Feb
20
2011

Comments in response to our survey on trade union use of the net

These are unedited, raw comments – sorry, but I won’t have time to edit them or study them thoroughly, but I encourage others to do so if  you have the time and inclination.

Basicaly I am a Trade Unionst and belong to a National Center name as Pakistan National Federation of Trade Unions
Last summer, my union revamped its website and took done a tremendous amount of information.  It also has a restricted part of its site that only chapter leaders can access and other members cannot.  What’s up with that!?!
Keep up the good work!
I am unemployed because of disabilities, but I support the right of workers to be represented by a union.
In Canada I’d like to see bigger unions as opposed to many smaller unions.  And those bigger unions should tend to the needs of each worker with funds when needed and education for all members and outreach to communities.  So, in case of strikes, a bigger union with more finances from a bigger membership could afford to financially support strikers so they could hold out longer and hence win more victories, while simultaneously gathering support from other members not involved in the strike and from the community.
There seems to be a bug with Q22 of this survey.
Although I’m a student again I was a teacher and the union made no effort to recruit me. The teachers union in Ireland have influence but the feeling that they have been become corrupted by their overpaid wages and have become “soft”.
Question 22 can only be answered four times in different columns. It cannot represent my opinions
I’m now retired and not actively involved in union activities
Number 22 does not seem to be working properly
I love Labourstart, not to sound lazy, but in a world where one is inundated with issues I trust I can go here and be a ‘click activist’ in a meaninful manner.  I also use Avaaz as a source for social justice action.
question 22 is not working. Cannot tick multiple columns.
Facebook aand other social websites are useful tools but does not compare with face to face contact and debate.
I visit THC and ACTU sites and unions other than my own current union, depending on the info I am seeking.
We will be happy share knowledge, skill, exchange ideas and be together with the world trade union movement. Thank you for your survey !
You might have guessed already that I’m not one for social networking – emailing does me fine.
new members who are joinig union currently are highly literate in IT. It is important that trade unions invest more resources in IT software and hardware. Social groupings such as facebook are emerging tools for recruitment, union leaders need to change the style of doing bussiness.
your question number 22 I can only get one tick per line!!!! when I whould have pput many more.  Keep up the good work It maybe a slog at your end but from my end it looks great well done.
Keep up the good work.
Actually, I never hear from my Union, even though I was an active Member for 40 years.!!!! There is a heap of truth in the old saying, “The phone stops ringing when you retire.”                                     Cheers.                                                  B.H.
wsws
I’m using chrome on linux and cannot checkmark all of the selections on question 22 I would like, i would also place highest priority on social networks, multimedia and email lists (security is important); internet broadcast, video conferencing and online recruitment is very important, and apps are someone important.
the ‘ticks’ won’t stick when attempting to respond to 22. presumably you should be able to rate each item?
Question 22 is a bloody mess, and impossible to complete.  Try it!
Keep up the good work.
I appreciate the effort of labour start. I am informed about the workers’ situation all around the world thanks to LS.
I find social networks such as Facebook to be a useful tool for raising awareness of trade union and political issues, especially amongst friends and colleagues who wouldn’t usually take an interest. I think a union presence on the internet is absolutely essential to help combat neo-liberalism on a global scale.
Question 22 not allowing me to select multiple instances of importance level.
I wasn’t aware of the three sites I didn’t check
I am member of the Union which is part of Confederation of Central Government Employees & Workers, New Delhi, India, which in turn is affiliated to TUI
make aware of the global fight against global capital exploitation of labout
We have no laptop computer. due to that I’m unable respond on time.
Qustion 22 of the survey does not work – can only select one point in each level of importance
articles on current affairs from a pro-union perspective is sorely lacking. Labourstart does good work on this but i feel this information needs to be re-published on union websites.
There is a bug in question 22 which prevents me from selecting answers
We need workshop about how to use internet in all our activities. And How internet can be useful for trade union with limited person in charge there, and also limited budget to improve the tools.
I am a retired Union member, but still active in Union support programs and being informed about Unions.
There should be more education regarding Union history, to offset all the union-bashing.  The masses don’t realize, for instance, that it was only because of the Labor Movement that workers get a weekend.
I believe online assistance and communication would be helpful.  In a difficult workplace it can often be difficult to have calls during business hours to discuss a problem.    I also beleive that the upgrading of training of Union officals and Organisers to acquire the knowledge on world’s best practice and on universal issues such as workplace bullying is critically important.  Many need to educate themselves and ‘Like’  the Facebook pages of other organisations who specialise in such issues.
Is your union website hosted and designed by union labor?
I find working the websites difficult, not computer savey.
Question 22 has a bug. You can not give any 2 of the “online work” alternatives the same value. So you can at most value 4 of the alternatives.
unions are missing a massive opportunity to educate the next generation in why they should join a union and support activities relating to organised labour. They need to really go for it as a way of communicating and educating the “internet generation”
Unions need to join the internet social networking sites and get to more young people and use mobile phone technology -without loss to the current communications use especially email.
We need union networki
You did not include Workers Independent News in #23.  It is important for the US.  The questions also did not differentiate between the local union and district or national organization.  You might get different answers depending on which you ask about.
I would hope that US unions would devote more resources to a labor-based media, rather than squandering the money on Democratic politicians
Selection for Q22 doesn’t seem to be functioning appropriately
Question 22 – these are all self-cancelling so it is impossible to have this survey accept the info that will answer q22 properly
Keep up the great work Eric
My union is an academic union run by an old-guard group that is more like a company union than a proper democratic union.
i receive Labourstart campaign news and usually respond to the request.
It is hard to make priority on question 22. I think are union must prioritice socila networking higher
question 22 would only allow one selection of each importance, ie 1 highest 1 very…etc
In the countries like Pakistan majority of workers and unions does not use internet, we find it very important to educate and train union leaders to use internet.
As a long time retired member of HEU my involvement is pretty much restricted to signing petitions that I believe in.
I’m retired and still learning how to belong to the computer age…
I want re-animate union music. It’s taken a beating in this century. Unions hardly hire musicians any more. I need to find young folks to help us build a presence.
Question n. 22 does not seem to be set properly. It lets you give a priority only to some of the many areas we are supposed to evaluate.
Global Union need Global Networking
Keep up the good work and fully support all trade nions
USDAW is a poor union both in content and depth
The buttons on question 22 are canceling each other out by column.
MANY thanks for undertaking this research. Manny at NYU (?) will publish the findings, I believe. I look forward to learning much of value from them
please send a feature article to   editor@theportlandalliance.org  http://www.theportlandalliance.org  30 year old labor-oriented progressive
IWW membership for me has been a lot of Internet volunteering, managing web site, email lists, creating content like strike photos and rally/protest photos etc.  With my other union CAPE I do nothing yet. In the past with CUPE4600 I built a web site for the local with a content management system provided by the national unions pro union web hosting company. I have changed unions often as jobs change.
I still can’t “sign out” of Unionbook.  I have contacted Firefox* twice. I can click on either of the two “Sign out” HTML-links; I can close the browser, re-boot; it matters not. I am eternally “Signed IN.”    * Firefox for MacIntosh
Labor Unions are becoming anachronisms in the USA. Not that people dislike union members any more than they dislike blacksmiths. They just don’t know anyone who makes a living as a blacksmith or belongs to a trade union outside public employees. If things continue along this route belonging to  the AFL-CIO will be like belonging to Industrial Workers of the World or the Knights of Labor. We desparately need anew union movement.
Keep up the good work. I look forward to seeing the results.
Thé internet is thé most effective way to bring balance in thé war of economy.
Very turned of by Unionbook.    I was one of the first to sign-on with Unionbook.    I asked Eric Lee for some support and to highlight my Unionbook group. A group that recognized the spiritual aspect of Organized Labor.  No response, no help in a new and vitally needed aspect of Organized Labor.    Really disappointing.
1) Point 22 table has a bug, you can’t check more than one time the same column.  2) The question is if your union can use the media (whatever media) to help you in your fight, teaching you  and giving you the proper information, or only as a mere propaganda instrument. Enough of the latter.
Labour practices in the Third World is an emerging phenomenon and hopefully, with time, we will get there.
Question 22 wouldn’t accept my responses accurately
as a staff member, it’s a little harder to answer these and #22 doesn’t seem to work as expected.
n/a
I think the Vodafone protests and student demos show the effectiveness of swiftly mobilising protesters, unions need to develop their skills in this area.
The Teamsters National Communications dept. does an excellent job. That being said we need to get more ground level members involved.
my workplace blocks facebook and other social networking sites. I try not to do much union work at home. also Q22 didn’t allow for proper answers to each question – couldn’t have multiple answers. Thanks for your works and efforts. I might try to put a branch site in place….
I’m not in a union, but I do support unions. I highly recommend the new book There is Power in a Union. My husband is in IUPAT, the painter’s union.
survey not working properly. Can’t fill in form above.
Unions suck!  They cause nothing but animosity and dissention among workers.  Those who still think unions are needed should go back to the 1950s when they were relevant.
i was VERY disappointed in all 3 of the seiu locals i belonged to over my working life.
Please could add Spanish-language questionnaire
Thankyou Labour start for the work you do.
Thanks a lot for asking…. Here’s hoping this survey help to effect the necessary changes we need in our Unions..    cchamerjr@yahoo.com
Union recruitment of new members is vital both in the uk and Ireland in order to ensure the rights of workers are protected. I believe that all unions concerned are not doing enough in this area.
About question 22 – I could not mark more than one topic for one value grade, but I consider online recruitment and online learning highest priority, after that, very important are social networks, sms updates and multimedia, somewhat important is email lists and others I do not consider important regarding our membership.
Actually i am member of NTUCI and i am also a GS of GPKoirala Labour Foundation.
I’m not familiar with some of the above resources. Will check them out!
question 22 i had problem keeping tick in box as i scrolled down
I’d love to see the results to this survey as NACO is looking to increase online marketing.
I hadn’t heard of UnionBook before this survey but will check it out now
Some of my answers should be considered according to the people whose mother tongues are not English. More local languages would mean more trade unionist access to the net…
I suggest Facebook etc ads for young members – they are being exploited in their casual jobs, yet don’t hear good things at home about unions.
Q22 is not set up correctly – you seem to want responses for each item, but it only allows one response per column.
The FUA is an outlaw union in Alberta. It is against the Law in Alberta for Farmworkers to Unionize. We are a true grass-roots  organization, none of our members are up to speed with the internet, we count on our issue being highlighted by legitimate unions and groups on their web sites.
I also receive newsletters from  http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/  which I find interesting having made my career in an american company in Brussels
As we are an NGO, alot of these questions don’t apply. Hope it still helps.
Need to correct the rating structure for question 22 so that you can rank each individually.  Thanks!
Question 22, I wasnt able to put more than one tick in a column.
the content of this questionnary is very appropriate
We need to organize as a political force. We are getting routed!
Question 22 is broken
No
Question 22 doesn’t work. It wouldn’t let me tick all the options.
Question 22 has a bug in it. I’ve given a rating in order of priority to those four areas which I consider as most important.
Question 22 does not let you check more than one activity at each importance level – this degrades the quality of the answers you will get.
