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Last week the Alta Mode Workers Union settled the labor dispute with its management and lifted the campout at the Mactan export processing zone. The workers were not able to achieve their maximum demand of returning back to work. Management stood pat on closing the factory and workers learned that a new plant has been opened in Vietnam to manufacture Abercrombie and Fitch garments. The struggle was not a failure though since the workers got a separation package that was substantially above that mandated by law.


Workers were forced to compromise since the Labor Department recently found the union guilty of an illegal strike. The decision is ridiculous since the workers were then on forced leave and their protest did not disrupt production much less lead to a work stoppage. A separate civil case filed by the landowner of the export zone for illegal picketing put additional pressure on the workers. The Alta Mode workers chose to settle rather than pursue a protracted legal battle that may last a decade. Once the workers decided to settle, the illegal strike decision was ignored by management and the civil case was promptly withdrawn, revealing that the cases were simply used as leverage.

The Alta Mode workers will use their above average severance package to start life anew as they vow to support a renewed organizing effort to raise the struggle of the export zone workers. The Alta Mode union thanks all workers and groups, local and international, for the solidarity that sustained the 3 month-long campout.
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Last week the Alta Mode Workers Union settled the labor dispute with its management and lifted the campout at the Mactan export processing zone. The workers were not able to achieve their maximum demand of returning back to work. Management stood pat on closing the factory and workers learned that a new plant has been opened in Vietnam to manufacture Abercrombie and Fitch garments. The struggle was not a failure though since the workers got a separation package that was substantially above that mandated by law.

Workers were forced to compromise since the Labor Department recently found the union guilty of an illegal strike. The decision is ridiculous since the workers were then on forced leave and their protest did not disrupt production much less lead to a work stoppage. A separate civil case filed by the landowner of the export zone for illegal picketing put additional pressure on the workers. The Alta Mode workers chose to settle rather than pursue a protracted legal battle that may last a decade. Once the workers decided to settle, the illegal strike decision was ignored by management and the civil case was promptly withdrawn, revealing that the cases were simply used as leverage.
The Alta Mode workers will use their above average severance package to start life anew as they vow to support a renewed organizing effort to raise the struggle of the export zone workers. The Alta Mode union thanks all workers and groups, local and international, for the solidarity that sustained the 3 month-long campout.

Last updated 41 days ago by Eric Lee

]]> Last week the Alta Mode Workers Union settled the labor dispute with its management and lifted the campout at the Mactan export processing zone. The workers were not able to achieve their maximum demand of returning back to work. Management stood pat on closing the factory and workers learned that a new plant has been opened in Vietnam to manufacture Abercrombie and Fitch garments. The struggle was not a failure though since the workers got a separation package that was substantially above that mandated by law.


Workers were forced to compromise since the Labor Department recently found the union guilty of an illegal strike. The decision is ridiculous since the workers were then on forced leave and their protest did not disrupt production much less lead to a work stoppage. A separate civil case filed by the landowner of the export zone for illegal picketing put additional pressure on the workers. The Alta Mode workers chose to settle rather than pursue a protracted legal battle that may last a decade. Once the workers decided to settle, the illegal strike decision was ignored by management and the civil case was promptly withdrawn, revealing that the cases were simply used as leverage.

The Alta Mode workers will use their above average severance package to start life anew as they vow to support a renewed organizing effort to raise the struggle of the export zone workers. The Alta Mode union thanks all workers and groups, local and international, for the solidarity that sustained the 3 month-long campout.
]]> Last week the Alta Mode Workers Union settled the labor dispute with its management and lifted the campout at the Mactan export processing zone. The workers were not able to achieve their maximum demand of returning back to work. Management stood pat on closing the factory and workers learned that a new plant has been opened in Vietnam to manufacture Abercrombie and Fitch garments. The struggle was not a failure though since the workers got a separation package that was substantially above that mandated by law.


Workers were forced to compromise since the Labor Department recently found the union guilty of an illegal strike. The decision is ridiculous since the workers were then on forced leave and their protest did not disrupt production much less lead to a work stoppage. A separate civil case filed by the landowner of the export zone for illegal picketing put additional pressure on the workers. The Alta Mode workers chose to settle rather than pursue a protracted legal battle that may last a decade. Once the workers decided to settle, the illegal strike decision was ignored by management and the civil case was promptly withdrawn, revealing that the cases were simply used as leverage.

The Alta Mode workers will use their above average severance package to start life anew as they vow to support a renewed organizing effort to raise the struggle of the export zone workers. The Alta Mode union thanks all workers and groups, local and international, for the solidarity that sustained the 3 month-long campout.
]]>

Last week the Alta Mode Workers Union settled the labor dispute with its management and lifted the campout at the Mactan export processing zone. The workers were not able to achieve their maximum demand of returning back to work. Management stood pat on closing the factory and workers learned that a new plant has been opened in Vietnam to manufacture Abercrombie and Fitch garments. The struggle was not a failure though since the workers got a separation package that was substantially above that mandated by law.

Workers were forced to compromise since the Labor Department recently found the union guilty of an illegal strike. The decision is ridiculous since the workers were then on forced leave and their protest did not disrupt production much less lead to a work stoppage. A separate civil case filed by the landowner of the export zone for illegal picketing put additional pressure on the workers. The Alta Mode workers chose to settle rather than pursue a protracted legal battle that may last a decade. Once the workers decided to settle, the illegal strike decision was ignored by management and the civil case was promptly withdrawn, revealing that the cases were simply used as leverage.
The Alta Mode workers will use their above average severance package to start life anew as they vow to support a renewed organizing effort to raise the struggle of the export zone workers. The Alta Mode union thanks all workers and groups, local and international, for the solidarity that sustained the 3 month-long campout.

Last updated 41 days ago by Eric Lee

]]> Last week the Alta Mode Workers Union settled the labor dispute with its management and lifted the campout at the Mactan export processing zone. The workers were not able to achieve their maximum demand of returning back to work. Management stood pat on closing the factory and workers learned that a new plant has been opened in Vietnam to manufacture Abercrombie and Fitch garments. The struggle was not a failure though since the workers got a separation package that was substantially above that mandated by law.


Workers were forced to compromise since the Labor Department recently found the union guilty of an illegal strike. The decision is ridiculous since the workers were then on forced leave and their protest did not disrupt production much less lead to a work stoppage. A separate civil case filed by the landowner of the export zone for illegal picketing put additional pressure on the workers. The Alta Mode workers chose to settle rather than pursue a protracted legal battle that may last a decade. Once the workers decided to settle, the illegal strike decision was ignored by management and the civil case was promptly withdrawn, revealing that the cases were simply used as leverage.

The Alta Mode workers will use their above average severance package to start life anew as they vow to support a renewed organizing effort to raise the struggle of the export zone workers. The Alta Mode union thanks all workers and groups, local and international, for the solidarity that sustained the 3 month-long campout.
]]> LaborComm

Ankara, Türkiye

3 Mayıs 2010

Eric Lee

 

 

Teşekkür ve kendini tanıtma.

 

GEÇMİŞ

 

LabourStart nedir?

 

LabourStart, 1998 yılında kurulmuştur ve uluslararası sendikal hareketin haber ve kampanya websitesidir. LabourStart, benim tarafımdan, sendikacıların internet üzerinde güne başlayacakları bir “portal” sitesi olarak tasarlanmıştır.

 

İngilizceden çokdilli sisteme

 

İlk 4 yıl site yalnızca İngilizce olarak işledi; sonra Hollandaca ve Norveçce versiyonlarını ekledim, Bugün, LabourStart haberleri Türkçeyi de kapsar biçimde 24 farklı dilde bulunmaktadır. Haberler çevrilmemektedir-her site otonomdur ve gönüllü çalışanlara dayanmaktadır (ileride bu konuya değineceğim). Bugün dünya üstünde konuşulan 6000 dil bulunmaktadır. Birçoğunun milyonlarca konuşanı vardır (66 dilin her biri en az 10 milyon kişi tarafından konuşulmaktadır.) Küresel sendika federasyonlarının dahil olduğu sendika web sitelerinin çoğu bu dillerinin hepsini değilse de önemli bir bölümünü ihmal etmektedir. Türkçe, örneğin, birçok küresel sendika sitesinde bulunmamaktadır.

 

Varolan kampanyaları desteklemekten kendi kampanyalarımızı yaratmaya

 

Başladığımızda ICEM’le (Uluslararası Kimya, Enerji, Maden ve Genel İşçi Sendikaları Federasyonu) bağlantılar ve GUF (Küresel Sendikalar Federasyonu) tarafından yönlendirilen diğer kampanyalar çok etkili değildi. Sonraları, biz kendi çokdilli yazılım programımızı hayata geçirdik. Bu program, yeni eklenen içeriğin kolaylıkla takip edilmesini sağlayan özet akışlarını (RSS) ve diğer haber merkezleri ile bizim haber bilgi bankalarımızı entegre etti. Kampanyalarımızı imzalayan e-posta adreslerini harmanlayarak kendi yazışma listelerimizi yarattık (bu konuya aşağıda değineceğim)

 

 

 

Deneyselliğin Önemi

 

Sonuçta hepsinden de çok iyi sonuçlar almamakla birlikte hemen her şeyi denedik. Örneğin: Online sohbet, tartışma forumları, sendikal hareketteki iş olanakları için iş olanakları tahtası, markalı web-tabanlı e-posta, Opera tarayıcısı (browser) ile birlikte lanse edilen “sendika tarayıcısı” gibi…Neyin işleyip neyin işlemediğini öğrendik-ama önemli olan denemekti. Sendikalar denemeyi sevmiyor ama sevmeliyiz.

 

Yeni ağ inşa etme

 

LabourStart, emek haberlerine ulaşılan listelere linkler vererek bu siteleri bağlantılandırmaktan çok daha öteye gitti. Esas olan, sendikaların her seviyesinde, sendika aktivistlerinin küresel ağını inşa etmektir.

 

BUGÜN

 

Haberler

 

Bu bizim temel faaliyet alanımız olarak duruyor – sendikalar ilişkin haberlere yönelik bağlantıları günün 24 saati ve haftanın 7 günü 24 farklı dilde sağlamak.

Günde ortalama 250 yılda 90.000 haber sağlıyoruz, bu rakamlar sendikalar hakkında çok sayıda habere yer verdiğimiz gösteriyor. Bu haber bağlantıları 762 gönüllü muhabirden oluşan muhabir ağımız tarafından sağlanıyor. En önemli küresel haberleri, ülkelerin önemli haberlerini, sağlık ve iş güvenliği haberlerini ve kadın işçilerle ilgili haberleri LabourStart üzerinden paylaşıyoruz. Online arşivimizde şirket adıyla arama da yapılabilmektedir ve tüm arşivimiz online olarak kullanıma açıktır.

 

E-posta Listeleri

 

67,500 kişi şu anda elektronik haberleşme listelerimize üyedir. 2002’de Önder’i son gördüğümde, Türkiye’den de 3.000 isim üye durumaydı. Şu anda varolan tek büyük-ölçekli sendikacıların küresel ağı durumundadır. İngilizce liste 56,000 isimle en büyük listedir. Ama Türkçe listede yalnızca 61 isim var.

Bu listeler –haftada 2-3 defa postalanmaktadır ve web sitemizden daha da önemlidir. E-posta listeleri kampanyalarımızı yürütmektedir.

 

Kampanyalar

 

2002 yılından bugüne kendi online kampanya sistemimiz var ve sendikalar adına birçok kampanya yürüttük. Bunların önemli bir bölümü Türkiye’yi içeriyor- halen sürmekte olan ve PSI üyesi SES’in Genel Sekreteri Seher Tümer’i destekleyen bir kampanya var, Türkiye hükümetine 9 ayrı dilde

 

(Türkçe değil) 4,000’i aşkın mesaj gönderilmiştir. Geçen Temmuz, KESK liderlerinin tutuklanmasını protesto eden bir kampanya yürüttük. Bir yıl önce, 1 Mayıs’ta Taksim meydanında gösteri yapmak isteyen Türkiyeli işçilerini destekleyen bir kampanya yürüttük. Türkiyeli işçileri destekleyen 6 kampanya daha var- işten çıkarılan metal işçilerine ve DESA’da işten çıkarılan deri işçilerine destek, tutuklanan SES liderine destek, taşımacılık sendikasının tutuklanan üyelerine destek, Novamed grevcilerine destek bunlara örnek gösterilebilir. Bazı kampanyalarımız başarılı oldu, bazıları ise başarısız. Kampanyalarımız bugün eskisinden çok daha büyük ama biz bunların Türkçe olmasına ve binlerce Türkiyeli sendikacının katılımına ihtiyaç duyuyoruz.

 

Radyo LabourStart

 

Bir kaç yıl once Live365’da bir İnternet radyo kanalı olarak başladı, şu anda sendikalar tarafından günlük radyo haberlerini listeleyen LabourStart’dan dinleyebilirsiniz ama çoğu İngilizcedir. Marc Belanger tarafından başlatılan Radio LabourStart’ın yayın hayatına girmesi bizi çok heyecanlandırdı.

 

LabourStart.tv

 

Radio LabourStart ile birlikte, LabourStart.tv’de online sendika videolarına bağlantılar içeriyor ve gün boyu güncelleniyor. Bu yıl, ilk defa düzenlenen yılın küresel emek videosu yarışmasına sponsor olduk, ayrıca işçi filmleri ve işçi film festivallerini içeren online veri tabanlarımız da var.

 

Facebook

 

Bir kaç yıldır, Facebook’ta LabourStart grubumuz var, eğer Facebook kullanıyorsanız, üye olmalısınız. Şu anda 3 000’e yakın üyesi var.

 

Twitter

 

Twitter servisini kullanan ilk sendika gruplarının arasındayız. Bu çok çekiciydi çünkü tüm dünyaya bedava SMS mesajı yollayabilmemize imkan veriyordu. Artık böyle değil. Halen gün içinde otomatik olarak güncelliyoruz ve yaklaşık 2 000 kişi takip ediyor.

 

UnionBook

 

UnionBook, geçen yıl LabourStart tarafından Facebook’a alternative olarak yaratıldı. Yaklaşık 5.000 sendikacı tarafından hesaplar açıldı yüzlerce grup yaratıldı. Facebook’dan farklı olarak UnionBook reklam almıyor. Üyelerinin mahremiyetlerine saygı gösteriyor vee siteyi işçileri örgütlemek ve kampanya yürütmek için kullananları atmıyor. (Facebook’da bu yaşandı)

 

 

Temmuzda Düzenlenecek olan küresel dayanışma konferansı

 

LabourStart 2002, 2008 ve 2009 yıllarında London’da ve Washington’da küçük ve yalnızca davetlilerin katıldığı konferanslar düzenledi fakat tüm sendikacıların katılımına açık bir konferans düzenlememişti. Ve bunu bu yaz Kanada’da düzenliyoruz. Şu an itibarıyla, bu yazki konferansa Türkiye’den kimse kayıt olmadı.

 

GELECEK

 

İşçinin hazırladığı haberler

 

İşçiler ve sendikaları tarafından hazırlanan haberlerin artmasını ve anaakım medyaya bağımlılığımızın azalmasını umuyoruz. İşçiler içerik yaratmak için eğitim almalı ve cesaretlendirilmeliler ve yalnızca yazılı içerik için değil sesli ve görsel içerik için de…Grev veya gösteri olduğu zaman, olayları orada olan işçilerin bakış açıları ve sözleriyle aktarabilmeyi mümkün kılmak istiyoruz.

 

Dilin meydan okuması

 

Yalnızca İngilizce, Fransızca, Almanca ve İspanyolca versiyonları olan küresel sendika web sitelerinin ötesine geçmek zorundayız, Örneğin ITUC (Uluslararası Sendikalar Konfederasyonu) 155 ülkede 175 milyon işçiyi temsil ettiği iddiasında, ama büyük çoğunluk web sitesini okuyamaz çünkü web sitesi anladıkları bir dilde değil. Küresel harekete milyonlarca işçiyi katabilmek için tüm yöntemleri denemek zorundayız (gönüllü çevirmenler ve otomatik-elektronik tercüme gibi)

 

İnternet Her yerde

 

İnternete ofisinizdeki masaüstü PC’den bağlandığınız günler geride kaldı-özellikle zengin Batı ülkeleri için. Bu değişimi iki teknoloji yönlendiriyor –ilk olarak, küçük el cihazları (akıllı telefonlar, avuçiçi PDA bilgisayarlar, tablet bilgisayarlar gibi) ve ikinci olarak, kablosuz internet. Bu değişimler, kampanyaları, haberleri ve sendikal hareketin iletişimini değiştirecektir.

 

Kişiselleştirme

 

Herkese-uygun-tek-beden web sitesi hiç anlamlı değil ama sendikalar hala kullanıyor. İyi bir ticari web sitesini (Amazon.com gibi) ziyaret edin, sizi tanıyor, sizin neden hoşlandığınızı neye ilgi duyduğunuzu biliyor ve size özel müşteri hizmeti sunuyor. LabourStart bu yolda bazı adımlar attı. Örneğin bir kampanyaya imza veriyorsunuz, o zaman o ülke ile ilgili haberlere ilgi duyabilirsiniz. Daha fazlasını yapmayı amaçlıyoruz ve sendikalar da daha fazlasını yapmalılar.

 

Online ağın ardında – dayanışmayı gerçek dünyaya taşımak

 

Sonuç olarak, bu işi online olarak yapmanın ardındaki asıl nokta, gerçek hayatta değişimler yapabilmektir. Online ağ kurmak iyi ve güzeldir ama bu ağ eğer gerçek dünyada da işleyebiliyorsa, o zaman daha güçlü ve daha etkindir. Hiçbir grev online kazanılmaz, Bir sokak gösterisinin ve iyi örgütlenmiş bir sendikanın ikamesi yoktur. Bizim yaptığımız 21. yüzyıl için yeni ağlaşmış küresel emek hareketinin ortaya çıkabilmesi için gerekli koşulları yaratmaktır. Yeni teknoloji, uluslararası işçi hareketinin hayalinin gerçekleşmesini mümkün kılmaktadır, Karl Marx ve Friedrich Engels’in 1848’de tarihsel sözlerinde gizli olan hayalin: “Tüm dünya işçileri, birleşin!”

 

 

-son-

]]>

LaborComm

Ankara, Türkiye

3 Mayıs 2010

Eric Lee

 

 

Teşekkür ve kendini tanıtma.

 

GEÇMİŞ

 

LabourStart nedir?

 

LabourStart, 1998 yılında kurulmuştur ve uluslararası sendikal hareketin haber ve kampanya websitesidir. LabourStart, benim tarafımdan, sendikacıların internet üzerinde güne başlayacakları bir “portal” sitesi olarak tasarlanmıştır.

 

İngilizceden çokdilli sisteme

 

İlk 4 yıl site yalnızca İngilizce olarak işledi; sonra Hollandaca ve Norveçce versiyonlarını ekledim, Bugün, LabourStart haberleri Türkçeyi de kapsar biçimde 24 farklı dilde bulunmaktadır. Haberler çevrilmemektedir-her site otonomdur ve gönüllü çalışanlara dayanmaktadır (ileride bu konuya değineceğim). Bugün dünya üstünde konuşulan 6000 dil bulunmaktadır. Birçoğunun milyonlarca konuşanı vardır (66 dilin her biri en az 10 milyon kişi tarafından konuşulmaktadır.) Küresel sendika federasyonlarının dahil olduğu sendika web sitelerinin çoğu bu dillerinin hepsini değilse de önemli bir bölümünü ihmal etmektedir. Türkçe, örneğin, birçok küresel sendika sitesinde bulunmamaktadır.

 

Varolan kampanyaları desteklemekten kendi kampanyalarımızı yaratmaya

 

Başladığımızda ICEM’le (Uluslararası Kimya, Enerji, Maden ve Genel İşçi Sendikaları Federasyonu) bağlantılar ve GUF (Küresel Sendikalar Federasyonu) tarafından yönlendirilen diğer kampanyalar çok etkili değildi. Sonraları, biz kendi çokdilli yazılım programımızı hayata geçirdik. Bu program, yeni eklenen içeriğin kolaylıkla takip edilmesini sağlayan özet akışlarını (RSS) ve diğer haber merkezleri ile bizim haber bilgi bankalarımızı entegre etti. Kampanyalarımızı imzalayan e-posta adreslerini harmanlayarak kendi yazışma listelerimizi yarattık (bu konuya aşağıda değineceğim)

 

 

 

Deneyselliğin Önemi

 

Sonuçta hepsinden de çok iyi sonuçlar almamakla birlikte hemen her şeyi denedik. Örneğin: Online sohbet, tartışma forumları, sendikal hareketteki iş olanakları için iş olanakları tahtası, markalı web-tabanlı e-posta, Opera tarayıcısı (browser) ile birlikte lanse edilen “sendika tarayıcısı” gibi…Neyin işleyip neyin işlemediğini öğrendik-ama önemli olan denemekti. Sendikalar denemeyi sevmiyor ama sevmeliyiz.

