Katie
Arnup at Unifor is the first Canadian unionist I’ve seen, to date (besides me),
to use a badge on Facebook: a small logo or other graphic in the corner of a
user’s photo. It’s an inexpensive way for union members to show their
allegiance to and play a small but collectively important part in campaigns
such as “together FAIRNESS WORKS,” launched by the Canadian Labour Congress
(that’s what Katie did). TV commercials are wonderful, as are the efforts
unions are making to reach their own members about the campaign. But a free
little badge that sits on each union member’s Facebook profile picture declaring
their allegiance would, in a small way, reach many more people. Get your
union a badge and get the word out.
Another
campaign I’ve been following was the one by the folks at the Professional
Association of Foreign Service Officers, in their strike for better working
conditions. Their under-reported but well-organized global actions against
the federal Tories could serve as a model for many of us. One small downside to
their campaign was yet another decision by a labour board that confirms what we
should all know by now: your employer owns its email system and if you use it
for unauthorized (i.e. union) purposes you might lose it, without warning. See
here for details: http://tinyurl.com/pcsnnwl.
SAVE MY
TEETH
Have
pity on my tattered teeth: don’t use Change.org to run an online action. Every
time I see a union (or any other organization I approve of) using it to put
some digital pressure on an employer I wind-up grinding my teeth in
frustration. Here’s why. First, though they won’t release the numbers, clearly
Change.org is making a ton of money. Second, if your members sign on for one of
your campaigns then Change.org has their address and will use it in ways you
can’t control and in ways that are increasingly distant from Change.org’s
progressive roots. Third, there are several more principled alternatives that
don’t and won’t sell the use of their lists for cash. Fourth? Fourth is what
should be but isn’t: a single mailing list for the labour movement that all
affiliates can access, and in confidence. I guess that’s a political
impossibility. But it would be by far the most effective way to mobilize
workers online and we would own it; we’d be building our own capacity and not
someone else’s. For a quick peek inside Change.org see: http://tinyurl.com/m7n2j87.
DUCKS
& TOOLS FOR CHANGE
Tools
for Change has a quick survey of some online action tools you may not have
heard of. Not all are suitable for use by Canadian unions but they can serve to
inspire an idea or two, perhaps. See: http://tinyurl.com/nc6a6fs.
“Tech
Tips for Trade Unionists” is the title of a series of regular blog posts by
Eric Lee of LabourStart. Eric is a gizmo freak and goes looking for things most
of us wouldn’t try if they were offered-up on a plate, for free and with
lifetime on-site support. Yet, even then, it’s kinda fun to try to imagine the
poor buggers who might find a use for them:
http://www.ericlee.info/blog/?cat=55
DuckDuckGo
is the name of a fairly new search engine that, unlike Google (and the
also-rans like Bing), doesn’t collect all kinds of info about you. There have
been efforts like this in the past including one by ILO/ACTRAV (the workers
education office at the International Labour Organization) that biased its
results towards the interests of trade unionists. While I’m not optimistic that
this will be any more successful than the previous attempts, who knows, maybe
the Snowden spying disclosures are having an effect and this one will get some
attention:
https://duckduckgo.com/
BOGUS
TEXTING & TABLETS
Bogus
text messaging can and has caused unions problems. Here’s just one example of a
wave of such stories in the past six months. Hard to tell whether this is a new
trend in response to increasing union reliance on texting or just a slow day in
the newsroom. See: http://tinyurl.com/pqujaou. And while we’re on the subject
of phones, the always spot-on Alex White blogged recently about “four things
unions should know about mobile.” Fact one: according to Alex: One out of
every three monthly visitors to the average large website comes exclusively on
mobile platforms. “This means,” he says, “that if you don’t optimise your union’s
website for mobile and tablet, you’re potentially sending away up to a third of
your audience.” As yet there aren’t many unions
adept at using mobile devices, even though 36 per cent of all e-mails are being
opened on a mobile device of one sort or another. Read about it here:
http://tinyurl.com/pd48urp.
WHAT DUFF DOES
Joel Duff at the Ontario Federation of Labour
has been making a real and effective splash there and across the province since
his appointment as communications director. He’s had many, but a recent,
inspired effort of his made a campaign grow by making it easy to spread. Here’s
the story. The OFL has been organizing support for the striking municipal
workers in the Township of Bonfield. By unilaterally amending the workers terms
and conditions of work, this small town declared war on the Canadian Union of
Public Employees. As there’s a fear that the town’s tactic will spread (and
because the workers in Bonfield could use and deserve it), the Fed has been out
there mobilizing support for the workers and their union.
What Joel has been doing is using his mailing
list to get boilerplate text out to a large group of hardcore trade unionists.
The text he provides prior to solidarity rallies or other events can be copied
and pasted into Facebook or Twitter, making it easy for activists to pass the word
along – accurately. He makes it easy for the word to get out, and for the word
to be accurate and not missing a crucial letter or two – something that has
happened to us all. Thank you, Joel.
LabourStart is one of many global news services
that let you filter by topic, and you’ll reach the following conclusion quickly
by just browsing: health and education workers and migrant workers are taking
it in the neck pretty much everywhere. Whether in the public or private sector,
and from Albania to Zimbabwe, employers are increasingly aggressive, with many
more lockouts than before, and much more use of scabs. The up side is there are
also lots of stories about battles being won.
New Unionism remains a great concept, well-executed.
Check this link and expand your idea of what unions are and how we should be
organizing and why the current organizational lines of demarcation don’t always
serve workers’ interests: http://www.newunionism.net/global_unions.htm Oh, and while you’re there,
contribute to a large global conversation about why and how these things can
and should change.
I haven’t talked about Flickr in a while. It
was time for me to review its very useful features and the extent to which it
can act as a resource even for those who never pick up a camera. But I’m not
going to, at least not for a while. Because the Activestills account on Flickr
says it all. Look at this and think about all the ways in which these folks are
harnessing the power of all those mobile phone cameras out there. That’s all
you need to know about Flickr. See
MATERIAL INCENTIVES & ACTIPEDIA
This kinda stuff seems more like marketing than
organizing to me, but it’s worth noting the impact campaigns by companies like
Bell and Air Canada have online when they offer material incentives of one sort
or another. Is there something here we can make use of? I suspect not. Union
mugs in exchange for. . . .
The Actipedia.org project aims to create a
database of useful case studies we can access in the search for tactics and
tech that work. On the day I wrote this there were stories of effective actions
in Mexico, Australia and Tunisia. Look for useful stuff and leave your own
stuff behind.
I’ve mentioned Corey Doctorow here before. Here
I go again. With the holidays coming (yes, they are), if you’re looking for a
book (paper or digital) for a young adult, give some thought to Doctorow’s most
recent release, Pirate Cinema. Help give the budding digital
revolutionary in your social circle some good ideas. Best of all, you can take
a peek before you buy by downloading the entire book. If you’re like me, buy it
if you love it (http://craphound.com/pc/).
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