, record conversations and assessments there and nowhere else. A local map is for a local that has no such tool.
What still fits here. Meeting notices, agendas and minutes, flyers and graphics, printed sign-in sheets, committee to-do lists and the guides your members read.
What stays in the union's tool. The member list it gave you, who has been reached, what each person said, and any ratings the campaign asks you to keep.
Do not copy a list across. A list handed to you for one campaign is not yours to load into another program. Ask the person who gave it to you, and get the answer in writing.

UnionOps is independent software. It does not connect to any union's campaign system, and nothing here speaks for your union.

Files and related tools

Use the blank sheet for your workplace. Use the sample sheet to see a filled row. Org Chart prints who to contact; it is not a place for scores.

Blank workplace map
This is an empty spreadsheet with the eight columns. Fill it in on a personal device, never on the employer’s cloud storage.
Opens in Excel or another spreadsheet app on your own device.
Sample Student Services chart
These are the fictional rows from the table above, with the same column headers as the blank file. Rewrite every name for your own workplace.
Org Chart is not this map
Org Chart prints officers and stewards for a public board. Keep mapping scores off that board. Use Org Chart for names and roles, and keep this spreadsheet on a personal device.
Org Chart
When a 5 becomes a 2
Follow the membership signup playbook: card, witness, and steward follow-up. Do not store signed cards in the same file as scores.
Membership signup playbook

Templates for this guide

Ready-to-use files from the Document Library, each with a filled-in example, in English and French.

Sources & references

External resources cited in this guide. National and government URLs often move; if a link 404s, search from that organization’s home page. OPSEU / SEFPO pages on opseu.org may block automated checks — open those links in a browser before you share them in a workshop.

Ontario Federation of Labour
Provincial labour federation — solidarity and movement education; cite, do not mirror.
National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE)
National affiliate federation — solidarity links on local sites; cite, do not mirror.
Canadian Labour Congress
National labour congress — solidarity links on local sites; cite, do not mirror.
Canadian Labour Congress — Digital Organizing Training
CLC training sessions for organizers and activists on running campaigns online. Sign up there for session dates.
Labor Notes — Secrets of a Successful Organizer handouts
Free exercises on listening, one-on-one conversations, mapping a workplace and choosing an issue. A United States publication: the organizing practice travels, the legal references do not.
Organizing for Power — Our Approach
An international training program on majority-building in workplaces: listening, finding leaders coworkers already trust, and testing support with actions.

When to map, and who holds the file

Step 1: The physical map

Step 2: The social map and organic leaders

Step 3: The 1-to-5 assessment scale

1-on-1 conversations

Worked example: Student Services days

1. Week 0, list everyone

2. Find the organic leader

3. Run the 1-on-1s

4. Name the blind spot

Keep the map current and private

Write down less than you think you need

If your union already has a campaign tool

Files and related tools

Blank workplace map

Sample Student Services chart

Org Chart is not this map

When a 5 becomes a 2

Templates for this guide

Sources & references

When to map, and who holds the file

Step 1: The physical map

Step 2: The social map and organic leaders

Step 3: The 1-to-5 assessment scale

1-on-1 conversations

Worked example: Student Services days

1. Week 0, list everyone

2. Find the organic leader

3. Run the 1-on-1s

4. Name the blind spot

Keep the map current and private

Write down less than you think you need

If your union already has a campaign tool

Files and related tools

Blank workplace map

Sample Student Services chart

Org Chart is not this map

When a 5 becomes a 2

Templates for this guide

Sources & references