Communication

Lately I have been thinking a lot about communication. Specifically how our union communicates its message to its members. The number one way most of us get information is through the grapevine. Somebody hears something, maybe a Shop Steward or an affected employee, who passes information to another union member, and so on. Another way to get information is by attending a union meeting. Often I will get asked what happened at the meeting, and my account of the meeting will get added to the grapevine. Elected officers, shop stewards, and committee members can also be sources of information. Union bulletin boards often have information of interest. As good as these sources of information can be it seems to me that in today’s digital age we are not utilizing the many modes of communication available.
Lack of communication between the local and its members is not exclusive to our union; it is a problem through out the labor movement. As Philip M. Dine clearly points out in his must read book about the labor movement “State of the Unions” labor has done a poor job of communicating its views, aspirations, and accomplishments, which has given the opportunity for labor’s adversaries to define unions in a negative way. But I believe there are opportunities at the local level to use technology to unite our union in ways that weren’t possible in the past. For example, lately when I see our younger union members interacting socially, instead of sitting around talking, generally they have their phones out, sharing e-mail messages or videos. What if the union harnessed this mode of communication and sent out e-mail alerts of news that pertain to their jobs and what their union is doing for them? Imagine if you opened your e-mail and received “A Message from your Union” in your inbox. A perfect example of the need for this has occurred during the last couple of days. I was recently informed that Gallo Glass has initiated another round of layoffs. I found out about this through Facebook messages from co-workers who had heard the news. How much better would it have been to have received this information from our union leadership, where they could have explained exactly what has happened and what the union is doing about it? Through e-mails we could send out information to interested members with one click of a button. Accomplishing this would as simple as collecting e-mail addresses from interested members, and adding them to a distribution list. I see e-mail alerts as another piece of the puzzle to help unify our union further. This is obviously not a new idea, many organizations use mass e-mailings to get their message out. I would appreciate any feed back on this idea or any ideas you have about ways to better communicate in our union.