 

Yeni ağ inşa etme

 

LabourStart, emek haberlerine ulaşılan listelere linkler vererek bu siteleri bağlantılandırmaktan çok daha öteye gitti. Esas olan, sendikaların her seviyesinde, sendika aktivistlerinin küresel ağını inşa etmektir.

 

BUGÜN

 

Haberler

 

Bu bizim temel faaliyet alanımız olarak duruyor – sendikalar ilişkin haberlere yönelik bağlantıları günün 24 saati ve haftanın 7 günü 24 farklı dilde sağlamak.

Günde ortalama 250 yılda 90.000 haber sağlıyoruz, bu rakamlar sendikalar hakkında çok sayıda habere yer verdiğimiz gösteriyor. Bu haber bağlantıları 762 gönüllü muhabirden oluşan muhabir ağımız tarafından sağlanıyor. En önemli küresel haberleri, ülkelerin önemli haberlerini, sağlık ve iş güvenliği haberlerini ve kadın işçilerle ilgili haberleri LabourStart üzerinden paylaşıyoruz. Online arşivimizde şirket adıyla arama da yapılabilmektedir ve tüm arşivimiz online olarak kullanıma açıktır.

 

E-posta Listeleri

 

67,500 kişi şu anda elektronik haberleşme listelerimize üyedir. 2002’de Önder’i son gördüğümde, Türkiye’den de 3.000 isim üye durumaydı. Şu anda varolan tek büyük-ölçekli sendikacıların küresel ağı durumundadır. İngilizce liste 56,000 isimle en büyük listedir. Ama Türkçe listede yalnızca 61 isim var.

Bu listeler –haftada 2-3 defa postalanmaktadır ve web sitemizden daha da önemlidir. E-posta listeleri kampanyalarımızı yürütmektedir.

 

Kampanyalar

 

2002 yılından bugüne kendi online kampanya sistemimiz var ve sendikalar adına birçok kampanya yürüttük. Bunların önemli bir bölümü Türkiye’yi içeriyor- halen sürmekte olan ve PSI üyesi SES’in Genel Sekreteri Seher Tümer’i destekleyen bir kampanya var, Türkiye hükümetine 9 ayrı dilde

 

(Türkçe değil) 4,000’i aşkın mesaj gönderilmiştir. Geçen Temmuz, KESK liderlerinin tutuklanmasını protesto eden bir kampanya yürüttük. Bir yıl önce, 1 Mayıs’ta Taksim meydanında gösteri yapmak isteyen Türkiyeli işçilerini destekleyen bir kampanya yürüttük. Türkiyeli işçileri destekleyen 6 kampanya daha var- işten çıkarılan metal işçilerine ve DESA’da işten çıkarılan deri işçilerine destek, tutuklanan SES liderine destek, taşımacılık sendikasının tutuklanan üyelerine destek, Novamed grevcilerine destek bunlara örnek gösterilebilir. Bazı kampanyalarımız başarılı oldu, bazıları ise başarısız. Kampanyalarımız bugün eskisinden çok daha büyük ama biz bunların Türkçe olmasına ve binlerce Türkiyeli sendikacının katılımına ihtiyaç duyuyoruz.

 

Radyo LabourStart

 

Bir kaç yıl once Live365’da bir İnternet radyo kanalı olarak başladı, şu anda sendikalar tarafından günlük radyo haberlerini listeleyen LabourStart’dan dinleyebilirsiniz ama çoğu İngilizcedir. Marc Belanger tarafından başlatılan Radio LabourStart’ın yayın hayatına girmesi bizi çok heyecanlandırdı.

 

LabourStart.tv

 

Radio LabourStart ile birlikte, LabourStart.tv’de online sendika videolarına bağlantılar içeriyor ve gün boyu güncelleniyor. Bu yıl, ilk defa düzenlenen yılın küresel emek videosu yarışmasına sponsor olduk, ayrıca işçi filmleri ve işçi film festivallerini içeren online veri tabanlarımız da var.

 

Facebook

 

Bir kaç yıldır, Facebook’ta LabourStart grubumuz var, eğer Facebook kullanıyorsanız, üye olmalısınız. Şu anda 3 000’e yakın üyesi var.

 

Twitter

 

Twitter servisini kullanan ilk sendika gruplarının arasındayız. Bu çok çekiciydi çünkü tüm dünyaya bedava SMS mesajı yollayabilmemize imkan veriyordu. Artık böyle değil. Halen gün içinde otomatik olarak güncelliyoruz ve yaklaşık 2 000 kişi takip ediyor.

 

UnionBook

 

UnionBook, geçen yıl LabourStart tarafından Facebook’a alternative olarak yaratıldı. Yaklaşık 5.000 sendikacı tarafından hesaplar açıldı yüzlerce grup yaratıldı. Facebook’dan farklı olarak UnionBook reklam almıyor. Üyelerinin mahremiyetlerine saygı gösteriyor vee siteyi işçileri örgütlemek ve kampanya yürütmek için kullananları atmıyor. (Facebook’da bu yaşandı)

 

 

Temmuzda Düzenlenecek olan küresel dayanışma konferansı

 

LabourStart 2002, 2008 ve 2009 yıllarında London’da ve Washington’da küçük ve yalnızca davetlilerin katıldığı konferanslar düzenledi fakat tüm sendikacıların katılımına açık bir konferans düzenlememişti. Ve bunu bu yaz Kanada’da düzenliyoruz. Şu an itibarıyla, bu yazki konferansa Türkiye’den kimse kayıt olmadı.

 

GELECEK

 

İşçinin hazırladığı haberler

 

İşçiler ve sendikaları tarafından hazırlanan haberlerin artmasını ve anaakım medyaya bağımlılığımızın azalmasını umuyoruz. İşçiler içerik yaratmak için eğitim almalı ve cesaretlendirilmeliler ve yalnızca yazılı içerik için değil sesli ve görsel içerik için de…Grev veya gösteri olduğu zaman, olayları orada olan işçilerin bakış açıları ve sözleriyle aktarabilmeyi mümkün kılmak istiyoruz.

 

Dilin meydan okuması

 

Yalnızca İngilizce, Fransızca, Almanca ve İspanyolca versiyonları olan küresel sendika web sitelerinin ötesine geçmek zorundayız, Örneğin ITUC (Uluslararası Sendikalar Konfederasyonu) 155 ülkede 175 milyon işçiyi temsil ettiği iddiasında, ama büyük çoğunluk web sitesini okuyamaz çünkü web sitesi anladıkları bir dilde değil. Küresel harekete milyonlarca işçiyi katabilmek için tüm yöntemleri denemek zorundayız (gönüllü çevirmenler ve otomatik-elektronik tercüme gibi)

 

İnternet Her yerde

 

İnternete ofisinizdeki masaüstü PC’den bağlandığınız günler geride kaldı-özellikle zengin Batı ülkeleri için. Bu değişimi iki teknoloji yönlendiriyor –ilk olarak, küçük el cihazları (akıllı telefonlar, avuçiçi PDA bilgisayarlar, tablet bilgisayarlar gibi) ve ikinci olarak, kablosuz internet. Bu değişimler, kampanyaları, haberleri ve sendikal hareketin iletişimini değiştirecektir.

 

Kişiselleştirme

 

Herkese-uygun-tek-beden web sitesi hiç anlamlı değil ama sendikalar hala kullanıyor. İyi bir ticari web sitesini (Amazon.com gibi) ziyaret edin, sizi tanıyor, sizin neden hoşlandığınızı neye ilgi duyduğunuzu biliyor ve size özel müşteri hizmeti sunuyor. LabourStart bu yolda bazı adımlar attı. Örneğin bir kampanyaya imza veriyorsunuz, o zaman o ülke ile ilgili haberlere ilgi duyabilirsiniz. Daha fazlasını yapmayı amaçlıyoruz ve sendikalar da daha fazlasını yapmalılar.

 

Online ağın ardında – dayanışmayı gerçek dünyaya taşımak

 

Sonuç olarak, bu işi online olarak yapmanın ardındaki asıl nokta, gerçek hayatta değişimler yapabilmektir. Online ağ kurmak iyi ve güzeldir ama bu ağ eğer gerçek dünyada da işleyebiliyorsa, o zaman daha güçlü ve daha etkindir. Hiçbir grev online kazanılmaz, Bir sokak gösterisinin ve iyi örgütlenmiş bir sendikanın ikamesi yoktur. Bizim yaptığımız 21. yüzyıl için yeni ağlaşmış küresel emek hareketinin ortaya çıkabilmesi için gerekli koşulları yaratmaktır. Yeni teknoloji, uluslararası işçi hareketinin hayalinin gerçekleşmesini mümkün kılmaktadır, Karl Marx ve Friedrich Engels’in 1848’de tarihsel sözlerinde gizli olan hayalin: “Tüm dünya işçileri, birleşin!”

 

 

-son-

, , , , ,

Last updated 84 days ago by Eric Lee

]]> LaborComm

Ankara, Türkiye

3 Mayıs 2010

Eric Lee

 

 

Teşekkür ve kendini tanıtma.

 

GEÇMİŞ

 

LabourStart nedir?

 

LabourStart, 1998 yılında kurulmuştur ve uluslararası sendikal hareketin haber ve kampanya websitesidir. LabourStart, benim tarafımdan, sendikacıların internet üzerinde güne başlayacakları bir “portal” sitesi olarak tasarlanmıştır.

 

İngilizceden çokdilli sisteme

 

İlk 4 yıl site yalnızca İngilizce olarak işledi; sonra Hollandaca ve Norveçce versiyonlarını ekledim, Bugün, LabourStart haberleri Türkçeyi de kapsar biçimde 24 farklı dilde bulunmaktadır. Haberler çevrilmemektedir-her site otonomdur ve gönüllü çalışanlara dayanmaktadır (ileride bu konuya değineceğim). Bugün dünya üstünde konuşulan 6000 dil bulunmaktadır. Birçoğunun milyonlarca konuşanı vardır (66 dilin her biri en az 10 milyon kişi tarafından konuşulmaktadır.) Küresel sendika federasyonlarının dahil olduğu sendika web sitelerinin çoğu bu dillerinin hepsini değilse de önemli bir bölümünü ihmal etmektedir. Türkçe, örneğin, birçok küresel sendika sitesinde bulunmamaktadır.

 

Varolan kampanyaları desteklemekten kendi kampanyalarımızı yaratmaya

 

Başladığımızda ICEM’le (Uluslararası Kimya, Enerji, Maden ve Genel İşçi Sendikaları Federasyonu) bağlantılar ve GUF (Küresel Sendikalar Federasyonu) tarafından yönlendirilen diğer kampanyalar çok etkili değildi. Sonraları, biz kendi çokdilli yazılım programımızı hayata geçirdik. Bu program, yeni eklenen içeriğin kolaylıkla takip edilmesini sağlayan özet akışlarını (RSS) ve diğer haber merkezleri ile bizim haber bilgi bankalarımızı entegre etti. Kampanyalarımızı imzalayan e-posta adreslerini harmanlayarak kendi yazışma listelerimizi yarattık (bu konuya aşağıda değineceğim)

 

 

 

Deneyselliğin Önemi

 

Sonuçta hepsinden de çok iyi sonuçlar almamakla birlikte hemen her şeyi denedik. Örneğin: Online sohbet, tartışma forumları, sendikal hareketteki iş olanakları için iş olanakları tahtası, markalı web-tabanlı e-posta, Opera tarayıcısı (browser) ile birlikte lanse edilen “sendika tarayıcısı” gibi…Neyin işleyip neyin işlemediğini öğrendik-ama önemli olan denemekti. Sendikalar denemeyi sevmiyor ama sevmeliyiz.

 

Yeni ağ inşa etme

 

LabourStart, emek haberlerine ulaşılan listelere linkler vererek bu siteleri bağlantılandırmaktan çok daha öteye gitti. Esas olan, sendikaların her seviyesinde, sendika aktivistlerinin küresel ağını inşa etmektir.

 

BUGÜN

 

Haberler

 

Bu bizim temel faaliyet alanımız olarak duruyor – sendikalar ilişkin haberlere yönelik bağlantıları günün 24 saati ve haftanın 7 günü 24 farklı dilde sağlamak.

Günde ortalama 250 yılda 90.000 haber sağlıyoruz, bu rakamlar sendikalar hakkında çok sayıda habere yer verdiğimiz gösteriyor. Bu haber bağlantıları 762 gönüllü muhabirden oluşan muhabir ağımız tarafından sağlanıyor. En önemli küresel haberleri, ülkelerin önemli haberlerini, sağlık ve iş güvenliği haberlerini ve kadın işçilerle ilgili haberleri LabourStart üzerinden paylaşıyoruz. Online arşivimizde şirket adıyla arama da yapılabilmektedir ve tüm arşivimiz online olarak kullanıma açıktır.

 

E-posta Listeleri

 

67,500 kişi şu anda elektronik haberleşme listelerimize üyedir. 2002’de Önder’i son gördüğümde, Türkiye’den de 3.000 isim üye durumaydı. Şu anda varolan tek büyük-ölçekli sendikacıların küresel ağı durumundadır. İngilizce liste 56,000 isimle en büyük listedir. Ama Türkçe listede yalnızca 61 isim var.

Bu listeler –haftada 2-3 defa postalanmaktadır ve web sitemizden daha da önemlidir. E-posta listeleri kampanyalarımızı yürütmektedir.

 

Kampanyalar

 

2002 yılından bugüne kendi online kampanya sistemimiz var ve sendikalar adına birçok kampanya yürüttük. Bunların önemli bir bölümü Türkiye’yi içeriyor- halen sürmekte olan ve PSI üyesi SES’in Genel Sekreteri Seher Tümer’i destekleyen bir kampanya var, Türkiye hükümetine 9 ayrı dilde

 

(Türkçe değil) 4,000’i aşkın mesaj gönderilmiştir. Geçen Temmuz, KESK liderlerinin tutuklanmasını protesto eden bir kampanya yürüttük. Bir yıl önce, 1 Mayıs’ta Taksim meydanında gösteri yapmak isteyen Türkiyeli işçilerini destekleyen bir kampanya yürüttük. Türkiyeli işçileri destekleyen 6 kampanya daha var- işten çıkarılan metal işçilerine ve DESA’da işten çıkarılan deri işçilerine destek, tutuklanan SES liderine destek, taşımacılık sendikasının tutuklanan üyelerine destek, Novamed grevcilerine destek bunlara örnek gösterilebilir. Bazı kampanyalarımız başarılı oldu, bazıları ise başarısız. Kampanyalarımız bugün eskisinden çok daha büyük ama biz bunların Türkçe olmasına ve binlerce Türkiyeli sendikacının katılımına ihtiyaç duyuyoruz.

 

Radyo LabourStart

 

Bir kaç yıl once Live365’da bir İnternet radyo kanalı olarak başladı, şu anda sendikalar tarafından günlük radyo haberlerini listeleyen LabourStart’dan dinleyebilirsiniz ama çoğu İngilizcedir. Marc Belanger tarafından başlatılan Radio LabourStart’ın yayın hayatına girmesi bizi çok heyecanlandırdı.

 

LabourStart.tv

 

Radio LabourStart ile birlikte, LabourStart.tv’de online sendika videolarına bağlantılar içeriyor ve gün boyu güncelleniyor. Bu yıl, ilk defa düzenlenen yılın küresel emek videosu yarışmasına sponsor olduk, ayrıca işçi filmleri ve işçi film festivallerini içeren online veri tabanlarımız da var.

 

Facebook

 

Bir kaç yıldır, Facebook’ta LabourStart grubumuz var, eğer Facebook kullanıyorsanız, üye olmalısınız. Şu anda 3 000’e yakın üyesi var.

 

Twitter

 

Twitter servisini kullanan ilk sendika gruplarının arasındayız. Bu çok çekiciydi çünkü tüm dünyaya bedava SMS mesajı yollayabilmemize imkan veriyordu. Artık böyle değil. Halen gün içinde otomatik olarak güncelliyoruz ve yaklaşık 2 000 kişi takip ediyor.

 

UnionBook

 

UnionBook, geçen yıl LabourStart tarafından Facebook’a alternative olarak yaratıldı. Yaklaşık 5.000 sendikacı tarafından hesaplar açıldı yüzlerce grup yaratıldı. Facebook’dan farklı olarak UnionBook reklam almıyor. Üyelerinin mahremiyetlerine saygı gösteriyor vee siteyi işçileri örgütlemek ve kampanya yürütmek için kullananları atmıyor. (Facebook’da bu yaşandı)

 

 

Temmuzda Düzenlenecek olan küresel dayanışma konferansı

 

LabourStart 2002, 2008 ve 2009 yıllarında London’da ve Washington’da küçük ve yalnızca davetlilerin katıldığı konferanslar düzenledi fakat tüm sendikacıların katılımına açık bir konferans düzenlememişti. Ve bunu bu yaz Kanada’da düzenliyoruz. Şu an itibarıyla, bu yazki konferansa Türkiye’den kimse kayıt olmadı.

 

GELECEK

 

İşçinin hazırladığı haberler

 

İşçiler ve sendikaları tarafından hazırlanan haberlerin artmasını ve anaakım medyaya bağımlılığımızın azalmasını umuyoruz. İşçiler içerik yaratmak için eğitim almalı ve cesaretlendirilmeliler ve yalnızca yazılı içerik için değil sesli ve görsel içerik için de…Grev veya gösteri olduğu zaman, olayları orada olan işçilerin bakış açıları ve sözleriyle aktarabilmeyi mümkün kılmak istiyoruz.

 

Dilin meydan okuması

 

Yalnızca İngilizce, Fransızca, Almanca ve İspanyolca versiyonları olan küresel sendika web sitelerinin ötesine geçmek zorundayız, Örneğin ITUC (Uluslararası Sendikalar Konfederasyonu) 155 ülkede 175 milyon işçiyi temsil ettiği iddiasında, ama büyük çoğunluk web sitesini okuyamaz çünkü web sitesi anladıkları bir dilde değil. Küresel harekete milyonlarca işçiyi katabilmek için tüm yöntemleri denemek zorundayız (gönüllü çevirmenler ve otomatik-elektronik tercüme gibi)

 

İnternet Her yerde

 

İnternete ofisinizdeki masaüstü PC’den bağlandığınız günler geride kaldı-özellikle zengin Batı ülkeleri için. Bu değişimi iki teknoloji yönlendiriyor –ilk olarak, küçük el cihazları (akıllı telefonlar, avuçiçi PDA bilgisayarlar, tablet bilgisayarlar gibi) ve ikinci olarak, kablosuz internet. Bu değişimler, kampanyaları, haberleri ve sendikal hareketin iletişimini değiştirecektir.

 

Kişiselleştirme

 

Herkese-uygun-tek-beden web sitesi hiç anlamlı değil ama sendikalar hala kullanıyor. İyi bir ticari web sitesini (Amazon.com gibi) ziyaret edin, sizi tanıyor, sizin neden hoşlandığınızı neye ilgi duyduğunuzu biliyor ve size özel müşteri hizmeti sunuyor. LabourStart bu yolda bazı adımlar attı. Örneğin bir kampanyaya imza veriyorsunuz, o zaman o ülke ile ilgili haberlere ilgi duyabilirsiniz. Daha fazlasını yapmayı amaçlıyoruz ve sendikalar da daha fazlasını yapmalılar.

 

Online ağın ardında – dayanışmayı gerçek dünyaya taşımak

 

Sonuç olarak, bu işi online olarak yapmanın ardındaki asıl nokta, gerçek hayatta değişimler yapabilmektir. Online ağ kurmak iyi ve güzeldir ama bu ağ eğer gerçek dünyada da işleyebiliyorsa, o zaman daha güçlü ve daha etkindir. Hiçbir grev online kazanılmaz, Bir sokak gösterisinin ve iyi örgütlenmiş bir sendikanın ikamesi yoktur. Bizim yaptığımız 21. yüzyıl için yeni ağlaşmış küresel emek hareketinin ortaya çıkabilmesi için gerekli koşulları yaratmaktır. Yeni teknoloji, uluslararası işçi hareketinin hayalinin gerçekleşmesini mümkün kılmaktadır, Karl Marx ve Friedrich Engels’in 1848’de tarihsel sözlerinde gizli olan hayalin: “Tüm dünya işçileri, birleşin!”