On question 22 you can only pick one vertical option for different horizontal options which doesn’t make sense – it might be something you should revisit.
Keep up the good work : ))
No Comments
None
The websites for trade union is very interesting and useful but we need computer or laptop and internet connection to access it in a daily basis or religiously and disseminate the interesting information to our membership.
please, the next time in spanish
?
Q22 does not allow an answer for each option, effectively only allows four to be responded to, as long as the answers are each different from the four available. Q23 would be better if we could provide our own responses.
I don’t use social networking at all.  I find it enough to read and respond to emails.
Just a heads up, the set up of question 22 doesn’t allow multiple selection from the same column eg if you wanted to select email lists and sms as Not Important at all, it will only allow you one tick and turn the other off.
Yes, I do!  Because I’m on disability leave, my union doesn’t think I’m worthy of receiving information.  I understand that it’s the same process for many of the unions that I’ve been in contact with.  People with disabilities want to be integrated into society, but just because we can’t go to the work place, i.e. we may telecommute then suddenly we aren’t given a say with our union.  Also, this survey was different called to complete because the survey isn’t compatible with my voice-activated software. Thank you!
My employer is a union (PSAC), so I answered Q7 and Q8, etc. re. my employer’s web site.
Question #22 only allows me to check one item in each category i.e. not important at all, somewhat important, etc.
No. 22 doesn’t work properly. Won’t let me click more than one line under the same category, i.e. I can’t put ‘Somewhat important’ for more than one sort of online activity
WE DO NOT USE MUCH OF THE NET AS WE ARE YET TO CATCH UP WITH IT
With respect to question 22: it was not possible to check off  all items
I think question 22 dous not allow to select more than one option as “very important” or “hihgest priority” or other. I don’t know if it has to be that way.
for Q.22 there sems to be an error in answer selection. I couldn’t ‘tick’ any of the responses for more than one answer ie. ticking ‘very important’ for ‘multimedia’ prevented me from making the same selection for ‘video conferencing’.
Good work
New media is very important – especially for members and potential members under 40 – but unless one works in the area full-time it is impossible to have more than a basic familiarity with some of it!
i receive a regular magazine from our union which i prefer as i can pass it on.There should be a greater combined union presence to be more collectively organised to challenge against our fellow comrades work place oppressions.
I was unable to select responses for Q22 so please see my choices.  Highest Priority for   Social Netwrks/Online Recruiting/Apps for smartphones  Very important  Online learning / Multimedia / Video Conferencing  Somewhat Important  Internet radio broadcasts / Email lists / SMS
Question 22 would not let me put in all of the ticks.
Let people know about other services.
Send me more campaigns to vote on, this is the way in which I can be most useful to all of the unions out there across the internet.
Personal contact with union representatives is preferred compared to contact via media.
More union activity is the bigger issue, and thne this should be supported by best communications systems.
thank you. Regards!
television ads all year round. not only at election times
22. Where would you like your union to devote more energy or resources in its online work?  is it correct that you can only pick 2 answers, if you select more another choice de-selects?!
I have been a trade union lay activist for 32 years. I am aged 72 years and still in paid employment within the NHS (18.5 hours per week by choce). I’m also Assistant Branch Secretary & Membership Officer for my trade union branch, of 1100 members. The union is beginning to recruit younger people who understand the befits of, and are keen to use modern technology for recruitment and communication. But, on a personal level, I am not at all interested in social networking and do not use it in my personal life. With hardly any ‘me’ time left in my life, that which is ‘mine’ is too precious to share with strangers. However, I recongise that I am (probably) an exception and will embrace new technology, where / when it suits me.     Paddy Holroyde.
Some of the question are not relevant for us, thus I skipped
Questions don’t apply to my situation, but I heartily approve of Unions and believe their work is essential to global humanity.
We have to get the average worker into the 21st century and find a way to make them aware of the power of the net for communication, organising and political punch.
The only electronic communication I use is my MacBook Pro email, and the internet connection links provided in emails – from organizations such as LabourStart – using my Safari web browser.  This explains my limited answers in your survey.
we need to quit being so damn nice to these idots that are trying to make us a endangered species
I’m a branch International Officer & find Labourstart useful.  We’re twittering a lot now & that really is proving popular.
It would be useful if there was a site devoted to promoting creative union use of new media.  Maybe there is already.  I’m thinking something like a witness.org or personal democracy forum [http://personaldemocracy.com/] but for a specifically union audience.
Check out Broadcastunionnews@blogspot.com as an example of cooperation between multiple unions in the same industry. I’d be interested in hearing able similar web based communication sites
main problem is time. I know they are very popular but I don’t use any social network sites at all as they can take up huge amounts of time. I prefer targeted emails which give me packages of information and links to things I can do without all the other stuff. I am on very many elists and that’s enough for me.
I am a long-retired physician and an associate of  the United Steel Workers.
I want you to send me all messages in french Because i’m not well in english
Keep up the good work, especially your focus on highlighting the plight of unionists around the world.
you’ve set up the table in question 22 wrong? can only select eg “very important” once…
Sorry for the vague answers. I’m not particularly enamoured of my union. They have not wavered at all in their support for our right wing ALP government and continually send them a large portion of my fees against my will. Australia pays its unemployed starvation wages and the AMWU doesn’t engage at all in this or any other social issues for risk of embarrasing our fragile and morally bankrupt Government. Great organisation for money militants and ALP political aspirants.
on question 22 it kept unselecting answers I had ticked when I ticked others!
Question 22 responses don’t work properly – couldn’t do all the checkmarks
Question 22 is not formatted correctly as will not allow answers in each category.
Appreciate your work!!
no any comments
I am not acquainted with social networks, so probably my opinions are not very informed.
Virtual organising is al very well but it must support actual and physical – they need to work together
Not active in my union anymore, but in Amnesty International, Finnish chapter, the trade unions (rights) group
I tried putting “not important at all” on more than one option at Q22, but the system wouldn’t let me.  Are you trying to tell me something?
I find in this world of instant communication that the Unions lack in keeping in contact with its membership and its shop stewards and health and safety reps. In the midst of recruitment drives it seems that servicing, informing and communicating with the membership is failing.
none yet
Keep up the good work
enjoy your work but having no interest in facebook etc seem to be forgotten in rush for faster/newer media
Australian “Your Rights at Work” site is very good but not utilised enough by members except during elections which is a shame.
I do not know if the survey is specific to countries of some region or across globe. However Iam from India where we are priveleged to have minimum access to such facilities.  Thanks   Raja
Self-org of employee/worker is more important  as I think otherwise it is dummy
I am retired but review union websites often
Question #22 had a bug,I think.  Each level of importance allowed only one selection.
The Horticultural Media Association of Australia is riddled with conflicts of interest: The national and NSW state presidents, secretaries, treasurers and most committee members also represent the nursery, chemical pesticide and allied industries. They threaten and intimidate members who question their agenda and speak up for biodiversity, conservation and the environment.   Best wishes, Gordon
Q.22 is broken…does not allow selection of more than one importance level.
Appreciate all the work you folks do!
Thank you for this time to let me tell you about our activities up here in Sudbury, Canada. We just finished a 12 month strike against Vale. “The labour dispute” as some call it has not finished and will last many years to come. United we win! All over the world!
Generally I remain ignorant of all these websites & social media etc, so I do not access them. I am learning the new technology, but very slowly.
While I think that online contact is OK, it will never come close to the face to face approach!    Rod Parham
Although I receive international labor updates, I admit that I don’t keep up with them.
Resourcing an issue but in the midst of a campaign and with 35 members on indefinite stand-down for 6 weeks we need a better way of getting our message out internally and externally
Organized fight against offshoring and for rebuilding the US manufacturing base even if Obama and his WH goons do not agree!
I like the AFL-CIO’s Facebook/Twitter feed, and enjoy their daily e-mail updates.
Since my retirement about 16 years ago and now living the country I am unable to attend any branch meetings, but I am still a member, over 60 years and still very interested in Union affairs, the Internet is the only reliable means of information as the Press and Television is biased against us.
question number 22 did not allow me to put more than 4 answers.If I tickedvery important on one question it would not allow me to do it on another .
Thanks for your interest in me
Sometimes do not have the time to read all of the stuff sent. Keep it simple is the key
Q22 will only allow one tick in each column!
I’m unfortunately working at a place that does not have a union, & it sucks.
Question #23 is not working the way it should to get a good result. Ive tried using this form of question before and had trouble to so don’t fret. 😉  I would like to receive a copy of the results for a labour course i’ve developed. Please send them so that we may use them in our course material.  Thx John  caw222youth@gmail.com
I am an old timer who prefers to simply use emails — I do not have time to check out everything that is out there — too busy saving the world — well at least my neighbour
I’d be very interested in your results… I have done a similar survey of our affiliates use and attitudes about social media use to brand union and organize members
Question 9: Our union is not a national union.  Question 22:  We can only choose 1 item under each level of priority (?)  Question 23: I was, until now, unaware of those web sites I did not check.
Laborstart needs to look at the injustice that is happening to Western Sahara. Australian Unions from both the left and right are starting to taken an interest in this issue. But it does need international assitance to increase knowledge of these refugees.
Generally I find most union related websites or services quite dull. The content quality is often poor and I think that unions are a step behind when it comes to being attractive to potential members.
There seems to be a wee glitch in question 22 that doesn’t allow more than one response per column. ie, I could only Somewhat Important and Very Important once each, limiting my response. I think our union needs to do more on most of those areas, with the exception of video conferencing and email lists.
It is important not to overdo things  So many people use the internet these days that email/SMS messages can be sent either too frequently or contain too much information  It is important to target messages on the internet/email/etc in the manner as the good old fashioned snail mail
Internet communications, by most means, are important if the underlying quality of information is good.  The internet can be over-used, without good purpose.  People will pay more attention if the internet is not over used.
Hi there,  You might like to look at the operations of the check boxeds in #22 as I was unable to tick more than 3 lines in any one column.  Cheers
I could not answer Q22 correctlybecause the program would only let me give one response for each level ie I could only give one area a very important. Note that I am an employee of my union.
I’ve only just changed to this union and got my welcome email last week so I can’t answer the questions about contact. My old union were so rubbish at contact that’s why I left
Alex King’s stuff out of Australia is useful
Question 22 can only be answered four times and differently each time
I still use the internet.  I am now retired.  I participate in Labor Start appeals.
Really important to be able to utilize all the new technology but still nothing better than face to face communication. Or am I being dated?
Keep sending letters to be forwarded to significant people.
Though I’m a frequent internet user, my union does not make much effort to update their website or offer useful services such as online recruitment.  Definitely could do better.
Question 22 is borked – you can only pick one for each of “not important,” “somewhat important,” “very important,” and “highest priority”.
Unions need to make their presence an everyday reality for both members and non-members. This is difficult when mainstream media ignores them on a day-to-day basis so unions need to create their own ways of being visible through the internet.
Keep up the amazing work, LabourStart! Your vitality, creativity and energy is one of the things keeping the labour movement alive in North America!
