TAG NEWS REEL

Keeping up with Facebook
Popular, "private" social media tools create fertile ground for unions

Over the past 15 years e-mail and the Internet have become more entrenched in our lives and workplaces, especially as younger employees (who have grown up with computers) take their places in the workforce.

While electronic organizing using the Internet is nothing new for labor unions, the growing popularity of relationship-building social media tools, such as Facebook, is changing the way unions and employees communicate with one another. 

Unlike email, which can now be fairly easily monitored by a corporate IT department, social media allow unhappy employees to connect privately with kindred spirits because one’s profile can be kept from public access. 

Adding "Friends" to their inner circle on Facebook, these employees bond and recruit others who have confronted the same or similar issues.  Employees discover that tools such as Facebook are a particularly efficient way to mobilize their fellow employees against wage cuts, changes in benefits, and other employer actions.

Unfortunately, in these forums issues rankle and often grow unmitigated.  Whether or not organizers are the impetus for the interaction, this collective dissention creates fertile ground for unions.

And as a result, union organizing efforts that once took years of labor-intensive cultivation can now be successfully accomplished in significantly less time.

Thus, employers must be aware of the online communications resources at employees' disposal (beyond email), and position themselves to proactively engage employees in dialogue both in person and online.   For tips on how your Human Resources department can successfully implement an engaging corporate social media outreach initiative, let’s talk: info@tagstrategists.com.