Inside LabourStart

Subscribers to our mailing list have been writing to tell me what they think about the end of the Sappi dispute in South Africa, which we reported yesterday.  What they write confirms the importance of sending out these follow-up messages, even if what we are reporting is not a 100% victory for the workers.  Here is a sample:

• “Congratulations Eric, another successful campaign.” – Arthur Rorris, Secretary, South Coast Labour Council, NSW Australia
• “Good to hear these victories, congrats once again!” – Mac Urata, ITF, UK
• “Congratulations Eric, Another one bites the dust.  It is joyous to have a win or two. Once again, congratulations on a successful campaign.” – Wendy, Australia
• “Great news, thanks for the feedback.” – Steve, UK
• “Well done in highlighting this one. It is always good to hear about the WINS.” – Tony, Ireland
• “Great news, well done.” – Lindsay
• “Congratulations Eric. People power makes a difference.” – Shaazka
• “Brilliant!” – Jean, UK
• “Viva Worker Solidarity, Viva” – South Africa
• “This is wonderful news. Last year, I was watching a program (I can’t remember what channel or the name of the program) but it featured a black man in an overseas country.  It was the bombardment of on line petitions and faxes with Labour start (I think) that freed  him. The company got freaked out when there was such an outpouring and didnt want any more trouble and exposure. Since then, I always since these petitions and have no problem with faxing to anywhere in the world.  Anything to help those oppressed jailed workers that fight for the right for safety, fairness and human dignity!  Thank you for all your hard-work Labourstart.  I look forward to more on-line petitions!! ” – Linda, Canada
• “Many thanks for this fruitful solution. Hope our world solidarity would find justice for workers.” –
  Narith,VP of CTSWF – Cambodian Tourism and Service Workers Federation

Starting today, we’re experimenting with daily mailings to our list in English.

This follows upon our Washington conference where two presentations made it clear that this is something we need to try.

• First, we saw at the SEIU how short messages with only one subject are much more effective than online newsletters with lots of topics.  (We knew this, but this was reinforced.)
• Second, we heard of the success of the DC Metro labor council which went from weekly to daily mass mailings, and found these to be much more effective.

Obviously, we will only mail if there is something important to say, so there may well be days when we do not do a mass mailing at all.

We anticipate a small drop-off of readers who will not want to receive a daily message, but this should be compensated by the messages being more effective and producing good results faster.

I have informed our translators that we do not expect them to translate these daily messages and instead will prepare a weekly mailing for them, as before.

Stuart Elliott has uploaded videos of the remarks made by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and Teamsters President James Hoffa to YouTube:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWTcGHbBPYI
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nitWtjarais

Photos of the conference taken by Derek Blackadder and Stuart appear in a special Flickr group.

That’s not a typo — it’s how most Americans would spell LabourStart.  Today for the first time we have a proper US news page which can be reached at any of the following URLs:

• http://www.laborstart.us
• http://usa.labourstart.org
• http://www.labourstart.org/usa

The new page includes links to the AFL-CIO, Change to Win, the ILCA, Union Jobs, the UCS bookstore and three independent national unions (NEA, UE and IWW).  It also spells ‘labour’ the American way throughout.  It tells users that they can click on state names to see state-specific news.  And it has much more content than the previous US news page, which you can still view here.

As of now, anyone clicking on Australia, Canada or the USA from the front page of LabourStart, from any news story, is automatically taken to one of our new pages for those countries.

There are many ways to measure progress on LabourStart and not all of them involve counting.  Nevertheless, there are certain indicators of growth.  I’d like to post these from time to time here so that we can see how fast we are growing, to see what needs more work, and so on.  So here goes:

• Mailing lists – subscribers: 58,606
• UnionBook – members: 4,017
• Facebook – members of LabourStart group: 1,992
• Twitter – followers: 1,193
• Correspondents: 671
• Union group on Flickr: 459

Eric:  This is the first time we’re using the terminology “next year’s conference.”  We should continue to do these conferences annually in different parts of the world.  Canada?  Does not necessarily have to be coordinated with ITUC events.  A West-coast conference in Vancouver could concentrate on trade unionism in the Pacific basin.  If on the east coast, Toronto would be a possibility.