internet can be very helpful for unions work, but unfortunately workers understanding about internet is very poor
Question 22 does not allow me to rank all of the options presented!!
Question 22 is too restrictive only 4 answers allowed, so I can’t give you enough feedback on all the issues.
N/a
Labour requires a reinventing of itself if we want the hearts and minds of this generation.I am especially interested in easy access to info for members as well as the role entertainment could play in spreading the word.
Nope. Keep up the great work though!
Question 22 does not allow you to select the same answer for different medians.
Q 22 has problems – you can’t tick more than 4 items as you can’t give them the same rating – e.g. only on can be very important
I don”t believe in the new media, personal contact is much more important
Time limits everything; the great benefit of LabourStart is how quickly and easily we can act.
End Poverty Now !  www.livableincome.org
Question 22 is technically defective.  It requires mutually exclusive answers across categories.  Thus respondents cannot rate two or more media at the same importance level.  Perhaps it is my browser, google chrome.
I hope you’ll publish the results.  Should be interesting!!
Question 22 isn’t working properly on my browser.  It is only allowing some multiple choices.    Thanks Eric Lee for all your hard work.
#22 you can only choose 4 answers where you should be able to have an answer for each choice.
I just stumbled across Labourstart recently and I’m still learning the computer. I have to go to my Labor Hall or Public Library to get on line.
Need for a good trade union magazine and real discusson, which is lacking at the moment issues such as how we can move on reducing working time. pay, preparing for retirement holidays. are lacking in any format not just electronic.
We are about to launch a new website with secure member forums using Drupal.  We expect this to meet most of our needs for social networking.
This survey is a very good move by LabourStart
I urge all our Trades Union Council members to sign up to Unionbook. Doing it via Facebook would be easier.
I think many unions do not use the web as well as they could as they don’t have that much to say in a political sphere, ie. I don’t think many unions are good at encouraging the political development of their members
In the UK, the use of web based campaigning has burgeoned in the last 24 months. Whta is refreshing is how it can beused as a very informal networking, communications and campaigning. It seems to work much better on this level than it does when unions try and harness it in a very formal way.
Trade unionism and trade unionist in developing countries should priotorize IT in their application. For instance In Kenya alone other than the amberalla body-Central Oraginazation of the TradeUnions, no union has established a website and few have e-mail address. this slow pace in adopting technological changes within the trade unions leadership is epacting negatively to the workers the unions represent.
Things need to move on!
We are working in Life Insurance Corporation of India a Indian Public Sector Insurance   company. Our Union AIIEA is now celebrating Dimond Jubilee Year, a Glorious Existence.  We are representing with a membership of 78%. I am a common member. Recently many of our members joined in UnionBook.org.
Having a website is very important for every trade union, but the problem is that most of the leaders who are supposed to make this happen are unaware of the importance of the use of the internet in this present day.  therefore, do not want to commit there resources in hosting a website. Hopefully in the near future they will realise the benefits of having a website. Most of them don’t even know that there is a website called Labourstart for union members. Anyways, we will keep informing them about LabourStart. Thanks.
I AM RETIRED BUT FEEL STRONGLY THAT UNIONS ARE THE ONLY WAY THAT THE WORKING PUBLIC WILL GET FULL TIME WORK WITH A LIVING WAGE ALONG WITH HEALTH CARE ETC.  I ALSO FEEL THAT UNIONS HAVE BECOME  WEAK IN THE LAST FEW YEARS AND IT IS TIME TO GET TOUGH AND START WALKING THE STRIKE LINE AGAIN IF NECESSARY.
I’m still looking for good sources of union/worker rights news and opinion online, especially for Australia but with a global perspective
In India all most all unionists are using snail mail and cellphone in a major way. However, the new generation workers in MNCs are using internet and longway to go regarding social networking. It will be good if there is a major push to the unionists to use internet either at the national level or from Global unions. Unions can themselves invest on the equipments like computer and internet. There is need for some kind of regular training to the new generation workers and that has to be on a continuous basis. May be an intense focus for next two to three years by the global unions in promoting communication networks and bit of training at national levels will build a strong base for using internet on day today basis.
I need help with resources to assist union members when their union betrays them and does not support them.Sadly this experience is a very real problem in Australia in some locations. When members of these unions ask for help and information they are often wrongly labelled as being anti-union.This is very sad, especially since it is happening to some of the strongest unionists and activists there are. When your own union betrays you, members are left in a desperate search for help.Our workplace laws are not as advanced as some people think.Any online suggestions, links etc. would be very much welcomed and appreciated.Thanks.
I don’t know why I don’t spend more of my online time doing union stuff.
We want Labourstart to be more focused on small unions and to be country neutral when it comes to MNC
I am a fairly new employee to a union organisation, so I am still learning the resources that are out there on the internet that we can access, such as the above sites.
Bit of a simplistic survey – eg Q 22. ‘Social networks’ are not actually social networks anymore and haven’t been for years, they are horizontal communication networks, not purely for social purposes, but also professional, not just for friends, but also for colleagues, acquaintances, collaborators, co-conspirators, etc. Likewise option for SMS (text) updates is a bit irrelevant. It doesn’t matter what delivery method the message takes, it is important that it is rapid and relevant. So importance of SMS is minimal, but importance of rapid or instant messaging is very high. And youse need to include the RockMelt browser – that style of integrated browing/horizontal networking/RSS feeds will be the way of the future.
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I really like the phone zap that the IWW is doing using facebook and I get it on my phone regarding workers that have been abused
union members need more education in helping non-union workers to organize their unions.
This survey is confusing as follow-up questions are not clearly distinguished from the ones that make them applicable; also, number 22 doesn’t allow me to tick more than four circles.
Some problem to tick Q22. Did you notice that or was it just me?!
Solidarity forever, will be are strong!!!
I own a company that specifically provides software to labor union organizations.  So, some of these questions did not apply, however, I really like your survey and would love to see the results.  My primary system is the #1 rated online grievance tracking software – Internet Grievance System.  Found at www.griev.com.  Thank you – Justin Cecil, IGS.
This varies so much depending what group of workers the union is representing.  In our union some groups of workers have lots of computer excess, but other groups of workers all have cell phone so like text message reminders for meetings.  Age can also play into this a lot as younger workers use facebook and certain other social networking sites more
I had not thought of the Union on Facebook???  I will now search it out.
I believe for the most part, internal union politics prevents much of what can be achieved via the internet, social networking, apps etc. Especially mediums which are interactive which ironically are the strength and basis of those very mediums.
unionsong.com  bmuc.blogspot.com  labour cultural sites in general   q22 doesn’t make sense to me
Q 22 isn’t operating correctly
It’s necessary to disseminate video recording Etuc conferences and meeting
I’d like to see more union focus in US on worker health and safety as a human right.
question 22 wont let me pick more than one response per column
try www.unionsafety.eu
Members are surprisingly hostile to using Facebook for communication of union information. They see it as an imposition on their social chit-chat.
Because we outsource a lot of our web based development, and only have part of a FT Official’s time allocated to it, the outcomes are somewhat downsized. Online joining has proved a very successful addition, but the backroom processing is more costly – maybe due to Oz’s financial regulators and banks strangling the cashflow accelerators?  We’ve been toying with a social media presence, and many staff have a personal presence, just not targetted toward union promotion (hardly at all!) in part due to recent experiences and policy changes.  The one biggest, most exciting development was that we’ve signed off on a cloud solution for video conferencing and some capacity for online learning in late 20 10… now we’ve just got to capitalise it for staff / officials and then expand it for some rank and file accessibility. Monitorising the “learning” opportunities MAY come as another income stream, but I’m not sure it’s got the ROI some are suggesting is possible.
Problem with Q22 – can only select each option once
I work at a national confederation of unions, so I have answeared about their/our presence on the internet. I’m sorry if that was wrong, but we try to use social media à lot in lobbying and trying to put our message out and I wanted to contribute that to your survey.
Generally in the United States, Labor organizations are behind the times with “new” media. I’m not very adept at it, having spent 31 years in the machine trade in a shipyard, but our younger members and student affiliates could help by showing retired persons like myself more of the skills needed to make our websites and communications better.
I’m retired have no regular contact with my previous union
Question #22 does not allow multiple answers at the same choice, i.e. I couldn’t pick “Very Important” for more than one item. I elected not to answer that question for that reason. What am I missing?
Question 22 seems broken. If I choose one as “very important” any other choice of “very important” cancels the previous choice. At first, I thought this was by design (rank the importance). However, there are 9 choices and only 4 levels of importance.     Finally, Eric, I noticed your podcast wasn’t listed. I found the UnionBook set because of your podcast.
For question 22, I was limited to a total of 4 answers for the entire list.  I could not rate other items on list.
Not for the time being.
Glitch in number 22 on my computer: could only check one column once, so if answer to two or more questions was the same (eg, very important) it would only record one answer….
Q. 22 doesn’t allow for more than 4 options – priorities, rather than allowing rating the 9 items individually.
It would be most useful to be able to contact my local rep by the website, as the response to phone messages is very poor.
I’m not really into this stuff but I was an active trade unionist all my working life and am still active in the labour movement si I support your sort of thing.
I believe the CWU could use the internet a lot better especially during disputes.  Currently I would rate their use of the internet as extremely poor for a Union where most of its members are in the Communication field (Mobiles, Postal, Landlines and Internet)
Item 22 would only allow me to make one check mark.
I do consulting for work councils as my job (http://www.syndex.fr read “syndicat expert (in French)” that you can translate as “trade union experts” in English, we are a company/cooperative (managers are elected) of about 500, mainly in France, working to help work councils (elected members of medium and large company employees), understand the economics of their company.    I used UB a lot to test it, but I didn’t find a solution to use it in correlation with labour action for multiple reasons (see list below):    1/ Not the right language  2/ Not enough confidentiality  3/ Not allowing a match with economic real world network (for example, allowing the creation of a private space for workers within a OEM subcontractor relationship)  4/ Not able to manage various degrees of social action within a group (for example a differentiated administration for trade union members, work council members, employees, partners (accountants, medical…), economic partners (town hall, subcontractors, customers), etc…    I suggest a wiki (example: wikipedia) is closer to workers needs than a web2.0    In all cases, if you are interested in making contact with people a 100% involved in helping workers organize and defend themselves I can introduce you to our elected board in order for you guys to have a phone conference or a webinar and know more about each other.  My mobile is 0033 6 50 01 28 20    John
ETUC should introduce some resources to start with courses on recruitement by social media tools.
Thank god for Unions. I am also proud to state that I am the AFL-CIO Community Service Liaison.
I think it’s a good idea to conduct a survey – it’s difficult to know how relevant the Internet is vis a vis members
I had functional barriers to block my full answer to question 22.  Basically Unions need to grow and educate.  Anything that spreads that effectively I favor.  Growth should not be for growth’s sake, rather it is because of our message, our reason for being.  It’s less about good wages and benefits now and more about the survival of our planet and living within the natural limitations of the earth.
Organize, organize, organize!!!
question 22 will only allow you to pick one for each section. If I feel that Video conferencing and social networks are very important i can’t pick that.
TPGETHER IS BETTER TO CAUSE CHANGES SO AS TO MAKE THE EARTH A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE IN ….
question 22 is dodgy and needs rewriting