 

 

-son-

]]> LaborComm

Ankara, Türkiye

3 Mayıs 2010

Eric Lee

 

 

Teşekkür ve kendini tanıtma.

 

GEÇMİŞ

 

LabourStart nedir?

 

LabourStart, 1998 yılında kurulmuştur ve uluslararası sendikal hareketin haber ve kampanya websitesidir. LabourStart, benim tarafımdan, sendikacıların internet üzerinde güne başlayacakları bir “portal” sitesi olarak tasarlanmıştır.

 

İngilizceden çokdilli sisteme

 

İlk 4 yıl site yalnızca İngilizce olarak işledi; sonra Hollandaca ve Norveçce versiyonlarını ekledim, Bugün, LabourStart haberleri Türkçeyi de kapsar biçimde 24 farklı dilde bulunmaktadır. Haberler çevrilmemektedir-her site otonomdur ve gönüllü çalışanlara dayanmaktadır (ileride bu konuya değineceğim). Bugün dünya üstünde konuşulan 6000 dil bulunmaktadır. Birçoğunun milyonlarca konuşanı vardır (66 dilin her biri en az 10 milyon kişi tarafından konuşulmaktadır.) Küresel sendika federasyonlarının dahil olduğu sendika web sitelerinin çoğu bu dillerinin hepsini değilse de önemli bir bölümünü ihmal etmektedir. Türkçe, örneğin, birçok küresel sendika sitesinde bulunmamaktadır.

 

Varolan kampanyaları desteklemekten kendi kampanyalarımızı yaratmaya

 

Başladığımızda ICEM’le (Uluslararası Kimya, Enerji, Maden ve Genel İşçi Sendikaları Federasyonu) bağlantılar ve GUF (Küresel Sendikalar Federasyonu) tarafından yönlendirilen diğer kampanyalar çok etkili değildi. Sonraları, biz kendi çokdilli yazılım programımızı hayata geçirdik. Bu program, yeni eklenen içeriğin kolaylıkla takip edilmesini sağlayan özet akışlarını (RSS) ve diğer haber merkezleri ile bizim haber bilgi bankalarımızı entegre etti. Kampanyalarımızı imzalayan e-posta adreslerini harmanlayarak kendi yazışma listelerimizi yarattık (bu konuya aşağıda değineceğim)

 

 

 

Deneyselliğin Önemi

 

Sonuçta hepsinden de çok iyi sonuçlar almamakla birlikte hemen her şeyi denedik. Örneğin: Online sohbet, tartışma forumları, sendikal hareketteki iş olanakları için iş olanakları tahtası, markalı web-tabanlı e-posta, Opera tarayıcısı (browser) ile birlikte lanse edilen “sendika tarayıcısı” gibi…Neyin işleyip neyin işlemediğini öğrendik-ama önemli olan denemekti. Sendikalar denemeyi sevmiyor ama sevmeliyiz.

 

Yeni ağ inşa etme

 

LabourStart, emek haberlerine ulaşılan listelere linkler vererek bu siteleri bağlantılandırmaktan çok daha öteye gitti. Esas olan, sendikaların her seviyesinde, sendika aktivistlerinin küresel ağını inşa etmektir.

 

BUGÜN

 

Haberler

 

Bu bizim temel faaliyet alanımız olarak duruyor – sendikalar ilişkin haberlere yönelik bağlantıları günün 24 saati ve haftanın 7 günü 24 farklı dilde sağlamak.

Günde ortalama 250 yılda 90.000 haber sağlıyoruz, bu rakamlar sendikalar hakkında çok sayıda habere yer verdiğimiz gösteriyor. Bu haber bağlantıları 762 gönüllü muhabirden oluşan muhabir ağımız tarafından sağlanıyor. En önemli küresel haberleri, ülkelerin önemli haberlerini, sağlık ve iş güvenliği haberlerini ve kadın işçilerle ilgili haberleri LabourStart üzerinden paylaşıyoruz. Online arşivimizde şirket adıyla arama da yapılabilmektedir ve tüm arşivimiz online olarak kullanıma açıktır.

 

E-posta Listeleri

 

67,500 kişi şu anda elektronik haberleşme listelerimize üyedir. 2002’de Önder’i son gördüğümde, Türkiye’den de 3.000 isim üye durumaydı. Şu anda varolan tek büyük-ölçekli sendikacıların küresel ağı durumundadır. İngilizce liste 56,000 isimle en büyük listedir. Ama Türkçe listede yalnızca 61 isim var.

Bu listeler –haftada 2-3 defa postalanmaktadır ve web sitemizden daha da önemlidir. E-posta listeleri kampanyalarımızı yürütmektedir.

 

Kampanyalar

 

2002 yılından bugüne kendi online kampanya sistemimiz var ve sendikalar adına birçok kampanya yürüttük. Bunların önemli bir bölümü Türkiye’yi içeriyor- halen sürmekte olan ve PSI üyesi SES’in Genel Sekreteri Seher Tümer’i destekleyen bir kampanya var, Türkiye hükümetine 9 ayrı dilde

 

(Türkçe değil) 4,000’i aşkın mesaj gönderilmiştir. Geçen Temmuz, KESK liderlerinin tutuklanmasını protesto eden bir kampanya yürüttük. Bir yıl önce, 1 Mayıs’ta Taksim meydanında gösteri yapmak isteyen Türkiyeli işçilerini destekleyen bir kampanya yürüttük. Türkiyeli işçileri destekleyen 6 kampanya daha var- işten çıkarılan metal işçilerine ve DESA’da işten çıkarılan deri işçilerine destek, tutuklanan SES liderine destek, taşımacılık sendikasının tutuklanan üyelerine destek, Novamed grevcilerine destek bunlara örnek gösterilebilir. Bazı kampanyalarımız başarılı oldu, bazıları ise başarısız. Kampanyalarımız bugün eskisinden çok daha büyük ama biz bunların Türkçe olmasına ve binlerce Türkiyeli sendikacının katılımına ihtiyaç duyuyoruz.

 

Radyo LabourStart

 

Bir kaç yıl once Live365’da bir İnternet radyo kanalı olarak başladı, şu anda sendikalar tarafından günlük radyo haberlerini listeleyen LabourStart’dan dinleyebilirsiniz ama çoğu İngilizcedir. Marc Belanger tarafından başlatılan Radio LabourStart’ın yayın hayatına girmesi bizi çok heyecanlandırdı.

 

LabourStart.tv

 

Radio LabourStart ile birlikte, LabourStart.tv’de online sendika videolarına bağlantılar içeriyor ve gün boyu güncelleniyor. Bu yıl, ilk defa düzenlenen yılın küresel emek videosu yarışmasına sponsor olduk, ayrıca işçi filmleri ve işçi film festivallerini içeren online veri tabanlarımız da var.

 

Facebook

 

Bir kaç yıldır, Facebook’ta LabourStart grubumuz var, eğer Facebook kullanıyorsanız, üye olmalısınız. Şu anda 3 000’e yakın üyesi var.

 

Twitter

 

Twitter servisini kullanan ilk sendika gruplarının arasındayız. Bu çok çekiciydi çünkü tüm dünyaya bedava SMS mesajı yollayabilmemize imkan veriyordu. Artık böyle değil. Halen gün içinde otomatik olarak güncelliyoruz ve yaklaşık 2 000 kişi takip ediyor.

 

UnionBook

 

UnionBook, geçen yıl LabourStart tarafından Facebook’a alternative olarak yaratıldı. Yaklaşık 5.000 sendikacı tarafından hesaplar açıldı yüzlerce grup yaratıldı. Facebook’dan farklı olarak UnionBook reklam almıyor. Üyelerinin mahremiyetlerine saygı gösteriyor vee siteyi işçileri örgütlemek ve kampanya yürütmek için kullananları atmıyor. (Facebook’da bu yaşandı)

 

 

Temmuzda Düzenlenecek olan küresel dayanışma konferansı

 

LabourStart 2002, 2008 ve 2009 yıllarında London’da ve Washington’da küçük ve yalnızca davetlilerin katıldığı konferanslar düzenledi fakat tüm sendikacıların katılımına açık bir konferans düzenlememişti. Ve bunu bu yaz Kanada’da düzenliyoruz. Şu an itibarıyla, bu yazki konferansa Türkiye’den kimse kayıt olmadı.

 

GELECEK

 

İşçinin hazırladığı haberler

 

İşçiler ve sendikaları tarafından hazırlanan haberlerin artmasını ve anaakım medyaya bağımlılığımızın azalmasını umuyoruz. İşçiler içerik yaratmak için eğitim almalı ve cesaretlendirilmeliler ve yalnızca yazılı içerik için değil sesli ve görsel içerik için de…Grev veya gösteri olduğu zaman, olayları orada olan işçilerin bakış açıları ve sözleriyle aktarabilmeyi mümkün kılmak istiyoruz.

 

Dilin meydan okuması

 

Yalnızca İngilizce, Fransızca, Almanca ve İspanyolca versiyonları olan küresel sendika web sitelerinin ötesine geçmek zorundayız, Örneğin ITUC (Uluslararası Sendikalar Konfederasyonu) 155 ülkede 175 milyon işçiyi temsil ettiği iddiasında, ama büyük çoğunluk web sitesini okuyamaz çünkü web sitesi anladıkları bir dilde değil. Küresel harekete milyonlarca işçiyi katabilmek için tüm yöntemleri denemek zorundayız (gönüllü çevirmenler ve otomatik-elektronik tercüme gibi)

 

İnternet Her yerde

 

İnternete ofisinizdeki masaüstü PC’den bağlandığınız günler geride kaldı-özellikle zengin Batı ülkeleri için. Bu değişimi iki teknoloji yönlendiriyor –ilk olarak, küçük el cihazları (akıllı telefonlar, avuçiçi PDA bilgisayarlar, tablet bilgisayarlar gibi) ve ikinci olarak, kablosuz internet. Bu değişimler, kampanyaları, haberleri ve sendikal hareketin iletişimini değiştirecektir.

 

Kişiselleştirme

 

Herkese-uygun-tek-beden web sitesi hiç anlamlı değil ama sendikalar hala kullanıyor. İyi bir ticari web sitesini (Amazon.com gibi) ziyaret edin, sizi tanıyor, sizin neden hoşlandığınızı neye ilgi duyduğunuzu biliyor ve size özel müşteri hizmeti sunuyor. LabourStart bu yolda bazı adımlar attı. Örneğin bir kampanyaya imza veriyorsunuz, o zaman o ülke ile ilgili haberlere ilgi duyabilirsiniz. Daha fazlasını yapmayı amaçlıyoruz ve sendikalar da daha fazlasını yapmalılar.

 

Online ağın ardında – dayanışmayı gerçek dünyaya taşımak

 

Sonuç olarak, bu işi online olarak yapmanın ardındaki asıl nokta, gerçek hayatta değişimler yapabilmektir. Online ağ kurmak iyi ve güzeldir ama bu ağ eğer gerçek dünyada da işleyebiliyorsa, o zaman daha güçlü ve daha etkindir. Hiçbir grev online kazanılmaz, Bir sokak gösterisinin ve iyi örgütlenmiş bir sendikanın ikamesi yoktur. Bizim yaptığımız 21. yüzyıl için yeni ağlaşmış küresel emek hareketinin ortaya çıkabilmesi için gerekli koşulları yaratmaktır. Yeni teknoloji, uluslararası işçi hareketinin hayalinin gerçekleşmesini mümkün kılmaktadır, Karl Marx ve Friedrich Engels’in 1848’de tarihsel sözlerinde gizli olan hayalin: “Tüm dünya işçileri, birleşin!”

 

 

-son-

]]>

LaborComm

Ankara, Türkiye

3 Mayıs 2010

Eric Lee

 

 

Teşekkür ve kendini tanıtma.

 

GEÇMİŞ

 

LabourStart nedir?

 

LabourStart, 1998 yılında kurulmuştur ve uluslararası sendikal hareketin haber ve kampanya websitesidir. LabourStart, benim tarafımdan, sendikacıların internet üzerinde güne başlayacakları bir “portal” sitesi olarak tasarlanmıştır.

 

İngilizceden çokdilli sisteme

 

İlk 4 yıl site yalnızca İngilizce olarak işledi; sonra Hollandaca ve Norveçce versiyonlarını ekledim, Bugün, LabourStart haberleri Türkçeyi de kapsar biçimde 24 farklı dilde bulunmaktadır. Haberler çevrilmemektedir-her site otonomdur ve gönüllü çalışanlara dayanmaktadır (ileride bu konuya değineceğim). Bugün dünya üstünde konuşulan 6000 dil bulunmaktadır. Birçoğunun milyonlarca konuşanı vardır (66 dilin her biri en az 10 milyon kişi tarafından konuşulmaktadır.) Küresel sendika federasyonlarının dahil olduğu sendika web sitelerinin çoğu bu dillerinin hepsini değilse de önemli bir bölümünü ihmal etmektedir. Türkçe, örneğin, birçok küresel sendika sitesinde bulunmamaktadır.

 

Varolan kampanyaları desteklemekten kendi kampanyalarımızı yaratmaya

 

Başladığımızda ICEM’le (Uluslararası Kimya, Enerji, Maden ve Genel İşçi Sendikaları Federasyonu) bağlantılar ve GUF (Küresel Sendikalar Federasyonu) tarafından yönlendirilen diğer kampanyalar çok etkili değildi. Sonraları, biz kendi çokdilli yazılım programımızı hayata geçirdik. Bu program, yeni eklenen içeriğin kolaylıkla takip edilmesini sağlayan özet akışlarını (RSS) ve diğer haber merkezleri ile bizim haber bilgi bankalarımızı entegre etti. Kampanyalarımızı imzalayan e-posta adreslerini harmanlayarak kendi yazışma listelerimizi yarattık (bu konuya aşağıda değineceğim)

 

 

 

Deneyselliğin Önemi

 

Sonuçta hepsinden de çok iyi sonuçlar almamakla birlikte hemen her şeyi denedik. Örneğin: Online sohbet, tartışma forumları, sendikal hareketteki iş olanakları için iş olanakları tahtası, markalı web-tabanlı e-posta, Opera tarayıcısı (browser) ile birlikte lanse edilen “sendika tarayıcısı” gibi…Neyin işleyip neyin işlemediğini öğrendik-ama önemli olan denemekti. Sendikalar denemeyi sevmiyor ama sevmeliyiz.

 

Yeni ağ inşa etme

 

LabourStart, emek haberlerine ulaşılan listelere linkler vererek bu siteleri bağlantılandırmaktan çok daha öteye gitti. Esas olan, sendikaların her seviyesinde, sendika aktivistlerinin küresel ağını inşa etmektir.

 

BUGÜN

 

Haberler

 

Bu bizim temel faaliyet alanımız olarak duruyor – sendikalar ilişkin haberlere yönelik bağlantıları günün 24 saati ve haftanın 7 günü 24 farklı dilde sağlamak.

Günde ortalama 250 yılda 90.000 haber sağlıyoruz, bu rakamlar sendikalar hakkında çok sayıda habere yer verdiğimiz gösteriyor. Bu haber bağlantıları 762 gönüllü muhabirden oluşan muhabir ağımız tarafından sağlanıyor. En önemli küresel haberleri, ülkelerin önemli haberlerini, sağlık ve iş güvenliği haberlerini ve kadın işçilerle ilgili haberleri LabourStart üzerinden paylaşıyoruz. Online arşivimizde şirket adıyla arama da yapılabilmektedir ve tüm arşivimiz online olarak kullanıma açıktır.

 

E-posta Listeleri

 

67,500 kişi şu anda elektronik haberleşme listelerimize üyedir. 2002’de Önder’i son gördüğümde, Türkiye’den de 3.000 isim üye durumaydı. Şu anda varolan tek büyük-ölçekli sendikacıların küresel ağı durumundadır. İngilizce liste 56,000 isimle en büyük listedir. Ama Türkçe listede yalnızca 61 isim var.

Bu listeler –haftada 2-3 defa postalanmaktadır ve web sitemizden daha da önemlidir. E-posta listeleri kampanyalarımızı yürütmektedir.

 

Kampanyalar

 

2002 yılından bugüne kendi online kampanya sistemimiz var ve sendikalar adına birçok kampanya yürüttük. Bunların önemli bir bölümü Türkiye’yi içeriyor- halen sürmekte olan ve PSI üyesi SES’in Genel Sekreteri Seher Tümer’i destekleyen bir kampanya var, Türkiye hükümetine 9 ayrı dilde

 

(Türkçe değil) 4,000’i aşkın mesaj gönderilmiştir. Geçen Temmuz, KESK liderlerinin tutuklanmasını protesto eden bir kampanya yürüttük. Bir yıl önce, 1 Mayıs’ta Taksim meydanında gösteri yapmak isteyen Türkiyeli işçilerini destekleyen bir kampanya yürüttük. Türkiyeli işçileri destekleyen 6 kampanya daha var- işten çıkarılan metal işçilerine ve DESA’da işten çıkarılan deri işçilerine destek, tutuklanan SES liderine destek, taşımacılık sendikasının tutuklanan üyelerine destek, Novamed grevcilerine destek bunlara örnek gösterilebilir. Bazı kampanyalarımız başarılı oldu, bazıları ise başarısız. Kampanyalarımız bugün eskisinden çok daha büyük ama biz bunların Türkçe olmasına ve binlerce Türkiyeli sendikacının katılımına ihtiyaç duyuyoruz.

 

Radyo LabourStart

 

Bir kaç yıl once Live365’da bir İnternet radyo kanalı olarak başladı, şu anda sendikalar tarafından günlük radyo haberlerini listeleyen LabourStart’dan dinleyebilirsiniz ama çoğu İngilizcedir. Marc Belanger tarafından başlatılan Radio LabourStart’ın yayın hayatına girmesi bizi çok heyecanlandırdı.

 

LabourStart.tv

 

Radio LabourStart ile birlikte, LabourStart.tv’de online sendika videolarına bağlantılar içeriyor ve gün boyu güncelleniyor. Bu yıl, ilk defa düzenlenen yılın küresel emek videosu yarışmasına sponsor olduk, ayrıca işçi filmleri ve işçi film festivallerini içeren online veri tabanlarımız da var.

 

Facebook

 

Bir kaç yıldır, Facebook’ta LabourStart grubumuz var, eğer Facebook kullanıyorsanız, üye olmalısınız. Şu anda 3 000’e yakın üyesi var.

 

Twitter

 

Twitter servisini kullanan ilk sendika gruplarının arasındayız. Bu çok çekiciydi çünkü tüm dünyaya bedava SMS mesajı yollayabilmemize imkan veriyordu. Artık böyle değil. Halen gün içinde otomatik olarak güncelliyoruz ve yaklaşık 2 000 kişi takip ediyor.

 

UnionBook

 

UnionBook, geçen yıl LabourStart tarafından Facebook’a alternative olarak yaratıldı. Yaklaşık 5.000 sendikacı tarafından hesaplar açıldı yüzlerce grup yaratıldı. Facebook’dan farklı olarak UnionBook reklam almıyor. Üyelerinin mahremiyetlerine saygı gösteriyor vee siteyi işçileri örgütlemek ve kampanya yürütmek için kullananları atmıyor. (Facebook’da bu yaşandı)

 

 

Temmuzda Düzenlenecek olan küresel dayanışma konferansı

 

LabourStart 2002, 2008 ve 2009 yıllarında London’da ve Washington’da küçük ve yalnızca davetlilerin katıldığı konferanslar düzenledi fakat tüm sendikacıların katılımına açık bir konferans düzenlememişti. Ve bunu bu yaz Kanada’da düzenliyoruz. Şu an itibarıyla, bu yazki konferansa Türkiye’den kimse kayıt olmadı.

 

GELECEK

 

İşçinin hazırladığı haberler

 

İşçiler ve sendikaları tarafından hazırlanan haberlerin artmasını ve anaakım medyaya bağımlılığımızın azalmasını umuyoruz. İşçiler içerik yaratmak için eğitim almalı ve cesaretlendirilmeliler ve yalnızca yazılı içerik için değil sesli ve görsel içerik için de…Grev veya gösteri olduğu zaman, olayları orada olan işçilerin bakış açıları ve sözleriyle aktarabilmeyi mümkün kılmak istiyoruz.