Mahesh Upadhyaya:  State of the trade union movement in India.  A union must have 500,000 members in five states/industry.  Recognition granted by Ministry of Labour.  In India, unions are associated with political parties.  Recognized and unrecognized unions; defunct central trade unions.  What role can LS play?

Contact individual unions that the Global unions think would be interested in LS.  Presently, no other regularly active LS correspondents in India.  Difficult to recruit volunteers.  Might be useful to have a Hindi edition of LS (need to hire a low-cost translator).  Most unionists who do not read English also do not have internet access.  Only the elite in urban unions have internet access.

Eric:  Hindi edition of LS could be done almost immediately.  Bengali edition should be done as well.  Reading LS, one would get the impression that there are lots of trade union struggles in Pakistan, but not India, probably because of LS’s relationship to the IUF.  More correspondents, more news, more languages between now and when we meet next.

Derek:  Letter of introduction to those who do not know us?

David Prosten (UCS): The Union Steward’s Complete Guide. Started book catalog in 1997.  Publishes Steward Update, circ. 80,000.  Complete Guide has been very successful.  Catalog includes hard-core books to build the labor movement, now in many different categories.

https://ssl30.pair.com/unionist/ccp51/cgi-bin/cp-app.cgi?pg=cat&ref=tools

Eric:  Authors are beginning to approach us with their books.  Authors and book sellers trying to figure out:  How do you sell a union book to union members?  Language concerns–sell books to an international audience.

Derek:  Photo of the year competition.  It is important to document not only union struggles around the world, but we’re specifically doing, too.  Contest was a success and has great potential to go further.  We have three union photographers to act as judges.  Derek would be happy to do this again next time.

See www.flickr.com/groups/union/

He also believes that some local places might be willing to display our photos.  Eric: It is preferable to have this competition the same time each year.

Union website recognition, too, is a useful way to attract attention.  Eric:  We already do this in our weekly mailings.

Chris Garlock (communications, organizing: dclabor.com) on film festivals.  “What have the unions ever done for us?”  From Your Rights at Work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=184NTV2CE

This movie has turned out to be an excellent organizing tool.  Christine (from IMF) spoke about films at Global Union Federation labor film contest.  75 submissions this year from around the world.  Limited by English, but still growing.  Struggle every year is to get quality, interesting films that are not like infomercials, but more and more excellent films are made every year.  Purchase a channel to show online films?

Chris:  There are probably dozens of film festivals around the world each year.  Film is a powerful medium and, with sites such as youtube.com, there is easy access and more and more labor films produced.

“Just another cog in the machine”:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLGoKqPAhSk (John Wood).  Eric: Viewership for this film jumped over 1000% after mention in LS.  Chris:  There may be many more films like this out there — we need to find and promote them.

“We were there”:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjnyk06MZRY , with song by Bev Grant w/ Brooklyn Women’s Chorus.  Chris:  There is a hunger out there for labor history films.  Can LS find and help us promote these films?

Eric:  There is a need for an online database of labor films and labor-film festivals.  It should be a priority.  Should consider using tools, such as Youtube and their competitors.  Video contest of the year.  LS branding.  ILCA and CALM should be part of any project.  ITUC should be part of the process.  Chris:  LS can connect people and help get the tools out there.  Big return on small investment of time.

Eric: We need more US correspondents that are more engaged in American union issues.  LS campaigns on behalf of US unions.  How do we get US unions to come to us?  American unions need be more involved in international campaigns but, very often, are not interested in international concerns.  How can this be combated?  How can we do necessary educational work about global issues in the US?

Arieh:  We need to get people from unions into sessions like this, maybe from unions that have a connection to an international issue that we have targeted.

Help targeted unions with ActNOW campaigns and eventually find more correspondents.  It is even difficult to get people interested in something happening in their own union, but in a different local.  International interest?  Apathy is not a new problem.

Eric invited to and visited Toronto at the height of the SARS panic.  Asked, “What can LS do for you?”

Derek:  Effective to contact individuals from unions whose locals use LS news feed and ask them to become correspondents so that their own news will appear on that country’s page.

Tula Connell spoke about the AFL-CIO blog.

But why are American trade unionists so resistant to international trade unionism?