Basicaly I am a Trade Unionst and belong to a National Center name as Pakistan National Federation of Trade Unions
Last summer, my union revamped its website and took done a tremendous amount of information.  It also has a restricted part of its site that only chapter leaders can access and other members cannot.  What’s up with that!?!Keep up the good work!
I am unemployed because of disabilities, but I support the right of workers to be represented by a union.
In Canada I’d like to see bigger unions as opposed to many smaller unions.  And those bigger unions should tend to the needs of each worker with funds when needed and education for all members and outreach to communities.  So, in case of strikes, a bigger union with more finances from a bigger membership could afford to financially support strikers so they could hold out longer and hence win more victories, while simultaneously gathering support from other members not involved in the strike and from the community.
There seems to be a bug with Q22 of this survey.Although I’m a student again I was a teacher and the union made no effort to recruit me. The teachers union in Ireland have influence but the feeling that they have been become corrupted by their overpaid wages and have become “soft”.
Question 22 can only be answered four times in different columns. It cannot represent my opinions
I’m now retired and not actively involved in union activities
Number 22 does not seem to be working properly
I love Labourstart, not to sound lazy, but in a world where one is inundated with issues I trust I can go here and be a ‘click activist’ in a meaninful manner.  I also use Avaaz as a source for social justice action.
question 22 is not working. Cannot tick multiple columns.
Facebook aand other social websites are useful tools but does not compare with face to face contact and debate.
I visit THC and ACTU sites and unions other than my own current union, depending on the info I am seeking.
We will be happy share knowledge, skill, exchange ideas and be together with the world trade union movement. Thank you for your survey !