 

Dilin meydan okuması

 

Yalnızca İngilizce, Fransızca, Almanca ve İspanyolca versiyonları olan küresel sendika web sitelerinin ötesine geçmek zorundayız, Örneğin ITUC (Uluslararası Sendikalar Konfederasyonu) 155 ülkede 175 milyon işçiyi temsil ettiği iddiasında, ama büyük çoğunluk web sitesini okuyamaz çünkü web sitesi anladıkları bir dilde değil. Küresel harekete milyonlarca işçiyi katabilmek için tüm yöntemleri denemek zorundayız (gönüllü çevirmenler ve otomatik-elektronik tercüme gibi)

 

İnternet Her yerde

 

İnternete ofisinizdeki masaüstü PC’den bağlandığınız günler geride kaldı-özellikle zengin Batı ülkeleri için. Bu değişimi iki teknoloji yönlendiriyor –ilk olarak, küçük el cihazları (akıllı telefonlar, avuçiçi PDA bilgisayarlar, tablet bilgisayarlar gibi) ve ikinci olarak, kablosuz internet. Bu değişimler, kampanyaları, haberleri ve sendikal hareketin iletişimini değiştirecektir.

 

Kişiselleştirme

 

Herkese-uygun-tek-beden web sitesi hiç anlamlı değil ama sendikalar hala kullanıyor. İyi bir ticari web sitesini (Amazon.com gibi) ziyaret edin, sizi tanıyor, sizin neden hoşlandığınızı neye ilgi duyduğunuzu biliyor ve size özel müşteri hizmeti sunuyor. LabourStart bu yolda bazı adımlar attı. Örneğin bir kampanyaya imza veriyorsunuz, o zaman o ülke ile ilgili haberlere ilgi duyabilirsiniz. Daha fazlasını yapmayı amaçlıyoruz ve sendikalar da daha fazlasını yapmalılar.

 

Online ağın ardında – dayanışmayı gerçek dünyaya taşımak

 

Sonuç olarak, bu işi online olarak yapmanın ardındaki asıl nokta, gerçek hayatta değişimler yapabilmektir. Online ağ kurmak iyi ve güzeldir ama bu ağ eğer gerçek dünyada da işleyebiliyorsa, o zaman daha güçlü ve daha etkindir. Hiçbir grev online kazanılmaz, Bir sokak gösterisinin ve iyi örgütlenmiş bir sendikanın ikamesi yoktur. Bizim yaptığımız 21. yüzyıl için yeni ağlaşmış küresel emek hareketinin ortaya çıkabilmesi için gerekli koşulları yaratmaktır. Yeni teknoloji, uluslararası işçi hareketinin hayalinin gerçekleşmesini mümkün kılmaktadır, Karl Marx ve Friedrich Engels’in 1848’de tarihsel sözlerinde gizli olan hayalin: “Tüm dünya işçileri, birleşin!”

 

 

-son-

, , , , ,

Last updated 84 days ago by Eric Lee

]]> LaborComm

Ankara, Türkiye

3 Mayıs 2010

Eric Lee

 

 

Teşekkür ve kendini tanıtma.

 

GEÇMİŞ

 

LabourStart nedir?

 

LabourStart, 1998 yılında kurulmuştur ve uluslararası sendikal hareketin haber ve kampanya websitesidir. LabourStart, benim tarafımdan, sendikacıların internet üzerinde güne başlayacakları bir “portal” sitesi olarak tasarlanmıştır.

 

İngilizceden çokdilli sisteme

 

İlk 4 yıl site yalnızca İngilizce olarak işledi; sonra Hollandaca ve Norveçce versiyonlarını ekledim, Bugün, LabourStart haberleri Türkçeyi de kapsar biçimde 24 farklı dilde bulunmaktadır. Haberler çevrilmemektedir-her site otonomdur ve gönüllü çalışanlara dayanmaktadır (ileride bu konuya değineceğim). Bugün dünya üstünde konuşulan 6000 dil bulunmaktadır. Birçoğunun milyonlarca konuşanı vardır (66 dilin her biri en az 10 milyon kişi tarafından konuşulmaktadır.) Küresel sendika federasyonlarının dahil olduğu sendika web sitelerinin çoğu bu dillerinin hepsini değilse de önemli bir bölümünü ihmal etmektedir. Türkçe, örneğin, birçok küresel sendika sitesinde bulunmamaktadır.

 

Varolan kampanyaları desteklemekten kendi kampanyalarımızı yaratmaya

 

Başladığımızda ICEM’le (Uluslararası Kimya, Enerji, Maden ve Genel İşçi Sendikaları Federasyonu) bağlantılar ve GUF (Küresel Sendikalar Federasyonu) tarafından yönlendirilen diğer kampanyalar çok etkili değildi. Sonraları, biz kendi çokdilli yazılım programımızı hayata geçirdik. Bu program, yeni eklenen içeriğin kolaylıkla takip edilmesini sağlayan özet akışlarını (RSS) ve diğer haber merkezleri ile bizim haber bilgi bankalarımızı entegre etti. Kampanyalarımızı imzalayan e-posta adreslerini harmanlayarak kendi yazışma listelerimizi yarattık (bu konuya aşağıda değineceğim)

 

 

 

Deneyselliğin Önemi

 

Sonuçta hepsinden de çok iyi sonuçlar almamakla birlikte hemen her şeyi denedik. Örneğin: Online sohbet, tartışma forumları, sendikal hareketteki iş olanakları için iş olanakları tahtası, markalı web-tabanlı e-posta, Opera tarayıcısı (browser) ile birlikte lanse edilen “sendika tarayıcısı” gibi…Neyin işleyip neyin işlemediğini öğrendik-ama önemli olan denemekti. Sendikalar denemeyi sevmiyor ama sevmeliyiz.

 

Yeni ağ inşa etme

 

LabourStart, emek haberlerine ulaşılan listelere linkler vererek bu siteleri bağlantılandırmaktan çok daha öteye gitti. Esas olan, sendikaların her seviyesinde, sendika aktivistlerinin küresel ağını inşa etmektir.

 

BUGÜN

 

Haberler

 

Bu bizim temel faaliyet alanımız olarak duruyor – sendikalar ilişkin haberlere yönelik bağlantıları günün 24 saati ve haftanın 7 günü 24 farklı dilde sağlamak.

Günde ortalama 250 yılda 90.000 haber sağlıyoruz, bu rakamlar sendikalar hakkında çok sayıda habere yer verdiğimiz gösteriyor. Bu haber bağlantıları 762 gönüllü muhabirden oluşan muhabir ağımız tarafından sağlanıyor. En önemli küresel haberleri, ülkelerin önemli haberlerini, sağlık ve iş güvenliği haberlerini ve kadın işçilerle ilgili haberleri LabourStart üzerinden paylaşıyoruz. Online arşivimizde şirket adıyla arama da yapılabilmektedir ve tüm arşivimiz online olarak kullanıma açıktır.

 

E-posta Listeleri

 

67,500 kişi şu anda elektronik haberleşme listelerimize üyedir. 2002’de Önder’i son gördüğümde, Türkiye’den de 3.000 isim üye durumaydı. Şu anda varolan tek büyük-ölçekli sendikacıların küresel ağı durumundadır. İngilizce liste 56,000 isimle en büyük listedir. Ama Türkçe listede yalnızca 61 isim var.

Bu listeler –haftada 2-3 defa postalanmaktadır ve web sitemizden daha da önemlidir. E-posta listeleri kampanyalarımızı yürütmektedir.

 

Kampanyalar

 

2002 yılından bugüne kendi online kampanya sistemimiz var ve sendikalar adına birçok kampanya yürüttük. Bunların önemli bir bölümü Türkiye’yi içeriyor- halen sürmekte olan ve PSI üyesi SES’in Genel Sekreteri Seher Tümer’i destekleyen bir kampanya var, Türkiye hükümetine 9 ayrı dilde

 

(Türkçe değil) 4,000’i aşkın mesaj gönderilmiştir. Geçen Temmuz, KESK liderlerinin tutuklanmasını protesto eden bir kampanya yürüttük. Bir yıl önce, 1 Mayıs’ta Taksim meydanında gösteri yapmak isteyen Türkiyeli işçilerini destekleyen bir kampanya yürüttük. Türkiyeli işçileri destekleyen 6 kampanya daha var- işten çıkarılan metal işçilerine ve DESA’da işten çıkarılan deri işçilerine destek, tutuklanan SES liderine destek, taşımacılık sendikasının tutuklanan üyelerine destek, Novamed grevcilerine destek bunlara örnek gösterilebilir. Bazı kampanyalarımız başarılı oldu, bazıları ise başarısız. Kampanyalarımız bugün eskisinden çok daha büyük ama biz bunların Türkçe olmasına ve binlerce Türkiyeli sendikacının katılımına ihtiyaç duyuyoruz.

 

Radyo LabourStart

 

Bir kaç yıl once Live365’da bir İnternet radyo kanalı olarak başladı, şu anda sendikalar tarafından günlük radyo haberlerini listeleyen LabourStart’dan dinleyebilirsiniz ama çoğu İngilizcedir. Marc Belanger tarafından başlatılan Radio LabourStart’ın yayın hayatına girmesi bizi çok heyecanlandırdı.

 

LabourStart.tv

 

Radio LabourStart ile birlikte, LabourStart.tv’de online sendika videolarına bağlantılar içeriyor ve gün boyu güncelleniyor. Bu yıl, ilk defa düzenlenen yılın küresel emek videosu yarışmasına sponsor olduk, ayrıca işçi filmleri ve işçi film festivallerini içeren online veri tabanlarımız da var.

 

Facebook

 

Bir kaç yıldır, Facebook’ta LabourStart grubumuz var, eğer Facebook kullanıyorsanız, üye olmalısınız. Şu anda 3 000’e yakın üyesi var.

 

Twitter

 

Twitter servisini kullanan ilk sendika gruplarının arasındayız. Bu çok çekiciydi çünkü tüm dünyaya bedava SMS mesajı yollayabilmemize imkan veriyordu. Artık böyle değil. Halen gün içinde otomatik olarak güncelliyoruz ve yaklaşık 2 000 kişi takip ediyor.

 

UnionBook

 

UnionBook, geçen yıl LabourStart tarafından Facebook’a alternative olarak yaratıldı. Yaklaşık 5.000 sendikacı tarafından hesaplar açıldı yüzlerce grup yaratıldı. Facebook’dan farklı olarak UnionBook reklam almıyor. Üyelerinin mahremiyetlerine saygı gösteriyor vee siteyi işçileri örgütlemek ve kampanya yürütmek için kullananları atmıyor. (Facebook’da bu yaşandı)

 

 

Temmuzda Düzenlenecek olan küresel dayanışma konferansı

 

LabourStart 2002, 2008 ve 2009 yıllarında London’da ve Washington’da küçük ve yalnızca davetlilerin katıldığı konferanslar düzenledi fakat tüm sendikacıların katılımına açık bir konferans düzenlememişti. Ve bunu bu yaz Kanada’da düzenliyoruz. Şu an itibarıyla, bu yazki konferansa Türkiye’den kimse kayıt olmadı.

 

GELECEK

 

İşçinin hazırladığı haberler

 

İşçiler ve sendikaları tarafından hazırlanan haberlerin artmasını ve anaakım medyaya bağımlılığımızın azalmasını umuyoruz. İşçiler içerik yaratmak için eğitim almalı ve cesaretlendirilmeliler ve yalnızca yazılı içerik için değil sesli ve görsel içerik için de…Grev veya gösteri olduğu zaman, olayları orada olan işçilerin bakış açıları ve sözleriyle aktarabilmeyi mümkün kılmak istiyoruz.

 

Dilin meydan okuması

 

Yalnızca İngilizce, Fransızca, Almanca ve İspanyolca versiyonları olan küresel sendika web sitelerinin ötesine geçmek zorundayız, Örneğin ITUC (Uluslararası Sendikalar Konfederasyonu) 155 ülkede 175 milyon işçiyi temsil ettiği iddiasında, ama büyük çoğunluk web sitesini okuyamaz çünkü web sitesi anladıkları bir dilde değil. Küresel harekete milyonlarca işçiyi katabilmek için tüm yöntemleri denemek zorundayız (gönüllü çevirmenler ve otomatik-elektronik tercüme gibi)

 

İnternet Her yerde

 

İnternete ofisinizdeki masaüstü PC’den bağlandığınız günler geride kaldı-özellikle zengin Batı ülkeleri için. Bu değişimi iki teknoloji yönlendiriyor –ilk olarak, küçük el cihazları (akıllı telefonlar, avuçiçi PDA bilgisayarlar, tablet bilgisayarlar gibi) ve ikinci olarak, kablosuz internet. Bu değişimler, kampanyaları, haberleri ve sendikal hareketin iletişimini değiştirecektir.

 

Kişiselleştirme

 

Herkese-uygun-tek-beden web sitesi hiç anlamlı değil ama sendikalar hala kullanıyor. İyi bir ticari web sitesini (Amazon.com gibi) ziyaret edin, sizi tanıyor, sizin neden hoşlandığınızı neye ilgi duyduğunuzu biliyor ve size özel müşteri hizmeti sunuyor. LabourStart bu yolda bazı adımlar attı. Örneğin bir kampanyaya imza veriyorsunuz, o zaman o ülke ile ilgili haberlere ilgi duyabilirsiniz. Daha fazlasını yapmayı amaçlıyoruz ve sendikalar da daha fazlasını yapmalılar.

 

Online ağın ardında – dayanışmayı gerçek dünyaya taşımak

 

Sonuç olarak, bu işi online olarak yapmanın ardındaki asıl nokta, gerçek hayatta değişimler yapabilmektir. Online ağ kurmak iyi ve güzeldir ama bu ağ eğer gerçek dünyada da işleyebiliyorsa, o zaman daha güçlü ve daha etkindir. Hiçbir grev online kazanılmaz, Bir sokak gösterisinin ve iyi örgütlenmiş bir sendikanın ikamesi yoktur. Bizim yaptığımız 21. yüzyıl için yeni ağlaşmış küresel emek hareketinin ortaya çıkabilmesi için gerekli koşulları yaratmaktır. Yeni teknoloji, uluslararası işçi hareketinin hayalinin gerçekleşmesini mümkün kılmaktadır, Karl Marx ve Friedrich Engels’in 1848’de tarihsel sözlerinde gizli olan hayalin: “Tüm dünya işçileri, birleşin!”

 

 

-son-

]]> In the next few days, trade unionists around the world will celebrate May Day — the international workers’ holiday.

Many of you will celebrate at parades and picnics, or just by taking the day off.

But some workers will spend May Day on the picket lines, or camped out in front of closed factories, or even in prison.

I’m thinking of the Alta Mode garment workers in the Philippines, locked out by their employer.  Or jailed Turkish trade unionist Seher Tümer.  Or the Cananea miners in Mexico, on strike for nearly three years.

Those workers and many more like them should be in our thoughts this May Day.

They depend on the international trade union movement — on us –  and we cannot fail them.

For more than twelve years, LabourStart has organized cutting-edge Internet based campaigns in support of these and many more workers.

We provide those campaigns free of charge to unions that ask for them.

Sometimes, we have helped contribute to real victories.  Lives have changed because of our campaigns.

And we’re doing more every day.

* We’ve pioneered Twitter based campaigns using new social networking tools to shame companies and get results.
* Our campaigns are now running for the first time in Chinese.  (As well as a dozen other languages.)
* We’ve launched a social networking site for trade unionists (UnionBook).  Five thousand trade unionists are already using it.
* We’ve run successful Labour Video of the Year and Labour Photo of the Year competitions.
* Our news database includes over 20,000 stories from 2010 alone — in 24 languages.
* And we’re holding our first ever global solidarity conference in Canada this summer.

All this costs money.

We need your support and the support of your unions.

We need your individual donations and we also need your unions — both local and national — to come through with substantial donations.

If you’ve never donated to LabourStart before, please do so today.

If you have donated, thanks — but we need your help again.

If every single one of you were to donate the equivalent of just fifteen US dollars, we’d have the resources we need to do even more than we do now.

Of course that’s not going to happen — we don’t expect every person reading this message to make a donation of $15.00.  (Though we wish that were the case.)

Which means that we need each of you to dig deep and to persuade your union to dig deep to make the largest donation you can afford.

The striking workers in Cananea, Mexico are counting on us.  The locked out workers at Alta Mode in the Philippines are counting on us.  Seher Tümer in Turkey is counting on us.

Please don’t let them down.  Please donate today.

Thank you very much.

Eric Lee

]]>

In the next few days, trade unionists around the world will celebrate May Day — the international workers’ holiday.

Many of you will celebrate at parades and picnics, or just by taking the day off.

But some workers will spend May Day on the picket lines, or camped out in front of closed factories, or even in prison.

I’m thinking of the Alta Mode garment workers in the Philippines, locked out by their employer.  Or jailed Turkish trade unionist Seher Tümer.  Or the Cananea miners in Mexico, on strike for nearly three years.

Those workers and many more like them should be in our thoughts this May Day.

They depend on the international trade union movement — on us –  and we cannot fail them.

For more than twelve years, LabourStart has organized cutting-edge Internet based campaigns in support of these and many more workers.

We provide those campaigns free of charge to unions that ask for them.

Sometimes, we have helped contribute to real victories.  Lives have changed because of our campaigns.

And we’re doing more every day.

* We’ve pioneered Twitter based campaigns using new social networking tools to shame companies and get results.
* Our campaigns are now running for the first time in Chinese.  (As well as a dozen other languages.)
* We’ve launched a social networking site for trade unionists (UnionBook).  Five thousand trade unionists are already using it.
* We’ve run successful Labour Video of the Year and Labour Photo of the Year competitions.
* Our news database includes over 20,000 stories from 2010 alone — in 24 languages.
* And we’re holding our first ever global solidarity conference in Canada this summer.

All this costs money.

We need your support and the support of your unions.

We need your individual donations and we also need your unions — both local and national — to come through with substantial donations.

If you’ve never donated to LabourStart before, please do so today.

If you have donated, thanks — but we need your help again.

If every single one of you were to donate the equivalent of just fifteen US dollars, we’d have the resources we need to do even more than we do now.

Of course that’s not going to happen — we don’t expect every person reading this message to make a donation of $15.00.  (Though we wish that were the case.)

Which means that we need each of you to dig deep and to persuade your union to dig deep to make the largest donation you can afford.

The striking workers in Cananea, Mexico are counting on us.  The locked out workers at Alta Mode in the Philippines are counting on us.  Seher Tümer in Turkey is counting on us.

Please don’t let them down.  Please donate today.

Thank you very much.

Eric Lee

Last updated 92 days ago by Eric Lee

]]> In the next few days, trade unionists around the world will celebate May Day — the international workers’ holiday.

Many of you will celebrate at parades and picnics, or just by taking the day off.

But some workers will spend May Day on the picket lines, or camped out in front of closed factories, or even in prison.

I’m thinking of the Alta Mode garment workers in the Philippines, locked out by their employer.  Or jailed Turkish trade unionist Seher Tümer.  Or the Cananea miners in Mexico, on strike for nearly three years.

Those workers and many more like them should be in our thoughts this May Day.

They depend on the international trade union movement — on us –  and we cannot fail them.

For more than twelve years, LabourStart has organized cutting-edge Internet based campaigns in support of these and many more workers.

We provide those campaigns free of charge to unions that ask for them.

Sometimes, we have helped contribute to real victories.  Lives have changed because of our campaigns.

And we’re doing more every day.

* We’ve pioneered Twitter based campaigns using new social networking tools to shame companies and get results.
* Our campaigns are now running for the first time in Chinese.  (As well as a dozen other languages.)
* We’ve launched a social networking site for trade unionists (UnionBook).  Five thousand trade unionists are already using it.
* We’ve run successful Labour Video of the Year and Labour Photo of the Year competitions.
* Our news database includes over 20,000 stories from 2010 alone — in 24 languages.
* And we’re holding our first ever global solidarity conference in Canada this summer.

All this costs money.

We need your support and the support of your unions.

We need your individual donations and we also need your unions — both local and national — to come through with substantial donations.

If you’ve never donated to LabourStart before, please do so today.

If you have donated, thanks — but we need your help again.

If every single one of you were to donate the equivalent of just fifteen US dollars, we’d have the resources we need to do even more than we do now.

Of course that’s not going to happen — we don’t expect every person reading this message to make a donation of $15.00.  (Though we wish that were the case.)

Which means that we need each of you to dig deep and to persuade your union to dig deep to make the largest donation you can afford.

