Using the Web to Get Out Labor’s Message

Most unions still do not fully exploit the Internet. The vast majority of U.S. union members have never received an email from their union. Chances are though that most union members are online in a big way—and they expect anyone or anything that lays claim to their interest or loyalty to be online. If your union isn’t, that could be a problem. . . .

Most unions still do not fully exploit the Internet. The vast majority of U.S. union members have never received an email from their union.

Chances are though that most union members are online in a big way—and they expect anyone or anything that lays claim to their interest or loyalty to be online. If your union isn’t, that could be a problem.

The website LabourStart is one activist resource that can help. Indeed, that’s one of the reasons LabourStart exists: to encourage unions to use the Internet and spread the word about labor’s online innovations and successes.

MOBILIZING MEMBERS ONLINE

So, for example, we run an annual Labour Website of the Year contest to draw attention to particularly interesting uses of the web by unions. Global, national, and local unions participate. Individual voters determine the winner; this encourages unions to mobilize their members online in support of their site.

Our hope is that the experience of organizing members for our contest will encourage unions to think more about running online campaigns. That’s really the point of the contest. The real winners are unions that get the idea and start using the Internet to organize their members after the contest is over.

If you’re looking to build or rebuild a union website, take a look at previous winners of the contest and get in touch with their web stewards. Union webheads are usually hard to shut up if you ask for advice.

CAMPAIGN SUPPORT

If what’s happening in your workplace or union has an international hook, something that would grab the attention of workers outside the U.S., your union can request that LabourStart run a supporting campaign. All we need is some simple information and the authorization of the union involved. Often a campaign goes from an idea in a worker’s head to a rush of emails in a matter of hours.

An e-campaign can be a great thing even in situations where your employer is not sensitive to public pressure. Often the effects on worker morale make the (minimal) effort worthwhile. Imagine being able to list all the countries from which workers are sending support messages in your daily strike bulletin.

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Even where your issues aren’t likely to get a lot of attention outside the U.S., sometimes LabourStart’s network of American correspondents can organize a ‘mini-campaign’ for you. They’ll use their own networks to get the word out.

Think your campaign should be in languages other than English? We can handle that and can even provide translation services. And, like everything else LabourStart does, there’s no charge to the union requesting the campaign.

PROVIDING NEWS

Most people who see LabourStart news today do not see it on our website—using syndication, we have made our news feeds available to unions that wish to have current labor news on their sites.

LabourStart’s newswires make union websites more attractive to members. With continually updated content, the wires mean workers checking in will always find something new on their union’s website. Nothing discourages regular visits to a site more than stale content.

Our stories database can be searched for stories about specific employers. If you want to keep track of efforts being made to organize Wal-Mart from Idaho to Trois-Rivieres to Guandong, LabourStart can help.

Any union’s struggles can become news around the world. Many unions, even national unions and global federations, make being a LabourStart correspondent part of an official’s job. Your stories get out and traffic to your union’s website rises.

Most importantly, you may get an email from someone in the Philippines who saw a story about your struggle on LabourStart and is dealing with the same employer and the same issues. Now you can swap ideas, do some online brainstorming, strategize.

Welcome to the workers’ version of the wired world.

Eric Lee is the founder and editor of LabourStart. Derek Blackadder is LabourStart’s senior correspondent for Canada.