You might have guessed already that I’m not one for social networking – emailing does me fine.

new members who are joinig union currently are highly literate in IT. It is important that trade unions invest more resources in IT software and hardware. Social groupings such as facebook are emerging tools for recruitment, union leaders need to change the style of doing bussiness.

your question number 22 I can only get one tick per line!!!! when I whould have pput many more.  Keep up the good work It maybe a slog at your end but from my end it looks great well done.

Keep up the good work.Actually, I never hear from my Union, even though I was an active Member for 40 years.!!!! There is a heap of truth in the old saying, “The phone stops ringing when you retire.”                                     Cheers.                                                  B.H.wswsI’m using chrome on linux and cannot checkmark all of the selections on question 22 I would like, i would also place highest priority on social networks, multimedia and email lists (security is important); internet broadcast, video conferencing and online recruitment is very important, and apps are someone important.

the ‘ticks’ won’t stick when attempting to respond to 22. presumably you should be able to rate each item?

Question 22 is a bloody mess, and impossible to complete.  Try it!

Keep up the good work.

I appreciate the effort of labour start. I am informed about the workers’ situation all around the world thanks to LS.

I find social networks such as Facebook to be a useful tool for raising awareness of trade union and political issues, especially amongst friends and colleagues who wouldn’t usually take an interest. I think a union presence on the internet is absolutely essential to help combat neo-liberalism on a global scale.

Question 22 not allowing me to select multiple instances of importance level.I wasn’t aware of the three sites I didn’t check

I am member of the Union which is part of Confederation of Central Government Employees & Workers, New Delhi, India, which in turn is affiliated to TUI
make aware of the global fight against global capital exploitation of labout
We have no laptop computer. due to that I’m unable respond on time.

Qustion 22 of the survey does not work – can only select one point in each level of importance

articles on current affairs from a pro-union perspective is sorely lacking. Labourstart does good work on this but i feel this information needs to be re-published on union websites.There is a bug in question 22 which prevents me from selecting answersWe need workshop about how to use internet in all our activities. And How internet can be useful for trade union with limited person in charge there, and also limited budget to improve the tools.
I am a retired Union member, but still active in Union support programs and being informed about Unions.
There should be more education regarding Union history, to offset all the union-bashing.  The masses don’t realize, for instance, that it was only because of the Labor Movement that workers get a weekend.

I believe online assistance and communication would be helpful.  In a difficult workplace it can often be difficult to have calls during business hours to discuss a problem.    I also beleive that the upgrading of training of Union officals and Organisers to acquire the knowledge on world’s best practice and on universal issues such as workplace bullying is critically important.  Many need to educate themselves and ‘Like’  the Facebook pages of other organisations who specialise in such issues.

Is your union website hosted and designed by union labor?I find working the websites difficult, not computer savey.

Question 22 has a bug. You can not give any 2 of the “online work” alternatives the same value. So you can at most value 4 of the alternatives.

unions are missing a massive opportunity to educate the next generation in why they should join a union and support activities relating to organised labour. They need to really go for it as a way of communicating and educating the “internet generation”

Unions need to join the internet social networking sites and get to more young people and use mobile phone technology -without loss to the current communications use especially email.

We need union networki

You did not include Workers Independent News in #23.  It is important for the US.  The questions also did not differentiate between the local union and district or national organization.  You might get different answers depending on which you ask about.

I would hope that US unions would devote more resources to a labor-based media, rather than squandering the money on Democratic politicians

Selection for Q22 doesn’t seem to be functioning appropriately

Question 22 – these are all self-cancelling so it is impossible to have this survey accept the info that will answer q22 properly

Keep up the great work Eric
My union is an academic union run by an old-guard group that is more like a company union than a proper democratic union.

i receive Labourstart campaign news and usually respond to the request.

It is hard to make priority on question 22. I think are union must prioritice socila networking higher

question 22 would only allow one selection of each importance, ie 1 highest 1 very…etc
In the countries like Pakistan majority of workers and unions does not use internet, we find it very important to educate and train union leaders to use internet.As a long time retired member of HEU my involvement is pretty much restricted to signing petitions that I believe in.I’m retired and still learning how to belong to the computer age…

I want re-animate union music. It’s taken a beating in this century. Unions hardly hire musicians any more. I need to find young folks to help us build a presence.

Question n. 22 does not seem to be set properly. It lets you give a priority only to some of the many areas we are supposed to evaluate.Global Union need Global Networking

Keep up the good work and fully support all trade nions
USDAW is a poor union both in content and depth

The buttons on question 22 are canceling each other out by column.

MANY thanks for undertaking this research. Manny at NYU (?) will publish the findings, I believe. I look forward to learning much of value from themplease send a feature article to   editor@theportlandalliance.org  http://www.theportlandalliance.org  30 year old labor-oriented progressive

IWW membership for me has been a lot of Internet volunteering, managing web site, email lists, creating content like strike photos and rally/protest photos etc.  With my other union CAPE I do nothing yet. In the past with CUPE4600 I built a web site for the local with a content management system provided by the national unions pro union web hosting company. I have changed unions often as jobs change.

I still can’t “sign out” of Unionbook.  I have contacted Firefox* twice. I can click on either of the two “Sign out” HTML-links; I can close the browser, re-boot; it matters not. I am eternally “Signed IN.”    * Firefox for MacIntosh

Labor Unions are becoming anachronisms in the USA. Not that people dislike union members any more than they dislike blacksmiths. They just don’t know anyone who makes a living as a blacksmith or belongs to a trade union outside public employees. If things continue along this route belonging to  the AFL-CIO will be like belonging to Industrial Workers of the World or the Knights of Labor. We desparately need anew union movement.Keep up the good work. I look forward to seeing the results.
Thé internet is thé most effective way to bring balance in thé war of economy.Very turned of by Unionbook.    I was one of the first to sign-on with Unionbook.    I asked Eric Lee for some support and to highlight my Unionbook group. A group that recognized the spiritual aspect of Organized Labor.  No response, no help in a new and vitally needed aspect of Organized Labor.    Really disappointing.
1) Point 22 table has a bug, you can’t check more than one time the same column.  2) The question is if your union can use the media (whatever media) to help you in your fight, teaching you  and giving you the proper information, or only as a mere propaganda instrument. Enough of the latter.
Labour practices in the Third World is an emerging phenomenon and hopefully, with time, we will get there.

Question 22 wouldn’t accept my responses accurately
as a staff member, it’s a little harder to answer these and #22 doesn’t seem to work as expected.
n/a

I think the Vodafone protests and student demos show the effectiveness of swiftly mobilising protesters, unions need to develop their skills in this area.The Teamsters National Communications dept. does an excellent job. That being said we need to get more ground level members involved.

my workplace blocks facebook and other social networking sites. I try not to do much union work at home. also Q22 didn’t allow for proper answers to each question – couldn’t have multiple answers. Thanks for your works and efforts. I might try to put a branch site in place….