The striking workers in Cananea, Mexico are counting on us.  The locked out workers at Alta Mode in the Philippines are counting on us.  Seher Tümer in Turkey is counting on us.

Please don’t let them down.  Please donate today.

Thank you very much.

Eric Lee

]]> In the next few days, trade unionists around the world will celebrate May Day — the international workers’ holiday.

Many of you will celebrate at parades and picnics, or just by taking the day off.

But some workers will spend May Day on the picket lines, or camped out in front of closed factories, or even in prison.

I’m thinking of the Alta Mode garment workers in the Philippines, locked out by their employer.  Or jailed Turkish trade unionist Seher Tümer.  Or the Cananea miners in Mexico, on strike for nearly three years.

Those workers and many more like them should be in our thoughts this May Day.

They depend on the international trade union movement — on us –  and we cannot fail them.

For more than twelve years, LabourStart has organized cutting-edge Internet based campaigns in support of these and many more workers.

We provide those campaigns free of charge to unions that ask for them.

Sometimes, we have helped contribute to real victories.  Lives have changed because of our campaigns.

And we’re doing more every day.

* We’ve pioneered Twitter based campaigns using new social networking tools to shame companies and get results.
* Our campaigns are now running for the first time in Chinese.  (As well as a dozen other languages.)
* We’ve launched a social networking site for trade unionists (UnionBook).  Five thousand trade unionists are already using it.
* We’ve run successful Labour Video of the Year and Labour Photo of the Year competitions.
* Our news database includes over 20,000 stories from 2010 alone — in 24 languages.
* And we’re holding our first ever global solidarity conference in Canada this summer.

All this costs money.

We need your support and the support of your unions.

We need your individual donations and we also need your unions — both local and national — to come through with substantial donations.

If you’ve never donated to LabourStart before, please do so today.

If you have donated, thanks — but we need your help again.

If every single one of you were to donate the equivalent of just fifteen US dollars, we’d have the resources we need to do even more than we do now.

Of course that’s not going to happen — we don’t expect every person reading this message to make a donation of $15.00.  (Though we wish that were the case.)

Which means that we need each of you to dig deep and to persuade your union to dig deep to make the largest donation you can afford.

The striking workers in Cananea, Mexico are counting on us.  The locked out workers at Alta Mode in the Philippines are counting on us.  Seher Tümer in Turkey is counting on us.

Please don’t let them down.  Please donate today.

Thank you very much.

Eric Lee

]]> In the next few days, trade unionists around the world will celebrate May Day — the international workers’ holiday.

Many of you will celebrate at parades and picnics, or just by taking the day off.

But some workers will spend May Day on the picket lines, or camped out in front of closed factories, or even in prison.

I’m thinking of the Alta Mode garment workers in the Philippines, locked out by their employer.  Or jailed Turkish trade unionist Seher Tümer.  Or the Cananea miners in Mexico, on strike for nearly three years.

Those workers and many more like them should be in our thoughts this May Day.

They depend on the international trade union movement — on us –  and we cannot fail them.

For more than twelve years, LabourStart has organized cutting-edge Internet based campaigns in support of these and many more workers.

We provide those campaigns free of charge to unions that ask for them.

Sometimes, we have helped contribute to real victories.  Lives have changed because of our campaigns.

And we’re doing more every day.

* We’ve pioneered Twitter based campaigns using new social networking tools to shame companies and get results.
* Our campaigns are now running for the first time in Chinese.  (As well as a dozen other languages.)
* We’ve launched a social networking site for trade unionists (UnionBook).  Five thousand trade unionists are already using it.
* We’ve run successful Labour Video of the Year and Labour Photo of the Year competitions.
* Our news database includes over 20,000 stories from 2010 alone — in 24 languages.
* And we’re holding our first ever global solidarity conference in Canada this summer.

All this costs money.

We need your support and the support of your unions.

We need your individual donations and we also need your unions — both local and national — to come through with substantial donations.

If you’ve never donated to LabourStart before, please do so today.

If you have donated, thanks — but we need your help again.

If every single one of you were to donate the equivalent of just fifteen US dollars, we’d have the resources we need to do even more than we do now.

Of course that’s not going to happen — we don’t expect every person reading this message to make a donation of $15.00.  (Though we wish that were the case.)

Which means that we need each of you to dig deep and to persuade your union to dig deep to make the largest donation you can afford.

The striking workers in Cananea, Mexico are counting on us.  The locked out workers at Alta Mode in the Philippines are counting on us.  Seher Tümer in Turkey is counting on us.

Please don’t let them down.  Please donate today.

Thank you very much.

Eric Lee

]]>

In the next few days, trade unionists around the world will celebrate May Day — the international workers’ holiday.

Many of you will celebrate at parades and picnics, or just by taking the day off.

But some workers will spend May Day on the picket lines, or camped out in front of closed factories, or even in prison.

I’m thinking of the Alta Mode garment workers in the Philippines, locked out by their employer.  Or jailed Turkish trade unionist Seher Tümer.  Or the Cananea miners in Mexico, on strike for nearly three years.

Those workers and many more like them should be in our thoughts this May Day.

They depend on the international trade union movement — on us –  and we cannot fail them.

For more than twelve years, LabourStart has organized cutting-edge Internet based campaigns in support of these and many more workers.

We provide those campaigns free of charge to unions that ask for them.

Sometimes, we have helped contribute to real victories.  Lives have changed because of our campaigns.

And we’re doing more every day.

* We’ve pioneered Twitter based campaigns using new social networking tools to shame companies and get results.
* Our campaigns are now running for the first time in Chinese.  (As well as a dozen other languages.)
* We’ve launched a social networking site for trade unionists (UnionBook).  Five thousand trade unionists are already using it.
* We’ve run successful Labour Video of the Year and Labour Photo of the Year competitions.
* Our news database includes over 20,000 stories from 2010 alone — in 24 languages.
* And we’re holding our first ever global solidarity conference in Canada this summer.

All this costs money.

We need your support and the support of your unions.

We need your individual donations and we also need your unions — both local and national — to come through with substantial donations.

If you’ve never donated to LabourStart before, please do so today.

If you have donated, thanks — but we need your help again.

If every single one of you were to donate the equivalent of just fifteen US dollars, we’d have the resources we need to do even more than we do now.

Of course that’s not going to happen — we don’t expect every person reading this message to make a donation of $15.00.  (Though we wish that were the case.)

Which means that we need each of you to dig deep and to persuade your union to dig deep to make the largest donation you can afford.

The striking workers in Cananea, Mexico are counting on us.  The locked out workers at Alta Mode in the Philippines are counting on us.  Seher Tümer in Turkey is counting on us.

Please don’t let them down.  Please donate today.

Thank you very much.

Eric Lee

Last updated 92 days ago by Eric Lee

]]> In the next few days, trade unionists around the world will celebate May Day — the international workers’ holiday.

Many of you will celebrate at parades and picnics, or just by taking the day off.

But some workers will spend May Day on the picket lines, or camped out in front of closed factories, or even in prison.

I’m thinking of the Alta Mode garment workers in the Philippines, locked out by their employer.  Or jailed Turkish trade unionist Seher Tümer.  Or the Cananea miners in Mexico, on strike for nearly three years.

Those workers and many more like them should be in our thoughts this May Day.

They depend on the international trade union movement — on us –  and we cannot fail them.

For more than twelve years, LabourStart has organized cutting-edge Internet based campaigns in support of these and many more workers.

We provide those campaigns free of charge to unions that ask for them.

Sometimes, we have helped contribute to real victories.  Lives have changed because of our campaigns.

And we’re doing more every day.

* We’ve pioneered Twitter based campaigns using new social networking tools to shame companies and get results.
* Our campaigns are now running for the first time in Chinese.  (As well as a dozen other languages.)
* We’ve launched a social networking site for trade unionists (UnionBook).  Five thousand trade unionists are already using it.
* We’ve run successful Labour Video of the Year and Labour Photo of the Year competitions.
* Our news database includes over 20,000 stories from 2010 alone — in 24 languages.
* And we’re holding our first ever global solidarity conference in Canada this summer.

All this costs money.

We need your support and the support of your unions.

We need your individual donations and we also need your unions — both local and national — to come through with substantial donations.

If you’ve never donated to LabourStart before, please do so today.

If you have donated, thanks — but we need your help again.

If every single one of you were to donate the equivalent of just fifteen US dollars, we’d have the resources we need to do even more than we do now.

Of course that’s not going to happen — we don’t expect every person reading this message to make a donation of $15.00.  (Though we wish that were the case.)

Which means that we need each of you to dig deep and to persuade your union to dig deep to make the largest donation you can afford.

The striking workers in Cananea, Mexico are counting on us.  The locked out workers at Alta Mode in the Philippines are counting on us.  Seher Tümer in Turkey is counting on us.

Please don’t let them down.  Please donate today.

Thank you very much.

Eric Lee

]]> In the next few days, trade unionists around the world will celebrate May Day — the international workers’ holiday.

Many of you will celebrate at parades and picnics, or just by taking the day off.

But some workers will spend May Day on the picket lines, or camped out in front of closed factories, or even in prison.

I’m thinking of the Alta Mode garment workers in the Philippines, locked out by their employer.  Or jailed Turkish trade unionist Seher Tümer.  Or the Cananea miners in Mexico, on strike for nearly three years.

Those workers and many more like them should be in our thoughts this May Day.

They depend on the international trade union movement — on us –  and we cannot fail them.

For more than twelve years, LabourStart has organized cutting-edge Internet based campaigns in support of these and many more workers.

We provide those campaigns free of charge to unions that ask for them.

Sometimes, we have helped contribute to real victories.  Lives have changed because of our campaigns.

And we’re doing more every day.

* We’ve pioneered Twitter based campaigns using new social networking tools to shame companies and get results.
* Our campaigns are now running for the first time in Chinese.  (As well as a dozen other languages.)
* We’ve launched a social networking site for trade unionists (UnionBook).  Five thousand trade unionists are already using it.
* We’ve run successful Labour Video of the Year and Labour Photo of the Year competitions.
* Our news database includes over 20,000 stories from 2010 alone — in 24 languages.
* And we’re holding our first ever global solidarity conference in Canada this summer.

All this costs money.

We need your support and the support of your unions.

We need your individual donations and we also need your unions — both local and national — to come through with substantial donations.

If you’ve never donated to LabourStart before, please do so today.

If you have donated, thanks — but we need your help again.

If every single one of you were to donate the equivalent of just fifteen US dollars, we’d have the resources we need to do even more than we do now.

Of course that’s not going to happen — we don’t expect every person reading this message to make a donation of $15.00.  (Though we wish that were the case.)

Which means that we need each of you to dig deep and to persuade your union to dig deep to make the largest donation you can afford.

The striking workers in Cananea, Mexico are counting on us.  The locked out workers at Alta Mode in the Philippines are counting on us.  Seher Tümer in Turkey is counting on us.

Please don’t let them down.  Please donate today.

Thank you very much.

Eric Lee

]]> I hope you've all seen LabourStart's campaign in support of electronics workers in Taiwan facing a union-busting employer.  We've now launched no fewer than four Twitter petitions targetting customers of Young Fast Optoelectronics (YFO) -- well known brands such as Google, HTC, LG and Samsung.  If you have a Twitter account, logon and then go here:

 

 

]]>

I hope you've all seen LabourStart's campaign in support of electronics workers in Taiwan facing a union-busting employer.  We've now launched no fewer than four Twitter petitions targetting customers of Young Fast Optoelectronics (YFO) -- well known brands such as Google, HTC, LG and Samsung.  If you have a Twitter account, logon and then go here:

 

 

, , , , , , ,

Last updated 99 days ago by Eric Lee

]]> I hope you've all seen LabourStart's campaign in support of electronics workers in Taiwan facing a union-busting employer.  We've now launched no fewer than four Twitter petitions targetting customers of Young Fast Optoelectronics (YFO) -- well known brands such as Google, HTC, LG and Samsung.  If you have a Twitter account, logon and then go here:

 

 

]]> I hope you've all seen LabourStart's campaign in support of electronics workers in Taiwan facing a union-busting employer.  We've now launched no fewer than four Twitter petitions targetting customers of Young Fast Optoelectronics (YFO) -- well known brands such as Google, HTC, LG and Samsung.  If you have a Twitter account, logon and then go here:

 

 

]]>

I hope you've all seen LabourStart's campaign in support of electronics workers in Taiwan facing a union-busting employer.  We've now launched no fewer than four Twitter petitions targetting customers of Young Fast Optoelectronics (YFO) -- well known brands such as Google, HTC, LG and Samsung.  If you have a Twitter account, logon and then go here:

 

 

, , , , , , ,

Last updated 99 days ago by Eric Lee

]]> I hope you've all seen LabourStart's campaign in support of electronics workers in Taiwan facing a union-busting employer.  We've now launched no fewer than four Twitter petitions targetting customers of Young Fast Optoelectronics (YFO) -- well known brands such as Google, HTC, LG and Samsung.  If you have a Twitter account, logon and then go here:

 

 

]]> UnionBook is the social networking website for trade unionists.  It is a project of LabourStart, the news and campaigning website of the international trade union movement.

What is a social network?  These are websites that create online communities.  The biggest examples are Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, LinkedIn and Orkut.

They are almost always free to use and have tens of millions of active users – Facebook alone has an estimated 350,000,000 users. They have been growing at a phenomenal rate and were unknown only a few years ago.

People use these websites to connect with friends, form groups, exchange messages, provide updates on what they are doing, share photos, and more.

These networks have been used by unions for organizing and campaigning purposes.  LabourStart, for example, has a group on Facebook with just under 3,000 members.  We also have a small group on LinkedIn.
 
Why it is needed

The problem with the existing social networks is that they have been set up by private businesses for the sole purpose of making a profit.  They earn money by selling advertising, often in a quite sophisticated way, targetting customers by the information we provide to them (such as our age, location, marital status and so on).

The millions of people who use these social networks do not own them or control them, unlike, for example, a union website we might set up.

For that reason, these services are neither stable nor secure – and what is given away for free can easily be taken away.

The case of Canadian trade unionist Derek Blackadder became quite well known when his Facebook account was closed down without any right of appeal.  Blackadder's problem was that he recruited a very large number of “friends” through the network, using Facebook as an organizing tool.  He lost all the connections he had made.

Also in Canada, we had the case of a local of the Service Employees International Union which was organizing casino workers.  They had set up a group on Facebook which the network shut down following a complaint from the employer.  As with the case of Blackadder, there was no right of appeal.

But perhaps most significant is the announcement only a few days ago that AOL was going to shut down Bebo – a social network with some 40,000,000 members.  Those millions of users will lose everything they have used the social network for – including sharing files, messaging, and so on.  My own union, the National Union of Journalists in the UK, at one time was encouraging members to sign up to Bebo.

In addition to the risk of sites being shut down, or individuals being denied access to them, the question of invasive advertising which we have no control over should be considered.  As anyone who uses advertising-funded free web services like search engines or web mail knows, those ads are unlikely to be union-friendly.

In some cases, references to unions, employment rights, and so on will trigger some services like Google to display anti-union advertisements. 

Brief history

Aware of these issues, some activists involved with LabourStart launched a Facebook group several years ago but we have also taken an interest in creating our own, union-owned and controlled social networks.

We considered using a service called Ning for some time, and in fact it is being used by at least one union in Australia as an alternative to Facebook and other commercial networks. But it struck us that while Ning could not censor as Facebook might, it was a service, not software. Ning itself, like Bebo, might shut down at any time.

A year and a half ago, in November 2008, John Wood of the British Trades Union Congress came across Elgg, which is open source social networking software.  As we explored what it was capable of – noting that Elgg was primarily used by universities – it struck us that this could be the basis for a union owned and controlled social network.

We set up UnionBook using Elgg at the end of the year, and did a soft launch to activists in early 2009.  UnionBook went public in the first quarter of last year.

Today it has nearly 4,500 members from all over the world.

As of this week, UnionBook works in thirteen languages including English, Spanish, Dutch, Serbian, German, Croatian, Finnish, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Thai, French and Polish.

What it offers

Groups: This was a key requirement for us when we first thought of setting up a social network for trade unionists.  We need the ability to easily and quickly create open or closed groups that individuals can join, where they can discuss things and share resources, including documents, photos, and videos.

UnionBook users have organized 280 groups on a wide range of subjects.  The largest of those groups, Union Books (which discussed books about trade unions) has 140 members.  There are relatively large groups for the discussion of unions and the new technology, labour films, left history, union staff, unions and climate change, and labour podcasting.  There's even a fairly large group for people who collect union pins and badges.

Blogs: Many trade unionists now write blogs, and these are either on their union websites or on free, commercial sites like Blogger or Wordpress.  Many of the problems I identified with using commercial social networks like Facebook apply equally well to hosting blogs on free services.  UnionBook offers a blog to every user.  And these blogs allow commenting and can promote discussion.

Document sharing: The ability to instantly share files – both documents and also multimedia such as video and audio files, is one of the powerful features of UnionBook.  

The Wire: This is a way for users of UnionBook to share short messages with everyone – it works very much like the micro-blogging service Twitter and in fact integrates very well with Twitter.  When I post something to The Wire on UnionBook – for example, the fact that I am here, giving this talk at this conference – it is automatically posted as a Tweet by Twitter and also as a status update for me on Facebook. 

Share bookmarks: There are a number of very popular online services to do this (such as Digg); UnionBook offers a similar tool.  You can even embed a link in your web browser to automatically add interesting links to UnionBook as you spot them.

Discussion forums: Discussion forums are complicated to set up on websites and using existing commercial ones has all the disadvantages of using commercial social networks, etc.  UnionBook has built-in discussion forums for every group – and these can be closed or open to the public.

Publish pages: The ability to quickly publish a page on UnionBook has come in quite handy for us.  Sometimes unions have content – like a press release – that is not on a website. We use UnionBook to publish these instantly, which also means that we can publish the link to these stories on LabourStart itself. Publishing pages on UnionBook is a great way to share documents for a campaign or a meeting. 

How your unions can be involved

UnionBook is not a substitute for a great union website – nor is a substitute for the existing social networks like Facebook.

However, it represents a powerful tool unions can use to organize, campaign and educate.

Here are some ways we should work together on this.

As individuals you should sign up – here at this conference.  It will take you only a few seconds to get your own account on UnionBook.

Your unions should create, at the very least, groups for your members on UnionBook where they can meet, exchange ideas, and so on.

If UnionBook isn't currently working in your language, help us with translations.

Finally, UnionBook needs to grow – 4,500 is a very small number compared to the potential.  You can help by promoting UnionBook aggressively to your members.

]]>

UnionBook is the social networking website for trade unionists.  It is a project of LabourStart, the news and campaigning website of the international trade union movement.

What is a social network?  These are websites that create online communities.  The biggest examples are Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, LinkedIn and Orkut.

They are almost always free to use and have tens of millions of active users – Facebook alone has an estimated 350,000,000 users. They have been growing at a phenomenal rate and were unknown only a few years ago.

People use these websites to connect with friends, form groups, exchange messages, provide updates on what they are doing, share photos, and more.

These networks have been used by unions for organizing and campaigning purposes.  LabourStart, for example, has a group on Facebook with just under 3,000 members.  We also have a small group on LinkedIn.
 
Why it is needed

The problem with the existing social networks is that they have been set up by private businesses for the sole purpose of making a profit.  They earn money by selling advertising, often in a quite sophisticated way, targetting customers by the information we provide to them (such as our age, location, marital status and so on).

The millions of people who use these social networks do not own them or control them, unlike, for example, a union website we might set up.

For that reason, these services are neither stable nor secure – and what is given away for free can easily be taken away.

The case of Canadian trade unionist Derek Blackadder became quite well known when his Facebook account was closed down without any right of appeal.  Blackadder's problem was that he recruited a very large number of “friends” through the network, using Facebook as an organizing tool.  He lost all the connections he had made.

Also in Canada, we had the case of a local of the Service Employees International Union which was organizing casino workers.  They had set up a group on Facebook which the network shut down following a complaint from the employer.  As with the case of Blackadder, there was no right of appeal.

But perhaps most significant is the announcement only a few days ago that AOL was going to shut down Bebo – a social network with some 40,000,000 members.  Those millions of users will lose everything they have used the social network for – including sharing files, messaging, and so on.  My own union, the National Union of Journalists in the UK, at one time was encouraging members to sign up to Bebo.

In addition to the risk of sites being shut down, or individuals being denied access to them, the question of invasive advertising which we have no control over should be considered.  As anyone who uses advertising-funded free web services like search engines or web mail knows, those ads are unlikely to be union-friendly.

