Social Media Launches at Unions.org?

The rules of promoting your union and communicating with union members has changed – Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, Email Blasts and Text Messaging are here to stay.  Now it’s time to join the next generation of communicating by Going Green with Social Online Media.

Unions.org the number one website for unions and union members launched their Union Social Media platform.  The Union Facebook page is the “Union Voice” and also added was a dynamic Facebook Page, which was named “We Are One”. The Union Blog, Union Twitter and TextMyUnion were developed to assist union management in creating relationships through online communities. 

The team at Unions.org is now offering Social Media products and services to the Unions.  The tools provided will ensure the success of their online presence. Membership growth is vital for the continued success of Unions and Social Media will assist with that process.

The growing use of social media such as Facebook, YouTube and viral flash mobs is changing the way employers and union members communicate in labor disputes.

They’re tweeting in Northern California about the Employee Free Choice Act, sharing about health care reform on Facebook in Montana and posting organizing messages on Facebook for workers in York, Pa.

Across the country, union members are using the new social media to mobilize workers and share information on Unions.org.

Steve Selby, an Electrical Workers (IBEW) organizer in York, Pa., knows the value of social media. He urgently needed to reach 300 workers at a local Comcast office. Rather than standing outside the office and handing out a flier with different information each day, Selby taught himself how to set up a Facebook account. He handed out one flier directing workers to his Facebook page, where he shared information the workers needed to know.

Social media can be a strong complement to traditional organizing, says Darren DeMarco, IBEW’s information technology director:

I think you have to use every tool out there to organize. You have these tools out there where the user can very easily set up their own website, set up a Facebook page, reach out to friends and start a conversation with people they could not before. 

Text messaging is a great technology for organizing and keeping members informed in real time.  The UFW are using TextMyUnion to communicate with their membership.

The AFL-CIO, along with more than a dozen affiliated unions, is reaching out to potential new members and educating current members through social sites as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Unions with a Facebook page or Twitter page or both include, AFSCME, AFT, Air Line Pilots (ALPA), American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM), American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), Communications Workers of America (CWA), Electrical Workers (IBEW), Fire Fighters (IAFF), Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA),Transport Workers (TWU), UNITE HERE, United American Nurses (UAN) and United Steelworkers (USW).

Union activists are finding that social media reaches more people faster and cheaper than any traditional forms of communication.  The days of faxing and emailing are coming to an end and Facebooking, Tweeting, Blogging and Texting are here to stay.

Unions.org will play an instrumental role in the up coming political elections.  COPE lists will be posted along with Home Town Meetings organized online. 

Join the Union Social Media community and contact Unions.org today.

Cindy Maddy – co –founder Unions.org

September 20, 2011