I’m not in a union, but I do support unions. I highly recommend the new book There is Power in a Union. My husband is in IUPAT, the painter’s union.

survey not working properly. Can’t fill in form above.

Unions suck!  They cause nothing but animosity and dissention among workers.  Those who still think unions are needed should go back to the 1950s when they were relevant.

i was VERY disappointed in all 3 of the seiu locals i belonged to over my working life.Please could add Spanish-language questionnaire

Thankyou Labour start for the work you do.
Thanks a lot for asking…. Here’s hoping this survey help to effect the necessary changes we need in our Unions..    cchamerjr@yahoo.comUnion recruitment of new members is vital both in the uk and Ireland in order to ensure the rights of workers are protected. I believe that all unions concerned are not doing enough in this area.About question 22 – I could not mark more than one topic for one value grade, but I consider online recruitment and online learning highest priority, after that, very important are social networks, sms updates and multimedia, somewhat important is email lists and others I do not consider important regarding our membership.Actually i am member of NTUCI and i am also a GS of GPKoirala Labour Foundation.

I’m not familiar with some of the above resources. Will check them out!question 22 i had problem keeping tick in box as i scrolled down

I’d love to see the results to this survey as NACO is looking to increase online marketing.

I hadn’t heard of UnionBook before this survey but will check it out now

Some of my answers should be considered according to the people whose mother tongues are not English. More local languages would mean more trade unionist access to the net…

I suggest Facebook etc ads for young members – they are being exploited in their casual jobs, yet don’t hear good things at home about unions.

Q22 is not set up correctly – you seem to want responses for each item, but it only allows one response per column.

The FUA is an outlaw union in Alberta. It is against the Law in Alberta for Farmworkers to Unionize. We are a true grass-roots  organization, none of our members are up to speed with the internet, we count on our issue being highlighted by legitimate unions and groups on their web sites.

I also receive newsletters from  http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/  which I find interesting having made my career in an american company in Brussels

As we are an NGO, alot of these questions don’t apply. Hope it still helps.

Need to correct the rating structure for question 22 so that you can rank each individually.  Thanks!Question 22, I wasnt able to put more than one tick in a column.
the content of this questionnary is very appropriate
We need to organize as a political force. We are getting routed!

Question 22 is broken

NoQuestion 22 doesn’t work. It wouldn’t let me tick all the options.

Question 22 has a bug in it. I’ve given a rating in order of priority to those four areas which I consider as most important.
Question 22 does not let you check more than one activity at each importance level – this degrades the quality of the answers you will get.On question 22 you can only pick one vertical option for different horizontal options which doesn’t make sense – it might be something you should revisit.Keep up the good work : ))

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The websites for trade union is very interesting and useful but we need computer or laptop and internet connection to access it in a daily basis or religiously and disseminate the interesting information to our membership.

please, the next time in spanish

?Q22 does not allow an answer for each option, effectively only allows four to be responded to, as long as the answers are each different from the four available. Q23 would be better if we could provide our own responses.I don’t use social networking at all.  I find it enough to read and respond to emails.
Just a heads up, the set up of question 22 doesn’t allow multiple selection from the same column eg if you wanted to select email lists and sms as Not Important at all, it will only allow you one tick and turn the other off.Yes, I do!  Because I’m on disability leave, my union doesn’t think I’m worthy of receiving information.  I understand that it’s the same process for many of the unions that I’ve been in contact with.  People with disabilities want to be integrated into society, but just because we can’t go to the work place, i.e. we may telecommute then suddenly we aren’t given a say with our union.  Also, this survey was different called to complete because the survey isn’t compatible with my voice-activated software. Thank you!
My employer is a union (PSAC), so I answered Q7 and Q8, etc. re. my employer’s web site.Question #22 only allows me to check one item in each category i.e. not important at all, somewhat important, etc.
No. 22 doesn’t work properly. Won’t let me click more than one line under the same category, i.e. I can’t put ‘Somewhat important’ for more than one sort of online activity

WE DO NOT USE MUCH OF THE NET AS WE ARE YET TO CATCH UP WITH IT

With respect to question 22: it was not possible to check off  all items

I think question 22 dous not allow to select more than one option as “very important” or “hihgest priority” or other. I don’t know if it has to be that way.

for Q.22 there sems to be an error in answer selection. I couldn’t ‘tick’ any of the responses for more than one answer ie. ticking ‘very important’ for ‘multimedia’ prevented me from making the same selection for ‘video conferencing’.
Good workNew media is very important – especially for members and potential members under 40 – but unless one works in the area full-time it is impossible to have more than a basic familiarity with some of it!

i receive a regular magazine from our union which i prefer as i can pass it on.There should be a greater combined union presence to be more collectively organised to challenge against our fellow comrades work place oppressions.

I was unable to select responses for Q22 so please see my choices.  Highest Priority for   Social Netwrks/Online Recruiting/Apps for smartphones  Very important  Online learning / Multimedia / Video Conferencing  Somewhat Important  Internet radio broadcasts / Email lists / SMS

Question 22 would not let me put in all of the ticks.

Let people know about other services.

Send me more campaigns to vote on, this is the way in which I can be most useful to all of the unions out there across the internet.

Personal contact with union representatives is preferred compared to contact via media.

More union activity is the bigger issue, and thne this should be supported by best communications systems.

thank you. Regards!

television ads all year round. not only at election times
22. Where would you like your union to devote more energy or resources in its online work?  is it correct that you can only pick 2 answers, if you select more another choice de-selects?!

I have been a trade union lay activist for 32 years. I am aged 72 years and still in paid employment within the NHS (18.5 hours per week by choce). I’m also Assistant Branch Secretary & Membership Officer for my trade union branch, of 1100 members. The union is beginning to recruit younger people who understand the befits of, and are keen to use modern technology for recruitment and communication. But, on a personal level, I am not at all interested in social networking and do not use it in my personal life. With hardly any ‘me’ time left in my life, that which is ‘mine’ is too precious to share with strangers. However, I recongise that I am (probably) an exception and will embrace new technology, where / when it suits me.     Paddy Holroyde.
Some of the question are not relevant for us, thus I skipped

Questions don’t apply to my situation, but I heartily approve of Unions and believe their work is essential to global humanity.

We have to get the average worker into the 21st century and find a way to make them aware of the power of the net for communication, organising and political punch.

The only electronic communication I use is my MacBook Pro email, and the internet connection links provided in emails – from organizations such as LabourStart – using my Safari web browser.  This explains my limited answers in your survey.
we need to quit being so damn nice to these idots that are trying to make us a endangered species

I’m a branch International Officer & find Labourstart useful.  We’re twittering a lot now & that really is proving popular.
It would be useful if there was a site devoted to promoting creative union use of new media.  Maybe there is already.  I’m thinking something like a witness.org or personal democracy forum [http://personaldemocracy.com/] but for a specifically union audience.
Check out Broadcastunionnews@blogspot.com as an example of cooperation between multiple unions in the same industry. I’d be interested in hearing able similar web based communication sitesmain problem is time. I know they are very popular but I don’t use any social network sites at all as they can take up huge amounts of time. I prefer targeted emails which give me packages of information and links to things I can do without all the other stuff. I am on very many elists and that’s enough for me.

I am a long-retired physician and an associate of  the United Steel Workers.I want you to send me all messages in french Because i’m not well in english

Keep up the good work, especially your focus on highlighting the plight of unionists around the world.

you’ve set up the table in question 22 wrong? can only select eg “very important” once…

Sorry for the vague answers. I’m not particularly enamoured of my union. They have not wavered at all in their support for our right wing ALP government and continually send them a large portion of my fees against my will. Australia pays its unemployed starvation wages and the AMWU doesn’t engage at all in this or any other social issues for risk of embarrasing our fragile and morally bankrupt Government. Great organisation for money militants and ALP political aspirants.

on question 22 it kept unselecting answers I had ticked when I ticked others!

Question 22 responses don’t work properly – couldn’t do all the checkmarksQuestion 22 is not formatted correctly as will not allow answers in each category.