In some cases, references to unions, employment rights, and so on will trigger some services like Google to display anti-union advertisements. 

Brief history

Aware of these issues, some activists involved with LabourStart launched a Facebook group several years ago but we have also taken an interest in creating our own, union-owned and controlled social networks.

We considered using a service called Ning for some time, and in fact it is being used by at least one union in Australia as an alternative to Facebook and other commercial networks. But it struck us that while Ning could not censor as Facebook might, it was a service, not software. Ning itself, like Bebo, might shut down at any time.

A year and a half ago, in November 2008, John Wood of the British Trades Union Congress came across Elgg, which is open source social networking software.  As we explored what it was capable of – noting that Elgg was primarily used by universities – it struck us that this could be the basis for a union owned and controlled social network.

We set up UnionBook using Elgg at the end of the year, and did a soft launch to activists in early 2009.  UnionBook went public in the first quarter of last year.

Today it has nearly 4,500 members from all over the world.

As of this week, UnionBook works in thirteen languages including English, Spanish, Dutch, Serbian, German, Croatian, Finnish, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Thai, French and Polish.

What it offers

Groups: This was a key requirement for us when we first thought of setting up a social network for trade unionists.  We need the ability to easily and quickly create open or closed groups that individuals can join, where they can discuss things and share resources, including documents, photos, and videos.

UnionBook users have organized 280 groups on a wide range of subjects.  The largest of those groups, Union Books (which discussed books about trade unions) has 140 members.  There are relatively large groups for the discussion of unions and the new technology, labour films, left history, union staff, unions and climate change, and labour podcasting.  There's even a fairly large group for people who collect union pins and badges.

Blogs: Many trade unionists now write blogs, and these are either on their union websites or on free, commercial sites like Blogger or Wordpress.  Many of the problems I identified with using commercial social networks like Facebook apply equally well to hosting blogs on free services.  UnionBook offers a blog to every user.  And these blogs allow commenting and can promote discussion.

Document sharing: The ability to instantly share files – both documents and also multimedia such as video and audio files, is one of the powerful features of UnionBook.  

The Wire: This is a way for users of UnionBook to share short messages with everyone – it works very much like the micro-blogging service Twitter and in fact integrates very well with Twitter.  When I post something to The Wire on UnionBook – for example, the fact that I am here, giving this talk at this conference – it is automatically posted as a Tweet by Twitter and also as a status update for me on Facebook. 

Share bookmarks: There are a number of very popular online services to do this (such as Digg); UnionBook offers a similar tool.  You can even embed a link in your web browser to automatically add interesting links to UnionBook as you spot them.

Discussion forums: Discussion forums are complicated to set up on websites and using existing commercial ones has all the disadvantages of using commercial social networks, etc.  UnionBook has built-in discussion forums for every group – and these can be closed or open to the public.

Publish pages: The ability to quickly publish a page on UnionBook has come in quite handy for us.  Sometimes unions have content – like a press release – that is not on a website. We use UnionBook to publish these instantly, which also means that we can publish the link to these stories on LabourStart itself. Publishing pages on UnionBook is a great way to share documents for a campaign or a meeting. 

How your unions can be involved

UnionBook is not a substitute for a great union website – nor is a substitute for the existing social networks like Facebook.

However, it represents a powerful tool unions can use to organize, campaign and educate.

Here are some ways we should work together on this.

As individuals you should sign up – here at this conference.  It will take you only a few seconds to get your own account on UnionBook.

Your unions should create, at the very least, groups for your members on UnionBook where they can meet, exchange ideas, and so on.

If UnionBook isn't currently working in your language, help us with translations.

Finally, UnionBook needs to grow – 4,500 is a very small number compared to the potential.  You can help by promoting UnionBook aggressively to your members.

,

Last updated 101 days ago by Eric Lee

]]> UnionBook is the social networking website for trade unionists.  It is a project of LabourStart, the news and campaigning website of the international trade union movement.

What is a social network?  These are websites that create online communities.  The biggest examples are Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, LinkedIn and Orkut.

They are almost always free to use and have tens of millions of active users – Facebook alone has an estimated 350,000,000 users. They have been growing at a phenomenal rate and were unknown only a few years ago.

People use these websites to connect with friends, form groups, exchange messages, provide updates on what they are doing, share photos, and more.

These networks have been used by unions for organizing and campaigning purposes.  LabourStart, for example, has a group on Facebook with just under 3,000 members.  We also have a small group on LinkedIn.
 
Why it is needed

The problem with the existing social networks is that they have been set up by private businesses for the sole purpose of making a profit.  They earn money by selling advertising, often in a quite sophisticated way, targetting customers by the information we provide to them (such as our age, location, marital status and so on).

The millions of people who use these social networks do not own them or control them, unlike, for example, a union website we might set up.

For that reason, these services are neither stable nor secure – and what is given away for free can easily be taken away.

The case of Canadian trade unionist Derek Blackadder became quite well known when his Facebook account was closed down without any right of appeal.  Blackadder's problem was that he recruited a very large number of “friends” through the network, using Facebook as an organizing tool.  He lost all the connections he had made.

Also in Canada, we had the case of a local of the Service Employees International Union which was organizing casino workers.  They had set up a group on Facebook which the network shut down following a complaint from the employer.  As with the case of Blackadder, there was no right of appeal.

But perhaps most significant is the announcement only a few days ago that AOL was going to shut down Bebo – a social network with some 40,000,000 members.  Those millions of users will lose everything they have used the social network for – including sharing files, messaging, and so on.  My own union, the National Union of Journalists in the UK, at one time was encouraging members to sign up to Bebo.

In addition to the risk of sites being shut down, or individuals being denied access to them, the question of invasive advertising which we have no control over should be considered.  As anyone who uses advertising-funded free web services like search engines or web mail knows, those ads are unlikely to be union-friendly.

In some cases, references to unions, employment rights, and so on will trigger some services like Google to display anti-union advertisements. 

Brief history

Aware of these issues, some activists involved with LabourStart launched a Facebook group several years ago but we have also taken an interest in creating our own, union-owned and controlled social networks.

We considered using a service called Ning for some time, and in fact it is being used by at least one union in Australia as an alternative to Facebook and other commercial networks. But it struck us that while Ning could not censor as Facebook might, it was a service, not software. Ning itself, like Bebo, might shut down at any time.

A year and a half ago, in November 2008, John Wood of the British Trades Union Congress came across Elgg, which is open source social networking software.  As we explored what it was capable of – noting that Elgg was primarily used by universities – it struck us that this could be the basis for a union owned and controlled social network.

We set up UnionBook using Elgg at the end of the year, and did a soft launch to activists in early 2009.  UnionBook went public in the first quarter of last year.

Today it has nearly 4,500 members from all over the world.

As of this week, UnionBook works in thirteen languages including English, Spanish, Dutch, Serbian, German, Croatian, Finnish, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Thai, French and Polish.

What it offers

Groups: This was a key requirement for us when we first thought of setting up a social network for trade unionists.  We need the ability to easily and quickly create open or closed groups that individuals can join, where they can discuss things and share resources, including documents, photos, and videos.

UnionBook users have organized 280 groups on a wide range of subjects.  The largest of those groups, Union Books (which discussed books about trade unions) has 140 members.  There are relatively large groups for the discussion of unions and the new technology, labour films, left history, union staff, unions and climate change, and labour podcasting.  There's even a fairly large group for people who collect union pins and badges.

Blogs: Many trade unionists now write blogs, and these are either on their union websites or on free, commercial sites like Blogger or Wordpress.  Many of the problems I identified with using commercial social networks like Facebook apply equally well to hosting blogs on free services.  UnionBook offers a blog to every user.  And these blogs allow commenting and can promote discussion.

Document sharing: The ability to instantly share files – both documents and also multimedia such as video and audio files, is one of the powerful features of UnionBook.  

The Wire: This is a way for users of UnionBook to share short messages with everyone – it works very much like the micro-blogging service Twitter and in fact integrates very well with Twitter.  When I post something to The Wire on UnionBook – for example, the fact that I am here, giving this talk at this conference – it is automatically posted as a Tweet by Twitter and also as a status update for me on Facebook. 

Share bookmarks: There are a number of very popular online services to do this (such as Digg); UnionBook offers a similar tool.  You can even embed a link in your web browser to automatically add interesting links to UnionBook as you spot them.

Discussion forums: Discussion forums are complicated to set up on websites and using existing commercial ones has all the disadvantages of using commercial social networks, etc.  UnionBook has built-in discussion forums for every group – and these can be closed or open to the public.

Publish pages: The ability to quickly publish a page on UnionBook has come in quite handy for us.  Sometimes unions have content – like a press release – that is not on a website. We use UnionBook to publish these instantly, which also means that we can publish the link to these stories on LabourStart itself. Publishing pages on UnionBook is a great way to share documents for a campaign or a meeting. 

How your unions can be involved

UnionBook is not a substitute for a great union website – nor is a substitute for the existing social networks like Facebook.

However, it represents a powerful tool unions can use to organize, campaign and educate.

Here are some ways we should work together on this.

As individuals you should sign up – here at this conference.  It will take you only a few seconds to get your own account on UnionBook.

Your unions should create, at the very least, groups for your members on UnionBook where they can meet, exchange ideas, and so on.

If UnionBook isn't currently working in your language, help us with translations.

Finally, UnionBook needs to grow – 4,500 is a very small number compared to the potential.  You can help by promoting UnionBook aggressively to your members.

]]> UnionBook is the social networking website for trade unionists.  It is a project of LabourStart, the news and campaigning website of the international trade union movement.

What is a social network?  These are websites that create online communities.  The biggest examples are Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, LinkedIn and Orkut.

They are almost always free to use and have tens of millions of active users – Facebook alone has an estimated 350,000,000 users. They have been growing at a phenomenal rate and were unknown only a few years ago.

People use these websites to connect with friends, form groups, exchange messages, provide updates on what they are doing, share photos, and more.

These networks have been used by unions for organizing and campaigning purposes.  LabourStart, for example, has a group on Facebook with just under 3,000 members.  We also have a small group on LinkedIn.
 
Why it is needed

The problem with the existing social networks is that they have been set up by private businesses for the sole purpose of making a profit.  They earn money by selling advertising, often in a quite sophisticated way, targetting customers by the information we provide to them (such as our age, location, marital status and so on).

The millions of people who use these social networks do not own them or control them, unlike, for example, a union website we might set up.

For that reason, these services are neither stable nor secure – and what is given away for free can easily be taken away.

The case of Canadian trade unionist Derek Blackadder became quite well known when his Facebook account was closed down without any right of appeal.  Blackadder's problem was that he recruited a very large number of “friends” through the network, using Facebook as an organizing tool.  He lost all the connections he had made.

Also in Canada, we had the case of a local of the Service Employees International Union which was organizing casino workers.  They had set up a group on Facebook which the network shut down following a complaint from the employer.  As with the case of Blackadder, there was no right of appeal.

But perhaps most significant is the announcement only a few days ago that AOL was going to shut down Bebo – a social network with some 40,000,000 members.  Those millions of users will lose everything they have used the social network for – including sharing files, messaging, and so on.  My own union, the National Union of Journalists in the UK, at one time was encouraging members to sign up to Bebo.

In addition to the risk of sites being shut down, or individuals being denied access to them, the question of invasive advertising which we have no control over should be considered.  As anyone who uses advertising-funded free web services like search engines or web mail knows, those ads are unlikely to be union-friendly.

In some cases, references to unions, employment rights, and so on will trigger some services like Google to display anti-union advertisements. 

Brief history

Aware of these issues, some activists involved with LabourStart launched a Facebook group several years ago but we have also taken an interest in creating our own, union-owned and controlled social networks.

We considered using a service called Ning for some time, and in fact it is being used by at least one union in Australia as an alternative to Facebook and other commercial networks. But it struck us that while Ning could not censor as Facebook might, it was a service, not software. Ning itself, like Bebo, might shut down at any time.

A year and a half ago, in November 2008, John Wood of the British Trades Union Congress came across Elgg, which is open source social networking software.  As we explored what it was capable of – noting that Elgg was primarily used by universities – it struck us that this could be the basis for a union owned and controlled social network.

We set up UnionBook using Elgg at the end of the year, and did a soft launch to activists in early 2009.  UnionBook went public in the first quarter of last year.

Today it has nearly 4,500 members from all over the world.

As of this week, UnionBook works in thirteen languages including English, Spanish, Dutch, Serbian, German, Croatian, Finnish, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Thai, French and Polish.

What it offers

Groups: This was a key requirement for us when we first thought of setting up a social network for trade unionists.  We need the ability to easily and quickly create open or closed groups that individuals can join, where they can discuss things and share resources, including documents, photos, and videos.

UnionBook users have organized 280 groups on a wide range of subjects.  The largest of those groups, Union Books (which discussed books about trade unions) has 140 members.  There are relatively large groups for the discussion of unions and the new technology, labour films, left history, union staff, unions and climate change, and labour podcasting.  There's even a fairly large group for people who collect union pins and badges.

Blogs: Many trade unionists now write blogs, and these are either on their union websites or on free, commercial sites like Blogger or Wordpress.  Many of the problems I identified with using commercial social networks like Facebook apply equally well to hosting blogs on free services.  UnionBook offers a blog to every user.  And these blogs allow commenting and can promote discussion.

Document sharing: The ability to instantly share files – both documents and also multimedia such as video and audio files, is one of the powerful features of UnionBook.  

The Wire: This is a way for users of UnionBook to share short messages with everyone – it works very much like the micro-blogging service Twitter and in fact integrates very well with Twitter.  When I post something to The Wire on UnionBook – for example, the fact that I am here, giving this talk at this conference – it is automatically posted as a Tweet by Twitter and also as a status update for me on Facebook. 

Share bookmarks: There are a number of very popular online services to do this (such as Digg); UnionBook offers a similar tool.  You can even embed a link in your web browser to automatically add interesting links to UnionBook as you spot them.

Discussion forums: Discussion forums are complicated to set up on websites and using existing commercial ones has all the disadvantages of using commercial social networks, etc.  UnionBook has built-in discussion forums for every group – and these can be closed or open to the public.

Publish pages: The ability to quickly publish a page on UnionBook has come in quite handy for us.  Sometimes unions have content – like a press release – that is not on a website. We use UnionBook to publish these instantly, which also means that we can publish the link to these stories on LabourStart itself. Publishing pages on UnionBook is a great way to share documents for a campaign or a meeting. 

How your unions can be involved

UnionBook is not a substitute for a great union website – nor is a substitute for the existing social networks like Facebook.

However, it represents a powerful tool unions can use to organize, campaign and educate.

Here are some ways we should work together on this.

As individuals you should sign up – here at this conference.  It will take you only a few seconds to get your own account on UnionBook.

Your unions should create, at the very least, groups for your members on UnionBook where they can meet, exchange ideas, and so on.

If UnionBook isn't currently working in your language, help us with translations.

Finally, UnionBook needs to grow – 4,500 is a very small number compared to the potential.  You can help by promoting UnionBook aggressively to your members.

]]>

UnionBook is the social networking website for trade unionists.  It is a project of LabourStart, the news and campaigning website of the international trade union movement.

What is a social network?  These are websites that create online communities.  The biggest examples are Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, LinkedIn and Orkut.

They are almost always free to use and have tens of millions of active users – Facebook alone has an estimated 350,000,000 users. They have been growing at a phenomenal rate and were unknown only a few years ago.

People use these websites to connect with friends, form groups, exchange messages, provide updates on what they are doing, share photos, and more.

These networks have been used by unions for organizing and campaigning purposes.  LabourStart, for example, has a group on Facebook with just under 3,000 members.  We also have a small group on LinkedIn.
 
Why it is needed

The problem with the existing social networks is that they have been set up by private businesses for the sole purpose of making a profit.  They earn money by selling advertising, often in a quite sophisticated way, targetting customers by the information we provide to them (such as our age, location, marital status and so on).

The millions of people who use these social networks do not own them or control them, unlike, for example, a union website we might set up.

For that reason, these services are neither stable nor secure – and what is given away for free can easily be taken away.

The case of Canadian trade unionist Derek Blackadder became quite well known when his Facebook account was closed down without any right of appeal.  Blackadder's problem was that he recruited a very large number of “friends” through the network, using Facebook as an organizing tool.  He lost all the connections he had made.

Also in Canada, we had the case of a local of the Service Employees International Union which was organizing casino workers.  They had set up a group on Facebook which the network shut down following a complaint from the employer.  As with the case of Blackadder, there was no right of appeal.

But perhaps most significant is the announcement only a few days ago that AOL was going to shut down Bebo – a social network with some 40,000,000 members.  Those millions of users will lose everything they have used the social network for – including sharing files, messaging, and so on.  My own union, the National Union of Journalists in the UK, at one time was encouraging members to sign up to Bebo.

In addition to the risk of sites being shut down, or individuals being denied access to them, the question of invasive advertising which we have no control over should be considered.  As anyone who uses advertising-funded free web services like search engines or web mail knows, those ads are unlikely to be union-friendly.

In some cases, references to unions, employment rights, and so on will trigger some services like Google to display anti-union advertisements. 

Brief history

Aware of these issues, some activists involved with LabourStart launched a Facebook group several years ago but we have also taken an interest in creating our own, union-owned and controlled social networks.

We considered using a service called Ning for some time, and in fact it is being used by at least one union in Australia as an alternative to Facebook and other commercial networks. But it struck us that while Ning could not censor as Facebook might, it was a service, not software. Ning itself, like Bebo, might shut down at any time.

A year and a half ago, in November 2008, John Wood of the British Trades Union Congress came across Elgg, which is open source social networking software.  As we explored what it was capable of – noting that Elgg was primarily used by universities – it struck us that this could be the basis for a union owned and controlled social network.

We set up UnionBook using Elgg at the end of the year, and did a soft launch to activists in early 2009.  UnionBook went public in the first quarter of last year.

Today it has nearly 4,500 members from all over the world.

As of this week, UnionBook works in thirteen languages including English, Spanish, Dutch, Serbian, German, Croatian, Finnish, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Thai, French and Polish.

What it offers

Groups: This was a key requirement for us when we first thought of setting up a social network for trade unionists.  We need the ability to easily and quickly create open or closed groups that individuals can join, where they can discuss things and share resources, including documents, photos, and videos.

UnionBook users have organized 280 groups on a wide range of subjects.  The largest of those groups, Union Books (which discussed books about trade unions) has 140 members.  There are relatively large groups for the discussion of unions and the new technology, labour films, left history, union staff, unions and climate change, and labour podcasting.  There's even a fairly large group for people who collect union pins and badges.

Blogs: Many trade unionists now write blogs, and these are either on their union websites or on free, commercial sites like Blogger or Wordpress.  Many of the problems I identified with using commercial social networks like Facebook apply equally well to hosting blogs on free services.  UnionBook offers a blog to every user.  And these blogs allow commenting and can promote discussion.

Document sharing: The ability to instantly share files – both documents and also multimedia such as video and audio files, is one of the powerful features of UnionBook.  

The Wire: This is a way for users of UnionBook to share short messages with everyone – it works very much like the micro-blogging service Twitter and in fact integrates very well with Twitter.  When I post something to The Wire on UnionBook – for example, the fact that I am here, giving this talk at this conference – it is automatically posted as a Tweet by Twitter and also as a status update for me on Facebook. 

Share bookmarks: There are a number of very popular online services to do this (such as Digg); UnionBook offers a similar tool.  You can even embed a link in your web browser to automatically add interesting links to UnionBook as you spot them.

Discussion forums: Discussion forums are complicated to set up on websites and using existing commercial ones has all the disadvantages of using commercial social networks, etc.  UnionBook has built-in discussion forums for every group – and these can be closed or open to the public.

Publish pages: The ability to quickly publish a page on UnionBook has come in quite handy for us.  Sometimes unions have content – like a press release – that is not on a website. We use UnionBook to publish these instantly, which also means that we can publish the link to these stories on LabourStart itself. Publishing pages on UnionBook is a great way to share documents for a campaign or a meeting. 

How your unions can be involved

UnionBook is not a substitute for a great union website – nor is a substitute for the existing social networks like Facebook.

However, it represents a powerful tool unions can use to organize, campaign and educate.

Here are some ways we should work together on this.

As individuals you should sign up – here at this conference.  It will take you only a few seconds to get your own account on UnionBook.

Your unions should create, at the very least, groups for your members on UnionBook where they can meet, exchange ideas, and so on.

