By Kelly Hagen, North Dakota Staff Organization
As the members of the Kansas Staff Organization headed into contract negotiations last year, anxiety and uncertainty were already high. Dennis Tabor, who served as KSO president during the 2025 negotiations, said he saw that anxiety in both himself and his union, and offered one guiding principle: the truth.
“I only had one charge for them: Tell the truth the best you possibly can,” Tabor said. “From there, I trusted them.”
Part of that approach included a commitment to use communications not as decoration layered on top of bargaining, but as a power generator.
Ahead of negotiations, KSO formed a four-person crisis committee and empowered them to use social media to spread truth and build support among members.
Alongside traditional organizing work — research, member outreach and committee building — the team shared a series of “KSO Member Spotlight” graphics on their public Facebook page to humanize staff and build goodwill.
“The first thing was educating people on who we are and what we’re allowed to do,” Tabor said. “We inoculated that way, and we empowered people. Some (KNEA) members still didn’t even know we had a union within the union.”
During negotiations, the two sides stalemated on an issue that has risen in prominence across the country ever since the COVID pandemic — home offices and remote work. Months before, KNEA leadership chose to permanently close three field offices, forcing five staff members to have to work out of their homes, without any kind of financial reimbursement.
For KSO, the issue wasn’t just money — it was stopping management from making a unilateral decision on a mandatory subject of bargaining.
“We’re not going to let a unilateral decision occur without a fight,” Tabor said. “They expected us to take all this on for free and shift their office expenses to us. … If you’re forced to work from home, you need to be paid for your personal space, your personal property and the things you use that you normally wouldn’t. You’re taking on the burden of the employer.”
At the table, management resisted the proposal and signaled confidence that the board would back them. Recognizing a leverage disadvantage in the formal channels, KSO leadership flipped the usual script and used digital communications to reach the people who could apply pressure.
Through infographics and firsthand accounts, KSO made its case publicly and urged supporters to contact KNEA leadership and demand a fair resolution. While this tactic drew some level of pushback and controversy — from multiple directions — it was the right thing to do as movement organizers, in their view.
“Part of organizing is education,” Tabor said. “Most people don’t know their rights — even SO employees. We had to explain that it’s our right to post on social media.”
Attempts to discourage engagement only underscored the fear-based tactics KSO was confronting internally. “It’s bad for any association to tell members not to like a post or even use an emoji,” Tabor said. “It shows how easily fear is introduced.”
On Oct. 16, the KSO Facebook page shared a letter that President Tabor had sent to KNEA UniServ Chairs and Vice Chairs. In this letter, he argued that any attempts to control what KNEA members say, read or look at online are tantamount to censorship.
“KNEA Board members can comment on social media, click the like button, and speak to staff anytime they want to, and could be done without fear,” he wrote. “Board members can have their own thoughts and feelings. Having a ‘we must all stick together no matter what’ is what many members deal with concerning their school board members and Board of Trustees in their day jobs.”
On Nov. 3, 2025, the KSO team announced on social media that negotiators had reached a tentative agreement. And on the issue of home-office reimbursement, KSO was able to achieve a concrete win for their members, due in large part to keeping this sticking point front and center in the communications they shared on social media.
“We ended up with a tentative agreement of $300 a month, minus taxes, for anyone forced to go remote,” Tabor said.
Their TA was ratified unanimously by KSO members, and then subsequently ratified by the KNEA Board of Directors and UniServ Boards. Their experience is a reminder that in bargaining, communication isn’t just commentary — it’s how you keep members informed, unafraid and ready to act.
“People get nervous about social media — what am I allowed to post, what am I not allowed to post,” Tabor said. “But we knew people would read social media, no matter what. Even if they didn’t respond, they were reading it.”
He encourages other staff organizations within the NSO to use communications tools such as Facebook strategically in negotiations to build power and leverage as they did in Kansas. “I know that’s something that NSO has been encouraging us to do for a long time, but it works,” Tabor said.
His practical advice: Set up your SO’s page with two or three administrators, so posting doesn’t always fall to one person. And when a post might be controversial, use a simple safeguard — require at least two of the administrators to agree before it goes live.
He stresses that digital organizing can’t replace face-to-face organizing — but it can fill critical gaps in states where geography limits constant in-person contact.
The key is to be strategic, supportive of one another — and always tell the truth.
“Start organizing early — really early,” Tabor recommends. “Know your rights, exercise your rights and keep each other empowered.”