Appreciate your work!!

no any comments

I am not acquainted with social networks, so probably my opinions are not very informed.Virtual organising is al very well but it must support actual and physical – they need to work together

Not active in my union anymore, but in Amnesty International, Finnish chapter, the trade unions (rights) group

I tried putting “not important at all” on more than one option at Q22, but the system wouldn’t let me.  Are you trying to tell me something?

I find in this world of instant communication that the Unions lack in keeping in contact with its membership and its shop stewards and health and safety reps. In the midst of recruitment drives it seems that servicing, informing and communicating with the membership is failing.none yet

Keep up the good workenjoy your work but having no interest in facebook etc seem to be forgotten in rush for faster/newer media

Australian “Your Rights at Work” site is very good but not utilised enough by members except during elections which is a shame.

I do not know if the survey is specific to countries of some region or across globe. However Iam from India where we are priveleged to have minimum access to such facilities.  Thanks   RajaSelf-org of employee/worker is more important  as I think otherwise it is dummy

I am retired but review union websites often

Question #22 had a bug,I think.  Each level of importance allowed only one selection.The Horticultural Media Association of Australia is riddled with conflicts of interest: The national and NSW state presidents, secretaries, treasurers and most committee members also represent the nursery, chemical pesticide and allied industries. They threaten and intimidate members who question their agenda and speak up for biodiversity, conservation and the environment.   Best wishes, Gordon
Q.22 is broken…does not allow selection of more than one importance level.Appreciate all the work you folks do!

Thank you for this time to let me tell you about our activities up here in Sudbury, Canada. We just finished a 12 month strike against Vale. “The labour dispute” as some call it has not finished and will last many years to come. United we win! All over the world!Generally I remain ignorant of all these websites & social media etc, so I do not access them. I am learning the new technology, but very slowly.While I think that online contact is OK, it will never come close to the face to face approach!    Rod ParhamAlthough I receive international labor updates, I admit that I don’t keep up with them.Resourcing an issue but in the midst of a campaign and with 35 members on indefinite stand-down for 6 weeks we need a better way of getting our message out internally and externallyOrganized fight against offshoring and for rebuilding the US manufacturing base even if Obama and his WH goons do not agree!
I like the AFL-CIO’s Facebook/Twitter feed, and enjoy their daily e-mail updates.

Since my retirement about 16 years ago and now living the country I am unable to attend any branch meetings, but I am still a member, over 60 years and still very interested in Union affairs, the Internet is the only reliable means of information as the Press and Television is biased against us.

question number 22 did not allow me to put more than 4 answers.If I tickedvery important on one question it would not allow me to do it on another .Thanks for your interest in meSometimes do not have the time to read all of the stuff sent. Keep it simple is the key

Q22 will only allow one tick in each column!

I’m unfortunately working at a place that does not have a union, & it sucks.

Question #23 is not working the way it should to get a good result. Ive tried using this form of question before and had trouble to so don’t fret. 😉  I would like to receive a copy of the results for a labour course i’ve developed. Please send them so that we may use them in our course material.  Thx John  caw222youth@gmail.com

I am an old timer who prefers to simply use emails — I do not have time to check out everything that is out there — too busy saving the world — well at least my neighbour
I’d be very interested in your results… I have done a similar survey of our affiliates use and attitudes about social media use to brand union and organize membersQuestion 9: Our union is not a national union.  Question 22:  We can only choose 1 item under each level of priority (?)  Question 23: I was, until now, unaware of those web sites I did not check.
Laborstart needs to look at the injustice that is happening to Western Sahara. Australian Unions from both the left and right are starting to taken an interest in this issue. But it does need international assitance to increase knowledge of these refugees.

Generally I find most union related websites or services quite dull. The content quality is often poor and I think that unions are a step behind when it comes to being attractive to potential members.

There seems to be a wee glitch in question 22 that doesn’t allow more than one response per column. ie, I could only Somewhat Important and Very Important once each, limiting my response. I think our union needs to do more on most of those areas, with the exception of video conferencing and email lists.

It is important not to overdo things  So many people use the internet these days that email/SMS messages can be sent either too frequently or contain too much information  It is important to target messages on the internet/email/etc in the manner as the good old fashioned snail mail

Internet communications, by most means, are important if the underlying quality of information is good.  The internet can be over-used, without good purpose.  People will pay more attention if the internet is not over used.
Hi there,  You might like to look at the operations of the check boxeds in #22 as I was unable to tick more than 3 lines in any one column.  CheersI could not answer Q22 correctlybecause the program would only let me give one response for each level ie I could only give one area a very important. Note that I am an employee of my union.

I’ve only just changed to this union and got my welcome email last week so I can’t answer the questions about contact. My old union were so rubbish at contact that’s why I left

Alex King’s stuff out of Australia is useful

Question 22 can only be answered four times and differently each time

I still use the internet.  I am now retired.  I participate in Labor Start appeals.Really important to be able to utilize all the new technology but still nothing better than face to face communication. Or am I being dated?

Keep sending letters to be forwarded to significant people.Though I’m a frequent internet user, my union does not make much effort to update their website or offer useful services such as online recruitment.  Definitely could do better.

Question 22 is borked – you can only pick one for each of “not important,” “somewhat important,” “very important,” and “highest priority”.Unions need to make their presence an everyday reality for both members and non-members. This is difficult when mainstream media ignores them on a day-to-day basis so unions need to create their own ways of being visible through the internet.

Keep up the amazing work, LabourStart! Your vitality, creativity and energy is one of the things keeping the labour movement alive in North America!internet can be very helpful for unions work, but unfortunately workers understanding about internet is very poor

Question 22 does not allow me to rank all of the options presented!!
Question 22 is too restrictive only 4 answers allowed, so I can’t give you enough feedback on all the issues.

N/a

Labour requires a reinventing of itself if we want the hearts and minds of this generation.I am especially interested in easy access to info for members as well as the role entertainment could play in spreading the word.

Nope. Keep up the great work though!
Question 22 does not allow you to select the same answer for different medians.
Q 22 has problems – you can’t tick more than 4 items as you can’t give them the same rating – e.g. only on can be very important

I don”t believe in the new media, personal contact is much more important

Time limits everything; the great benefit of LabourStart is how quickly and easily we can act.

End Poverty Now !  www.livableincome.org
Question 22 is technically defective.  It requires mutually exclusive answers across categories.  Thus respondents cannot rate two or more media at the same importance level.  Perhaps it is my browser, google chrome.

I hope you’ll publish the results.  Should be interesting!!

Question 22 isn’t working properly on my browser.  It is only allowing some multiple choices.    Thanks Eric Lee for all your hard work.

#22 you can only choose 4 answers where you should be able to have an answer for each choice.I just stumbled across Labourstart recently and I’m still learning the computer. I have to go to my Labor Hall or Public Library to get on line.Need for a good trade union magazine and real discusson, which is lacking at the moment issues such as how we can move on reducing working time. pay, preparing for retirement holidays. are lacking in any format not just electronic.
We are about to launch a new website with secure member forums using Drupal.  We expect this to meet most of our needs for social networking.

This survey is a very good move by LabourStart

I urge all our Trades Union Council members to sign up to Unionbook. Doing it via Facebook would be easier.I think many unions do not use the web as well as they could as they don’t have that much to say in a political sphere, ie. I don’t think many unions are good at encouraging the political development of their members
In the UK, the use of web based campaigning has burgeoned in the last 24 months. Whta is refreshing is how it can beused as a very informal networking, communications and campaigning. It seems to work much better on this level than it does when unions try and harness it in a very formal way.

Trade unionism and trade unionist in developing countries should priotorize IT in their application. For instance In Kenya alone other than the amberalla body-Central Oraginazation of the TradeUnions, no union has established a website and few have e-mail address. this slow pace in adopting technological changes within the trade unions leadership is epacting negatively to the workers the unions represent.

Things need to move on!

We are working in Life Insurance Corporation of India a Indian Public Sector Insurance   company. Our Union AIIEA is now celebrating Dimond Jubilee Year, a Glorious Existence.  We are representing with a membership of 78%. I am a common member. Recently many of our members joined in UnionBook.org.

Having a website is very important for every trade union, but the problem is that most of the leaders who are supposed to make this happen are unaware of the importance of the use of the internet in this present day.  therefore, do not want to commit there resources in hosting a website. Hopefully in the near future they will realise the benefits of having a website. Most of them don’t even know that there is a website called Labourstart for union members. Anyways, we will keep informing them about LabourStart. Thanks.

