Trade unions in the Web 2.0 world

Andrew Bibby

www.andrewbibby.com

One day in September 2007…

• Le Monde: C’est la lutte virtuelle!• Stern: Die Demonstration ist virtuell, der

Arbeitskampf echt• PC Advisor: IBM Workers to strike in Second

Life• La Stampa: Tele-lavoro? Tele-sciopero • Lo Tidningen: Urstrejk i Second life

And Lithuania, US, India, Belgium, Switzerland, Finland, Portugal, Canada..

The Second Life demonstration

• Demonstrates how unions can use new online applications

BUT

• ?? Media interest suggests novelty value – ie, unions are not using these applications

Web 2.0

• The ‘old’ internet: static, used for downloading, written word dominated, accessed from PC

• The Web 2.0: genuinely multimedia, participative; uploading as important as downloading; accessed through wide range of devices (especially mobile)

Web 2.0

• Emphasis on Participation

• User-generated contents

• From ‘read only’ to ‘read/write’ web

Some Web 2.0 tools

• Social networking– Facebook– MySpace– Bebo– etc

Some Web 2.0 tools

• Virtual worlds– Second Life– ActiveWorlds etc

Some Web 2.0 tools

• User-generated sharing– YouTube etc– Flickr etc

Some Web 2.0 tools

• Online collaboration– The wiki idea

Some Web 2.0 tools

• Blogs and social bookmarking– Weblogs– Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon etc

Some Web 2.0 tools

• And also:– Skype– RSS feeds– etc

Unions in the Web 2.0 world

Social networking

• Using union websites– Unionen, GPA-DJP

• Using Facebook etc“We’re organising ourselves on Facebook within

our union.. We need a way to be together”- TUC, Australian Workers- Writers Guild, COMFIA

Unions in the Web 2.0 world

• Virtual worlds– Union island– May Day, World Day for Decent Work– ‘Islands’ for individual unions (ver.di, FOREM-

CCOO)

“If companies are going in then so should unions...It’s important to engage with it early on”

Unions in the Web 2.0 world

• User-generated content– UNI use of YouTube– ITF use of Flickr– etc

Be aware of the downside

• Facebook & the SEIU, Canada 2007• Derek Blackadder’s experience

“These sites offer accessible ways to self-organise..” “Nothing you do on sites like Facebook is really private… The goal shouldn’t be to use those sites to organise anything much more than a departure for safer quarters”

Issues in the workplace

Social networking:

• Disciplined/sacked for posting negative comments about employer

(Examples from UK, Canada, France…)

• Employer has access to personal information; blurring of work and personal lives

• Cyberbullying

Issues in the workplace

Social networking:

• A particular issue is recruitment

“One candidate declared in his personal profile that he was against religion… I dropped his application like a hot potato”

• Information is there for good

Issues in the workplace

Second Life

• Employers’ rights over employees’ avatars?

IBM: Virtual Worlds Guidelines

Issues in the workplace

• The need for the rules to be established

• Towards a set of guidelines

Enterprise 2.0 and Unions 2.0

Enterprise 2.0: a new paradigm?

- the ‘wiki’ approach to the workplace?

- Collaboration rather than hierarchical control structures?

“Enterprise Web 2.0 represents more of a philosophical shift than it does a prescribed set of IT products or solutions”

Enterprise 2.0 and Unions 2.0

Unions 2.0?- A challenge to organising methods- A challenge to traditional structures (face-

to-face meetings, conferences)- A challenge to union democracy

“Unions 2.0 represents more of a philosophical shift than it does a prescribed set of IT products or solutions”

Trade unions in the Web 2.0 world

Andrew Bibby

www.andrewbibby.com