If UnionBook isn't currently working in your language, help us with translations.

Finally, UnionBook needs to grow – 4,500 is a very small number compared to the potential.  You can help by promoting UnionBook aggressively to your members.

,

Last updated 101 days ago by Eric Lee

]]> UnionBook is the social networking website for trade unionists.  It is a project of LabourStart, the news and campaigning website of the international trade union movement.

What is a social network?  These are websites that create online communities.  The biggest examples are Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, LinkedIn and Orkut.

They are almost always free to use and have tens of millions of active users – Facebook alone has an estimated 350,000,000 users. They have been growing at a phenomenal rate and were unknown only a few years ago.

People use these websites to connect with friends, form groups, exchange messages, provide updates on what they are doing, share photos, and more.

These networks have been used by unions for organizing and campaigning purposes.  LabourStart, for example, has a group on Facebook with just under 3,000 members.  We also have a small group on LinkedIn.
 
Why it is needed

The problem with the existing social networks is that they have been set up by private businesses for the sole purpose of making a profit.  They earn money by selling advertising, often in a quite sophisticated way, targetting customers by the information we provide to them (such as our age, location, marital status and so on).

The millions of people who use these social networks do not own them or control them, unlike, for example, a union website we might set up.

For that reason, these services are neither stable nor secure – and what is given away for free can easily be taken away.

The case of Canadian trade unionist Derek Blackadder became quite well known when his Facebook account was closed down without any right of appeal.  Blackadder's problem was that he recruited a very large number of “friends” through the network, using Facebook as an organizing tool.  He lost all the connections he had made.

Also in Canada, we had the case of a local of the Service Employees International Union which was organizing casino workers.  They had set up a group on Facebook which the network shut down following a complaint from the employer.  As with the case of Blackadder, there was no right of appeal.

But perhaps most significant is the announcement only a few days ago that AOL was going to shut down Bebo – a social network with some 40,000,000 members.  Those millions of users will lose everything they have used the social network for – including sharing files, messaging, and so on.  My own union, the National Union of Journalists in the UK, at one time was encouraging members to sign up to Bebo.

In addition to the risk of sites being shut down, or individuals being denied access to them, the question of invasive advertising which we have no control over should be considered.  As anyone who uses advertising-funded free web services like search engines or web mail knows, those ads are unlikely to be union-friendly.

In some cases, references to unions, employment rights, and so on will trigger some services like Google to display anti-union advertisements. 

Brief history

Aware of these issues, some activists involved with LabourStart launched a Facebook group several years ago but we have also taken an interest in creating our own, union-owned and controlled social networks.

We considered using a service called Ning for some time, and in fact it is being used by at least one union in Australia as an alternative to Facebook and other commercial networks. But it struck us that while Ning could not censor as Facebook might, it was a service, not software. Ning itself, like Bebo, might shut down at any time.

A year and a half ago, in November 2008, John Wood of the British Trades Union Congress came across Elgg, which is open source social networking software.  As we explored what it was capable of – noting that Elgg was primarily used by universities – it struck us that this could be the basis for a union owned and controlled social network.

We set up UnionBook using Elgg at the end of the year, and did a soft launch to activists in early 2009.  UnionBook went public in the first quarter of last year.

Today it has nearly 4,500 members from all over the world.

As of this week, UnionBook works in thirteen languages including English, Spanish, Dutch, Serbian, German, Croatian, Finnish, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Thai, French and Polish.

What it offers

Groups: This was a key requirement for us when we first thought of setting up a social network for trade unionists.  We need the ability to easily and quickly create open or closed groups that individuals can join, where they can discuss things and share resources, including documents, photos, and videos.

UnionBook users have organized 280 groups on a wide range of subjects.  The largest of those groups, Union Books (which discussed books about trade unions) has 140 members.  There are relatively large groups for the discussion of unions and the new technology, labour films, left history, union staff, unions and climate change, and labour podcasting.  There's even a fairly large group for people who collect union pins and badges.

Blogs: Many trade unionists now write blogs, and these are either on their union websites or on free, commercial sites like Blogger or Wordpress.  Many of the problems I identified with using commercial social networks like Facebook apply equally well to hosting blogs on free services.  UnionBook offers a blog to every user.  And these blogs allow commenting and can promote discussion.

Document sharing: The ability to instantly share files – both documents and also multimedia such as video and audio files, is one of the powerful features of UnionBook.  

The Wire: This is a way for users of UnionBook to share short messages with everyone – it works very much like the micro-blogging service Twitter and in fact integrates very well with Twitter.  When I post something to The Wire on UnionBook – for example, the fact that I am here, giving this talk at this conference – it is automatically posted as a Tweet by Twitter and also as a status update for me on Facebook. 

Share bookmarks: There are a number of very popular online services to do this (such as Digg); UnionBook offers a similar tool.  You can even embed a link in your web browser to automatically add interesting links to UnionBook as you spot them.

Discussion forums: Discussion forums are complicated to set up on websites and using existing commercial ones has all the disadvantages of using commercial social networks, etc.  UnionBook has built-in discussion forums for every group – and these can be closed or open to the public.

Publish pages: The ability to quickly publish a page on UnionBook has come in quite handy for us.  Sometimes unions have content – like a press release – that is not on a website. We use UnionBook to publish these instantly, which also means that we can publish the link to these stories on LabourStart itself. Publishing pages on UnionBook is a great way to share documents for a campaign or a meeting. 

How your unions can be involved

UnionBook is not a substitute for a great union website – nor is a substitute for the existing social networks like Facebook.

However, it represents a powerful tool unions can use to organize, campaign and educate.

Here are some ways we should work together on this.

As individuals you should sign up – here at this conference.  It will take you only a few seconds to get your own account on UnionBook.

Your unions should create, at the very least, groups for your members on UnionBook where they can meet, exchange ideas, and so on.

If UnionBook isn't currently working in your language, help us with translations.

Finally, UnionBook needs to grow – 4,500 is a very small number compared to the potential.  You can help by promoting UnionBook aggressively to your members.

]]> What is online campaigning?

Online campaigning refers to the use of Internet tools such as the web and email to put pressure on companies and governments to do what we want them to do.

How unions have used it

Global union federations – then known as international trade secretariats – pioneered global online campaigning back in the 1980s.

Many unions use various forms of online campaigns today.

Unions in the USA, for example, share very powerful software that allows union members to target members of Congress based on where they live.

This talk will focus on a specific form of global online campaigning by the labour movement – the experience of LabourStart.

Global online campaigning – the LabourStart experience

At first (in 1998) we only linked to existing global campaigns by unions, such as the ICEM's campaign to get Russian workers paid their back salaries.

By 2002, we realized the importance of having our own system and wrote our own software for this purpose, which we called “ActNOW”.

This software allows unions to quickly and easily launch online campaigns.

I want to walk you through how a LabourStart campaign is created, how it is publicized, and – above all – how we win.

All LabourStart campaigns begin with a request from a union. Often these are national unions or national trade union centers; campaigns are also frequently launched at the request of global union federations such as Union Network International, the International Metalworkers Federation, or the Education International, as well as the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

If we have not worked with a union before, we will usually ask the relevant global union federation for assistance.

Here is what we need from a union before we can launch an online campaign:

    * A very brief background text describing the problem.
    *A very brief default message to be sent by individuals to the target company or government.
    * The email address for the target. (Multiple addresses are better.)
    * A link to a web page, usually on the union's website, for those who want more information.
    * A commitment by the union to promote the campaign to the union's own members and to the broader labour movement as a whole.
    * A commitment to keep LabourStart informed about progress in the dispute.

Once we have this from the union, we send the campaign out for translation.

Currently our campaigns usually appear in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Italian, Russian, and Turkish.

They have also appeared in Indonesian, Farsi and other languages.

To get campaigns up in other languages would be quite simple – all we need is a simple list of phrases to be translated and we have a template for a campaign.

Our translators fill in online forms, so the launch of a multilingual campaign is quick and relatively painless.

It goes without saying that we do not charge unions for these services. They are completely free of charge.

We publicize our campaigns primarily through email, to our various mailing lists which we maintain in a number of languages. Those lists grow because as people sign up to support the campaigns, they are added to the lists.

Today we have lists of nearly 60,000 trade union activists who are interested in supporting online campaigns – this is a very powerful tool and it is what enables LabourStart's campaigns to be effective.

Nothing else works as well as these mailing lists to promote our campaigns.

In addition, we use social networks and other tools, including Facebook, Unionbook and Twitter to promote campaigns.

We have also used Google's keyword-based advertising to promote our campaigns – which can be very effective, but is also quite costly.

LabourStart's campaigns are tightly integrated with our news service. If there's a campaign related to a news story, the ActNOW link will appear next to the story. And the opposite is true – if there's news related to the campaign, it will appear on the campaign's own page, making those pages dynamic and not static.

This is all very exciting, but the question is – does it work? Do online campaigns, combined with other tactics, help put pressure on governments and employers?

The answer is that sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't.

It's also important how we define success.

For several months, we've been running an online campaign in support of striking Canadian workers who are employed by ValeInco, a company that will be well-known in Brazil.

That campaign is one of the largest we have ever run, with over 9,000 people having sent off messages to the company.

But the workers are still on strike after nine months, so this cannot yet be called a success.

Other campaigns have been more successful. But these are always part of broader effort by workers that might include being on strike, picketing and other forms of pressure.

An online campaign by itself will not win a strike, or compell an employer or government to respect workers' rights.

One great example involved the story of the Sydney Hilton hotel in Australia. The hotel was closing for renovations and the management decided to simply sack the entire staff with no guarantee that the workers would get their jobs back when the hotel reopened. An online campaign forced the company to negotiate an agreement with the union that gave the workers job security.

There are dozens of examples like that of the Sydney Hilton hotel.

We know that there are reasons why some campaigns work and some don't and it's important for us to study these and learn the lessons.

For example, campaigns targetting high-profile consumer companies, such as hotels and airlines, are more likely to work than campaigns aimed at others. The Hilton hotel chain did not want to be known as anti-union.

Some governments are much more receptive to pressure than others. Campaigns targetting the government of Zimbabwe, for example, were never very effective in getting Robert Mugabe to do what he did not want to do.

How a campaign is written and presented to the public is enormously important. The best campaigns are short and to the point, usually just one paragraph of text. The message to the target employer or government should also be extremely brief. People who want to know more can click on a link for more information.

Campaigns work best when they target companies and workers that trade unionists can identify with. We know that English speaking trade unionists are more likely to identify with campaigns aimed at English speaking countries. Campaigns focussing on smaller countries that may not be as well known are more difficult.

Those campaigns work best where the union works closely with its sister unions abroad, through their global union federation and using LabourStart's tools.

But it must be emphasized that online campaigning is only one approach and it is no substitute for traditional trade union tactics such as the strike, the picket line, the boycott, and so on.

But it is a very powerful tool that unions can now use.

I look forward to working with all the unions here in this room as we have done in the past with many of you.

I also hope that we can expand our campaigns to new languages including Korean and Thai, and to involve trade unionists from additional countries in these campaigns.

]]>

What is online campaigning?

Online campaigning refers to the use of Internet tools such as the web and email to put pressure on companies and governments to do what we want them to do.

How unions have used it

Global union federations – then known as international trade secretariats – pioneered global online campaigning back in the 1980s.

Many unions use various forms of online campaigns today.

Unions in the USA, for example, share very powerful software that allows union members to target members of Congress based on where they live.

This talk will focus on a specific form of global online campaigning by the labour movement – the experience of LabourStart.

Global online campaigning – the LabourStart experience

At first (in 1998) we only linked to existing global campaigns by unions, such as the ICEM's campaign to get Russian workers paid their back salaries.

By 2002, we realized the importance of having our own system and wrote our own software for this purpose, which we called “ActNOW”.

This software allows unions to quickly and easily launch online campaigns.

I want to walk you through how a LabourStart campaign is created, how it is publicized, and – above all – how we win.

All LabourStart campaigns begin with a request from a union. Often these are national unions or national trade union centers; campaigns are also frequently launched at the request of global union federations such as Union Network International, the International Metalworkers Federation, or the Education International, as well as the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

If we have not worked with a union before, we will usually ask the relevant global union federation for assistance.

Here is what we need from a union before we can launch an online campaign:

    * A very brief background text describing the problem.
    *A very brief default message to be sent by individuals to the target company or government.
    * The email address for the target. (Multiple addresses are better.)
    * A link to a web page, usually on the union's website, for those who want more information.
    * A commitment by the union to promote the campaign to the union's own members and to the broader labour movement as a whole.
    * A commitment to keep LabourStart informed about progress in the dispute.

Once we have this from the union, we send the campaign out for translation.

Currently our campaigns usually appear in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Italian, Russian, and Turkish.

They have also appeared in Indonesian, Farsi and other languages.

To get campaigns up in other languages would be quite simple – all we need is a simple list of phrases to be translated and we have a template for a campaign.

Our translators fill in online forms, so the launch of a multilingual campaign is quick and relatively painless.

It goes without saying that we do not charge unions for these services. They are completely free of charge.

We publicize our campaigns primarily through email, to our various mailing lists which we maintain in a number of languages. Those lists grow because as people sign up to support the campaigns, they are added to the lists.

Today we have lists of nearly 60,000 trade union activists who are interested in supporting online campaigns – this is a very powerful tool and it is what enables LabourStart's campaigns to be effective.

Nothing else works as well as these mailing lists to promote our campaigns.

In addition, we use social networks and other tools, including Facebook, Unionbook and Twitter to promote campaigns.

We have also used Google's keyword-based advertising to promote our campaigns – which can be very effective, but is also quite costly.

LabourStart's campaigns are tightly integrated with our news service. If there's a campaign related to a news story, the ActNOW link will appear next to the story. And the opposite is true – if there's news related to the campaign, it will appear on the campaign's own page, making those pages dynamic and not static.

This is all very exciting, but the question is – does it work? Do online campaigns, combined with other tactics, help put pressure on governments and employers?

The answer is that sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't.

It's also important how we define success.

For several months, we've been running an online campaign in support of striking Canadian workers who are employed by ValeInco, a company that will be well-known in Brazil.

That campaign is one of the largest we have ever run, with over 9,000 people having sent off messages to the company.

But the workers are still on strike after nine months, so this cannot yet be called a success.

Other campaigns have been more successful. But these are always part of broader effort by workers that might include being on strike, picketing and other forms of pressure.

An online campaign by itself will not win a strike, or compell an employer or government to respect workers' rights.

One great example involved the story of the Sydney Hilton hotel in Australia. The hotel was closing for renovations and the management decided to simply sack the entire staff with no guarantee that the workers would get their jobs back when the hotel reopened. An online campaign forced the company to negotiate an agreement with the union that gave the workers job security.

There are dozens of examples like that of the Sydney Hilton hotel.

We know that there are reasons why some campaigns work and some don't and it's important for us to study these and learn the lessons.

For example, campaigns targetting high-profile consumer companies, such as hotels and airlines, are more likely to work than campaigns aimed at others. The Hilton hotel chain did not want to be known as anti-union.

Some governments are much more receptive to pressure than others. Campaigns targetting the government of Zimbabwe, for example, were never very effective in getting Robert Mugabe to do what he did not want to do.

How a campaign is written and presented to the public is enormously important. The best campaigns are short and to the point, usually just one paragraph of text. The message to the target employer or government should also be extremely brief. People who want to know more can click on a link for more information.

Campaigns work best when they target companies and workers that trade unionists can identify with. We know that English speaking trade unionists are more likely to identify with campaigns aimed at English speaking countries. Campaigns focussing on smaller countries that may not be as well known are more difficult.

Those campaigns work best where the union works closely with its sister unions abroad, through their global union federation and using LabourStart's tools.

But it must be emphasized that online campaigning is only one approach and it is no substitute for traditional trade union tactics such as the strike, the picket line, the boycott, and so on.

But it is a very powerful tool that unions can now use.

I look forward to working with all the unions here in this room as we have done in the past with many of you.

I also hope that we can expand our campaigns to new languages including Korean and Thai, and to involve trade unionists from additional countries in these campaigns.

,

Last updated 101 days ago by Eric Lee

]]> What is online campaigning?

Online campaigning refers to the use of Internet tools such as the web and email to put pressure on companies and governments to do what we want them to do.

How unions have used it

Global union federations – then known as international trade secretariats – pioneered global online campaigning back in the 1980s.

Many unions use various forms of online campaigns today.

Unions in the USA, for example, share very powerful software that allows union members to target members of Congress based on where they live.

This talk will focus on a specific form of global online campaigning by the labour movement – the experience of LabourStart.

Global online campaigning – the LabourStart experience

At first (in 1998) we only linked to existing global campaigns by unions, such as the ICEM's campaign to get Russian workers paid their back salaries.

By 2002, we realized the importance of having our own system and wrote our own software for this purpose, which we called “ActNOW”.

This software allows unions to quickly and easily launch online campaigns.

I want to walk you through how a LabourStart campaign is created, how it is publicized, and – above all – how we win.

All LabourStart campaigns begin with a request from a union. Often these are national unions or national trade union centers; campaigns are also frequently launched at the request of global union federations such as Union Network International, the International Metalworkers Federation, or the Education International, as well as the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

If we have not worked with a union before, we will usually ask the relevant global union federation for assistance.

Here is what we need from a union before we can launch an online campaign:

    * A very brief background text describing the problem.
    *A very brief default message to be sent by individuals to the target company or government.
    * The email address for the target. (Multiple addresses are better.)
    * A link to a web page, usually on the union's website, for those who want more information.
    * A commitment by the union to promote the campaign to the union's own members and to the broader labour movement as a whole.
    * A commitment to keep LabourStart informed about progress in the dispute.

Once we have this from the union, we send the campaign out for translation.

Currently our campaigns usually appear in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Italian, Russian, and Turkish.

They have also appeared in Indonesian, Farsi and other languages.

To get campaigns up in other languages would be quite simple – all we need is a simple list of phrases to be translated and we have a template for a campaign.

Our translators fill in online forms, so the launch of a multilingual campaign is quick and relatively painless.

It goes without saying that we do not charge unions for these services. They are completely free of charge.

We publicize our campaigns primarily through email, to our various mailing lists which we maintain in a number of languages. Those lists grow because as people sign up to support the campaigns, they are added to the lists.

Today we have lists of nearly 60,000 trade union activists who are interested in supporting online campaigns – this is a very powerful tool and it is what enables LabourStart's campaigns to be effective.

Nothing else works as well as these mailing lists to promote our campaigns.

In addition, we use social networks and other tools, including Facebook, Unionbook and Twitter to promote campaigns.

We have also used Google's keyword-based advertising to promote our campaigns – which can be very effective, but is also quite costly.

LabourStart's campaigns are tightly integrated with our news service. If there's a campaign related to a news story, the ActNOW link will appear next to the story. And the opposite is true – if there's news related to the campaign, it will appear on the campaign's own page, making those pages dynamic and not static.

This is all very exciting, but the question is – does it work? Do online campaigns, combined with other tactics, help put pressure on governments and employers?

The answer is that sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't.

It's also important how we define success.

For several months, we've been running an online campaign in support of striking Canadian workers who are employed by ValeInco, a company that will be well-known in Brazil.

That campaign is one of the largest we have ever run, with over 9,000 people having sent off messages to the company.

But the workers are still on strike after nine months, so this cannot yet be called a success.

Other campaigns have been more successful. But these are always part of broader effort by workers that might include being on strike, picketing and other forms of pressure.

An online campaign by itself will not win a strike, or compell an employer or government to respect workers' rights.

One great example involved the story of the Sydney Hilton hotel in Australia. The hotel was closing for renovations and the management decided to simply sack the entire staff with no guarantee that the workers would get their jobs back when the hotel reopened. An online campaign forced the company to negotiate an agreement with the union that gave the workers job security.

There are dozens of examples like that of the Sydney Hilton hotel.

We know that there are reasons why some campaigns work and some don't and it's important for us to study these and learn the lessons.

For example, campaigns targetting high-profile consumer companies, such as hotels and airlines, are more likely to work than campaigns aimed at others. The Hilton hotel chain did not want to be known as anti-union.

Some governments are much more receptive to pressure than others. Campaigns targetting the government of Zimbabwe, for example, were never very effective in getting Robert Mugabe to do what he did not want to do.

How a campaign is written and presented to the public is enormously important. The best campaigns are short and to the point, usually just one paragraph of text. The message to the target employer or government should also be extremely brief. People who want to know more can click on a link for more information.