I AM RETIRED BUT FEEL STRONGLY THAT UNIONS ARE THE ONLY WAY THAT THE WORKING PUBLIC WILL GET FULL TIME WORK WITH A LIVING WAGE ALONG WITH HEALTH CARE ETC.  I ALSO FEEL THAT UNIONS HAVE BECOME  WEAK IN THE LAST FEW YEARS AND IT IS TIME TO GET TOUGH AND START WALKING THE STRIKE LINE AGAIN IF NECESSARY.I’m still looking for good sources of union/worker rights news and opinion online, especially for Australia but with a global perspectiveIn India all most all unionists are using snail mail and cellphone in a major way. However, the new generation workers in MNCs are using internet and longway to go regarding social networking. It will be good if there is a major push to the unionists to use internet either at the national level or from Global unions. Unions can themselves invest on the equipments like computer and internet. There is need for some kind of regular training to the new generation workers and that has to be on a continuous basis. May be an intense focus for next two to three years by the global unions in promoting communication networks and bit of training at national levels will build a strong base for using internet on day today basis.I need help with resources to assist union members when their union betrays them and does not support them.Sadly this experience is a very real problem in Australia in some locations. When members of these unions ask for help and information they are often wrongly labelled as being anti-union.This is very sad, especially since it is happening to some of the strongest unionists and activists there are. When your own union betrays you, members are left in a desperate search for help.Our workplace laws are not as advanced as some people think.Any online suggestions, links etc. would be very much welcomed and appreciated.Thanks.

I don’t know why I don’t spend more of my online time doing union stuff.

We want Labourstart to be more focused on small unions and to be country neutral when it comes to MNC
I am a fairly new employee to a union organisation, so I am still learning the resources that are out there on the internet that we can access, such as the above sites.

Bit of a simplistic survey – eg Q 22. ‘Social networks’ are not actually social networks anymore and haven’t been for years, they are horizontal communication networks, not purely for social purposes, but also professional, not just for friends, but also for colleagues, acquaintances, collaborators, co-conspirators, etc. Likewise option for SMS (text) updates is a bit irrelevant. It doesn’t matter what delivery method the message takes, it is important that it is rapid and relevant. So importance of SMS is minimal, but importance of rapid or instant messaging is very high. And youse need to include the RockMelt browser – that style of integrated browing/horizontal networking/RSS feeds will be the way of the future.

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I really like the phone zap that the IWW is doing using facebook and I get it on my phone regarding workers that have been abusedunion members need more education in helping non-union workers to organize their unions.

This survey is confusing as follow-up questions are not clearly distinguished from the ones that make them applicable; also, number 22 doesn’t allow me to tick more than four circles.

Some problem to tick Q22. Did you notice that or was it just me?!

Solidarity forever, will be are strong!!!
I own a company that specifically provides software to labor union organizations.  So, some of these questions did not apply, however, I really like your survey and would love to see the results.  My primary system is the #1 rated online grievance tracking software – Internet Grievance System.  Found at www.griev.com.  Thank you – Justin Cecil, IGS.

This varies so much depending what group of workers the union is representing.  In our union some groups of workers have lots of computer excess, but other groups of workers all have cell phone so like text message reminders for meetings.  Age can also play into this a lot as younger workers use facebook and certain other social networking sites more

I had not thought of the Union on Facebook???  I will now search it out.I believe for the most part, internal union politics prevents much of what can be achieved via the internet, social networking, apps etc. Especially mediums which are interactive which ironically are the strength and basis of those very mediums.

unionsong.com  bmuc.blogspot.com  labour cultural sites in general   q22 doesn’t make sense to me

Q 22 isn’t operating correctlyIt’s necessary to disseminate video recording Etuc conferences and meeting

I’d like to see more union focus in US on worker health and safety as a human right.

question 22 wont let me pick more than one response per columntry www.unionsafety.eu
Members are surprisingly hostile to using Facebook for communication of union information. They see it as an imposition on their social chit-chat.Because we outsource a lot of our web based development, and only have part of a FT Official’s time allocated to it, the outcomes are somewhat downsized. Online joining has proved a very successful addition, but the backroom processing is more costly – maybe due to Oz’s financial regulators and banks strangling the cashflow accelerators?  We’ve been toying with a social media presence, and many staff have a personal presence, just not targetted toward union promotion (hardly at all!) in part due to recent experiences and policy changes.  The one biggest, most exciting development was that we’ve signed off on a cloud solution for video conferencing and some capacity for online learning in late 20 10… now we’ve just got to capitalise it for staff / officials and then expand it for some rank and file accessibility. Monitorising the “learning” opportunities MAY come as another income stream, but I’m not sure it’s got the ROI some are suggesting is possible.Problem with Q22 – can only select each option once

I work at a national confederation of unions, so I have answeared about their/our presence on the internet. I’m sorry if that was wrong, but we try to use social media à lot in lobbying and trying to put our message out and I wanted to contribute that to your survey.Generally in the United States, Labor organizations are behind the times with “new” media. I’m not very adept at it, having spent 31 years in the machine trade in a shipyard, but our younger members and student affiliates could help by showing retired persons like myself more of the skills needed to make our websites and communications better.

I’m retired have no regular contact with my previous unionQuestion #22 does not allow multiple answers at the same choice, i.e. I couldn’t pick “Very Important” for more than one item. I elected not to answer that question for that reason. What am I missing?

Question 22 seems broken. If I choose one as “very important” any other choice of “very important” cancels the previous choice. At first, I thought this was by design (rank the importance). However, there are 9 choices and only 4 levels of importance.     Finally, Eric, I noticed your podcast wasn’t listed. I found the UnionBook set because of your podcast.

For question 22, I was limited to a total of 4 answers for the entire list.  I could not rate other items on list.Not for the time being.

Glitch in number 22 on my computer: could only check one column once, so if answer to two or more questions was the same (eg, very important) it would only record one answer….Q. 22 doesn’t allow for more than 4 options – priorities, rather than allowing rating the 9 items individually.It would be most useful to be able to contact my local rep by the website, as the response to phone messages is very poor.

I’m not really into this stuff but I was an active trade unionist all my working life and am still active in the labour movement si I support your sort of thing.

I believe the CWU could use the internet a lot better especially during disputes.  Currently I would rate their use of the internet as extremely poor for a Union where most of its members are in the Communication field (Mobiles, Postal, Landlines and Internet)Item 22 would only allow me to make one check mark.

I do consulting for work councils as my job (http://www.syndex.fr read “syndicat expert (in French)” that you can translate as “trade union experts” in English, we are a company/cooperative (managers are elected) of about 500, mainly in France, working to help work councils (elected members of medium and large company employees), understand the economics of their company.    I used UB a lot to test it, but I didn’t find a solution to use it in correlation with labour action for multiple reasons (see list below):    1/ Not the right language  2/ Not enough confidentiality  3/ Not allowing a match with economic real world network (for example, allowing the creation of a private space for workers within a OEM subcontractor relationship)  4/ Not able to manage various degrees of social action within a group (for example a differentiated administration for trade union members, work council members, employees, partners (accountants, medical…), economic partners (town hall, subcontractors, customers), etc…    I suggest a wiki (example: wikipedia) is closer to workers needs than a web2.0    In all cases, if you are interested in making contact with people a 100% involved in helping workers organize and defend themselves I can introduce you to our elected board in order for you guys to have a phone conference or a webinar and know more about each other.  My mobile is 0033 6 50 01 28 20    John

ETUC should introduce some resources to start with courses on recruitement by social media tools.
Thank god for Unions. I am also proud to state that I am the AFL-CIO Community Service Liaison.

I think it’s a good idea to conduct a survey – it’s difficult to know how relevant the Internet is vis a vis members
I had functional barriers to block my full answer to question 22.  Basically Unions need to grow and educate.  Anything that spreads that effectively I favor.  Growth should not be for growth’s sake, rather it is because of our message, our reason for being.  It’s less about good wages and benefits now and more about the survival of our planet and living within the natural limitations of the earth.

Organize, organize, organize!!!

question 22 will only allow you to pick one for each section. If I feel that Video conferencing and social networks are very important i can’t pick that.

TPGETHER IS BETTER TO CAUSE CHANGES SO AS TO MAKE THE EARTH A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE IN ….

question 22 is dodgy and needs rewriting

-end-

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