Campaigns work best when they target companies and workers that trade unionists can identify with. We know that English speaking trade unionists are more likely to identify with campaigns aimed at English speaking countries. Campaigns focussing on smaller countries that may not be as well known are more difficult.

Those campaigns work best where the union works closely with its sister unions abroad, through their global union federation and using LabourStart's tools.

But it must be emphasized that online campaigning is only one approach and it is no substitute for traditional trade union tactics such as the strike, the picket line, the boycott, and so on.

But it is a very powerful tool that unions can now use.

I look forward to working with all the unions here in this room as we have done in the past with many of you.

I also hope that we can expand our campaigns to new languages including Korean and Thai, and to involve trade unionists from additional countries in these campaigns.

]]> What is online campaigning?

Online campaigning refers to the use of Internet tools such as the web and email to put pressure on companies and governments to do what we want them to do.

How unions have used it

Global union federations – then known as international trade secretariats – pioneered global online campaigning back in the 1980s.

Many unions use various forms of online campaigns today.

Unions in the USA, for example, share very powerful software that allows union members to target members of Congress based on where they live.

This talk will focus on a specific form of global online campaigning by the labour movement – the experience of LabourStart.

Global online campaigning – the LabourStart experience

At first (in 1998) we only linked to existing global campaigns by unions, such as the ICEM's campaign to get Russian workers paid their back salaries.

By 2002, we realized the importance of having our own system and wrote our own software for this purpose, which we called “ActNOW”.

This software allows unions to quickly and easily launch online campaigns.

I want to walk you through how a LabourStart campaign is created, how it is publicized, and – above all – how we win.

All LabourStart campaigns begin with a request from a union. Often these are national unions or national trade union centers; campaigns are also frequently launched at the request of global union federations such as Union Network International, the International Metalworkers Federation, or the Education International, as well as the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

If we have not worked with a union before, we will usually ask the relevant global union federation for assistance.

Here is what we need from a union before we can launch an online campaign:

    * A very brief background text describing the problem.
    *A very brief default message to be sent by individuals to the target company or government.
    * The email address for the target. (Multiple addresses are better.)
    * A link to a web page, usually on the union's website, for those who want more information.
    * A commitment by the union to promote the campaign to the union's own members and to the broader labour movement as a whole.
    * A commitment to keep LabourStart informed about progress in the dispute.

Once we have this from the union, we send the campaign out for translation.

Currently our campaigns usually appear in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Italian, Russian, and Turkish.

They have also appeared in Indonesian, Farsi and other languages.

To get campaigns up in other languages would be quite simple – all we need is a simple list of phrases to be translated and we have a template for a campaign.

Our translators fill in online forms, so the launch of a multilingual campaign is quick and relatively painless.

It goes without saying that we do not charge unions for these services. They are completely free of charge.

We publicize our campaigns primarily through email, to our various mailing lists which we maintain in a number of languages. Those lists grow because as people sign up to support the campaigns, they are added to the lists.

Today we have lists of nearly 60,000 trade union activists who are interested in supporting online campaigns – this is a very powerful tool and it is what enables LabourStart's campaigns to be effective.

Nothing else works as well as these mailing lists to promote our campaigns.

In addition, we use social networks and other tools, including Facebook, Unionbook and Twitter to promote campaigns.

We have also used Google's keyword-based advertising to promote our campaigns – which can be very effective, but is also quite costly.

LabourStart's campaigns are tightly integrated with our news service. If there's a campaign related to a news story, the ActNOW link will appear next to the story. And the opposite is true – if there's news related to the campaign, it will appear on the campaign's own page, making those pages dynamic and not static.

This is all very exciting, but the question is – does it work? Do online campaigns, combined with other tactics, help put pressure on governments and employers?

The answer is that sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't.

It's also important how we define success.

For several months, we've been running an online campaign in support of striking Canadian workers who are employed by ValeInco, a company that will be well-known in Brazil.

That campaign is one of the largest we have ever run, with over 9,000 people having sent off messages to the company.

But the workers are still on strike after nine months, so this cannot yet be called a success.

Other campaigns have been more successful. But these are always part of broader effort by workers that might include being on strike, picketing and other forms of pressure.

An online campaign by itself will not win a strike, or compell an employer or government to respect workers' rights.

One great example involved the story of the Sydney Hilton hotel in Australia. The hotel was closing for renovations and the management decided to simply sack the entire staff with no guarantee that the workers would get their jobs back when the hotel reopened. An online campaign forced the company to negotiate an agreement with the union that gave the workers job security.

There are dozens of examples like that of the Sydney Hilton hotel.

We know that there are reasons why some campaigns work and some don't and it's important for us to study these and learn the lessons.

For example, campaigns targetting high-profile consumer companies, such as hotels and airlines, are more likely to work than campaigns aimed at others. The Hilton hotel chain did not want to be known as anti-union.

Some governments are much more receptive to pressure than others. Campaigns targetting the government of Zimbabwe, for example, were never very effective in getting Robert Mugabe to do what he did not want to do.

How a campaign is written and presented to the public is enormously important. The best campaigns are short and to the point, usually just one paragraph of text. The message to the target employer or government should also be extremely brief. People who want to know more can click on a link for more information.

Campaigns work best when they target companies and workers that trade unionists can identify with. We know that English speaking trade unionists are more likely to identify with campaigns aimed at English speaking countries. Campaigns focussing on smaller countries that may not be as well known are more difficult.

Those campaigns work best where the union works closely with its sister unions abroad, through their global union federation and using LabourStart's tools.

But it must be emphasized that online campaigning is only one approach and it is no substitute for traditional trade union tactics such as the strike, the picket line, the boycott, and so on.

But it is a very powerful tool that unions can now use.

I look forward to working with all the unions here in this room as we have done in the past with many of you.

I also hope that we can expand our campaigns to new languages including Korean and Thai, and to involve trade unionists from additional countries in these campaigns.

]]>

What is online campaigning?

Online campaigning refers to the use of Internet tools such as the web and email to put pressure on companies and governments to do what we want them to do.

How unions have used it

Global union federations – then known as international trade secretariats – pioneered global online campaigning back in the 1980s.

Many unions use various forms of online campaigns today.

Unions in the USA, for example, share very powerful software that allows union members to target members of Congress based on where they live.

This talk will focus on a specific form of global online campaigning by the labour movement – the experience of LabourStart.

Global online campaigning – the LabourStart experience

At first (in 1998) we only linked to existing global campaigns by unions, such as the ICEM's campaign to get Russian workers paid their back salaries.

By 2002, we realized the importance of having our own system and wrote our own software for this purpose, which we called “ActNOW”.

This software allows unions to quickly and easily launch online campaigns.

I want to walk you through how a LabourStart campaign is created, how it is publicized, and – above all – how we win.

All LabourStart campaigns begin with a request from a union. Often these are national unions or national trade union centers; campaigns are also frequently launched at the request of global union federations such as Union Network International, the International Metalworkers Federation, or the Education International, as well as the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

If we have not worked with a union before, we will usually ask the relevant global union federation for assistance.

Here is what we need from a union before we can launch an online campaign:

    * A very brief background text describing the problem.
    *A very brief default message to be sent by individuals to the target company or government.
    * The email address for the target. (Multiple addresses are better.)
    * A link to a web page, usually on the union's website, for those who want more information.
    * A commitment by the union to promote the campaign to the union's own members and to the broader labour movement as a whole.
    * A commitment to keep LabourStart informed about progress in the dispute.

Once we have this from the union, we send the campaign out for translation.

Currently our campaigns usually appear in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Italian, Russian, and Turkish.

They have also appeared in Indonesian, Farsi and other languages.

To get campaigns up in other languages would be quite simple – all we need is a simple list of phrases to be translated and we have a template for a campaign.

Our translators fill in online forms, so the launch of a multilingual campaign is quick and relatively painless.

It goes without saying that we do not charge unions for these services. They are completely free of charge.

We publicize our campaigns primarily through email, to our various mailing lists which we maintain in a number of languages. Those lists grow because as people sign up to support the campaigns, they are added to the lists.

Today we have lists of nearly 60,000 trade union activists who are interested in supporting online campaigns – this is a very powerful tool and it is what enables LabourStart's campaigns to be effective.

Nothing else works as well as these mailing lists to promote our campaigns.

In addition, we use social networks and other tools, including Facebook, Unionbook and Twitter to promote campaigns.

We have also used Google's keyword-based advertising to promote our campaigns – which can be very effective, but is also quite costly.

LabourStart's campaigns are tightly integrated with our news service. If there's a campaign related to a news story, the ActNOW link will appear next to the story. And the opposite is true – if there's news related to the campaign, it will appear on the campaign's own page, making those pages dynamic and not static.

This is all very exciting, but the question is – does it work? Do online campaigns, combined with other tactics, help put pressure on governments and employers?

The answer is that sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't.

It's also important how we define success.

For several months, we've been running an online campaign in support of striking Canadian workers who are employed by ValeInco, a company that will be well-known in Brazil.

That campaign is one of the largest we have ever run, with over 9,000 people having sent off messages to the company.

But the workers are still on strike after nine months, so this cannot yet be called a success.

Other campaigns have been more successful. But these are always part of broader effort by workers that might include being on strike, picketing and other forms of pressure.

An online campaign by itself will not win a strike, or compell an employer or government to respect workers' rights.

One great example involved the story of the Sydney Hilton hotel in Australia. The hotel was closing for renovations and the management decided to simply sack the entire staff with no guarantee that the workers would get their jobs back when the hotel reopened. An online campaign forced the company to negotiate an agreement with the union that gave the workers job security.

There are dozens of examples like that of the Sydney Hilton hotel.

We know that there are reasons why some campaigns work and some don't and it's important for us to study these and learn the lessons.

For example, campaigns targetting high-profile consumer companies, such as hotels and airlines, are more likely to work than campaigns aimed at others. The Hilton hotel chain did not want to be known as anti-union.

Some governments are much more receptive to pressure than others. Campaigns targetting the government of Zimbabwe, for example, were never very effective in getting Robert Mugabe to do what he did not want to do.

How a campaign is written and presented to the public is enormously important. The best campaigns are short and to the point, usually just one paragraph of text. The message to the target employer or government should also be extremely brief. People who want to know more can click on a link for more information.

Campaigns work best when they target companies and workers that trade unionists can identify with. We know that English speaking trade unionists are more likely to identify with campaigns aimed at English speaking countries. Campaigns focussing on smaller countries that may not be as well known are more difficult.

Those campaigns work best where the union works closely with its sister unions abroad, through their global union federation and using LabourStart's tools.

But it must be emphasized that online campaigning is only one approach and it is no substitute for traditional trade union tactics such as the strike, the picket line, the boycott, and so on.

But it is a very powerful tool that unions can now use.

I look forward to working with all the unions here in this room as we have done in the past with many of you.

I also hope that we can expand our campaigns to new languages including Korean and Thai, and to involve trade unionists from additional countries in these campaigns.

,

Last updated 101 days ago by Eric Lee

]]> What is online campaigning?

Online campaigning refers to the use of Internet tools such as the web and email to put pressure on companies and governments to do what we want them to do.

How unions have used it

Global union federations – then known as international trade secretariats – pioneered global online campaigning back in the 1980s.

Many unions use various forms of online campaigns today.

Unions in the USA, for example, share very powerful software that allows union members to target members of Congress based on where they live.

This talk will focus on a specific form of global online campaigning by the labour movement – the experience of LabourStart.

Global online campaigning – the LabourStart experience

At first (in 1998) we only linked to existing global campaigns by unions, such as the ICEM's campaign to get Russian workers paid their back salaries.

By 2002, we realized the importance of having our own system and wrote our own software for this purpose, which we called “ActNOW”.

This software allows unions to quickly and easily launch online campaigns.

I want to walk you through how a LabourStart campaign is created, how it is publicized, and – above all – how we win.

All LabourStart campaigns begin with a request from a union. Often these are national unions or national trade union centers; campaigns are also frequently launched at the request of global union federations such as Union Network International, the International Metalworkers Federation, or the Education International, as well as the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

If we have not worked with a union before, we will usually ask the relevant global union federation for assistance.

Here is what we need from a union before we can launch an online campaign:

    * A very brief background text describing the problem.
    *A very brief default message to be sent by individuals to the target company or government.
    * The email address for the target. (Multiple addresses are better.)
    * A link to a web page, usually on the union's website, for those who want more information.
    * A commitment by the union to promote the campaign to the union's own members and to the broader labour movement as a whole.
    * A commitment to keep LabourStart informed about progress in the dispute.

Once we have this from the union, we send the campaign out for translation.

Currently our campaigns usually appear in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Italian, Russian, and Turkish.

They have also appeared in Indonesian, Farsi and other languages.

To get campaigns up in other languages would be quite simple – all we need is a simple list of phrases to be translated and we have a template for a campaign.

Our translators fill in online forms, so the launch of a multilingual campaign is quick and relatively painless.

It goes without saying that we do not charge unions for these services. They are completely free of charge.

We publicize our campaigns primarily through email, to our various mailing lists which we maintain in a number of languages. Those lists grow because as people sign up to support the campaigns, they are added to the lists.

Today we have lists of nearly 60,000 trade union activists who are interested in supporting online campaigns – this is a very powerful tool and it is what enables LabourStart's campaigns to be effective.

Nothing else works as well as these mailing lists to promote our campaigns.

In addition, we use social networks and other tools, including Facebook, Unionbook and Twitter to promote campaigns.

We have also used Google's keyword-based advertising to promote our campaigns – which can be very effective, but is also quite costly.

LabourStart's campaigns are tightly integrated with our news service. If there's a campaign related to a news story, the ActNOW link will appear next to the story. And the opposite is true – if there's news related to the campaign, it will appear on the campaign's own page, making those pages dynamic and not static.

This is all very exciting, but the question is – does it work? Do online campaigns, combined with other tactics, help put pressure on governments and employers?

The answer is that sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't.

It's also important how we define success.

For several months, we've been running an online campaign in support of striking Canadian workers who are employed by ValeInco, a company that will be well-known in Brazil.

That campaign is one of the largest we have ever run, with over 9,000 people having sent off messages to the company.

But the workers are still on strike after nine months, so this cannot yet be called a success.

Other campaigns have been more successful. But these are always part of broader effort by workers that might include being on strike, picketing and other forms of pressure.

An online campaign by itself will not win a strike, or compell an employer or government to respect workers' rights.

One great example involved the story of the Sydney Hilton hotel in Australia. The hotel was closing for renovations and the management decided to simply sack the entire staff with no guarantee that the workers would get their jobs back when the hotel reopened. An online campaign forced the company to negotiate an agreement with the union that gave the workers job security.

There are dozens of examples like that of the Sydney Hilton hotel.

We know that there are reasons why some campaigns work and some don't and it's important for us to study these and learn the lessons.

For example, campaigns targetting high-profile consumer companies, such as hotels and airlines, are more likely to work than campaigns aimed at others. The Hilton hotel chain did not want to be known as anti-union.

Some governments are much more receptive to pressure than others. Campaigns targetting the government of Zimbabwe, for example, were never very effective in getting Robert Mugabe to do what he did not want to do.

How a campaign is written and presented to the public is enormously important. The best campaigns are short and to the point, usually just one paragraph of text. The message to the target employer or government should also be extremely brief. People who want to know more can click on a link for more information.

Campaigns work best when they target companies and workers that trade unionists can identify with. We know that English speaking trade unionists are more likely to identify with campaigns aimed at English speaking countries. Campaigns focussing on smaller countries that may not be as well known are more difficult.

Those campaigns work best where the union works closely with its sister unions abroad, through their global union federation and using LabourStart's tools.

But it must be emphasized that online campaigning is only one approach and it is no substitute for traditional trade union tactics such as the strike, the picket line, the boycott, and so on.

But it is a very powerful tool that unions can now use.

I look forward to working with all the unions here in this room as we have done in the past with many of you.

I also hope that we can expand our campaigns to new languages including Korean and Thai, and to involve trade unionists from additional countries in these campaigns.

]]>
  • Click on your profile (that's the image you selected -- on the very top of your browser window, to the right of the word 'Elgg').
  • Click on Edit page (upper right corner)
  • From the Widget Gallery on the right side of the page, drag the word Video over to where you want it on the left side.
  • The Video widget now appears on your profile.  Click on Edit to add the video URL, title and your comments.
  • Click on Save.  Repeat steps 2-4 to add additional videos.
    • ]]>
    1. Click on your profile (that's the image you selected -- on the very top of your browser window, to the right of the word 'Elgg').
    2. Click on Edit page (upper right corner)
    3. From the Widget Gallery on the right side of the page, drag the word Video over to where you want it on the left side.
    4. The Video widget now appears on your profile.  Click on Edit to add the video URL, title and your comments.
    5. Click on Save.  Repeat steps 2-4 to add additional videos.

    ,

    Last updated 109 days ago by Eric Lee

    ]]>
  • Click on your profile (that's the image you selected -- on the very top of your browser window, to the right of the word 'Elgg').
  • Click on Edit page (upper right corner)
  • From the Widget Gallery on the right side of the page, drag the word Video over to where you want it on the left side.
  • The Video widget now appears on your profile.  Click on Edit to add the video URL, title and your comments.
  • Click on Save.  Repeat steps 2-4 to add additional videos.
    • ]]>
  • Click on your profile (that's the image you selected -- on the very top of your browser window, to the right of the word 'Elgg').
  • Click on Edit page (upper right corner)
  • From the Widget Gallery on the right side of the page, drag the word Video over to where you want it on the left side.
  • The Video widget now appears on your profile.  Click on Edit to add the video URL, title and your comments.
  • Click on Save.  Repeat steps 2-4 to add additional videos.
    • ]]>
    1. Click on your profile (that's the image you selected -- on the very top of your browser window, to the right of the word 'Elgg').
    2. Click on Edit page (upper right corner)
    3. From the Widget Gallery on the right side of the page, drag the word Video over to where you want it on the left side.
    4. The Video widget now appears on your profile.  Click on Edit to add the video URL, title and your comments.
    5. Click on Save.  Repeat steps 2-4 to add additional videos.

    ,

    Last updated 109 days ago by Eric Lee

    ]]>
  • Click on your profile (that's the image you selected -- on the very top of your browser window, to the right of the word 'Elgg').
  • Click on Edit page (upper right corner)
  • From the Widget Gallery on the right side of the page, drag the word Video over to where you want it on the left side.
  • The Video widget now appears on your profile.  Click on Edit to add the video URL, title and your comments.
  • Click on Save.  Repeat steps 2-4 to add additional videos.
    • ]]>

    This is the full text of the statement issued by SACCAWU today:

    After a brave and bruising strike by more than 4 500 workers lasting for seven weeks since 4 December 2009, SACCAWU and Sun International reached an agreement that effectively saw the end of the strike. Workers are expected to return from 26 January 2010 and by the latest 28 January 2010.

    This strike was marked by an extreme intransigence on the side of the company, coupled with violence from the SAPS and private security on the picket-line, including racist and sexist insults, extreme provocations, assaults as well as arrests of numerous strikers, a full-time shop steward and a union official.

    Despite all these provocations, workers remained united and determined, continuing their strike over the festive season throughout January as schools reopened. Despite all these pressures on working class families, the strikers remained united. This unity of the striking workers was further boosted by the solidarity from COSATU, especially by the COSATU North West Province and Moses Kotane Local. The morale of the striking workers was further boosted by the international solidarity and the Labour Start campaign that saw thousands of letters from unionists and the public in general from all over the world, sent to the management of Sun International. SACCAWU and the striking workers wish to acknowledge and express our gratitude for the solidarity, on the picket-line, in the communities and internationally, that played an important role in keeping the unity and building the morale of striking workers throughout the strike.

    While the striking workers did not see all their demands met, the significance of the victory should not be underestimated. Because of the drawn out nature of the dispute, and the since we once again were on the eve wage negotiations, the Union felt it was a strategic necessity to enter into a two-year agreement, which was accepted by both parties.

    The agreement reached covers the following:

    • Extension of the bargaining unit to a range of supervisory categories previously excluded from the bargaining unit, while others will be included into the bargaining unit for the purposes of accessing benefits and housekeeping supervisors will also benefit from the 2009/2010 wage increases.

    • The current minimum will increase from R66 479.00 to R72 295.91 from July 2009

    • An across the board increase of 8.75% effective from 1 July 2009

    • Back pay to workers from July 2009 will be paid to workers not later than 31st January 2010

    • An increase of CPI + 1.75% or 7.75% whichever works out greater will come into effect from July 2010

    • Shift allowances will be increased to R3.00 per hour from 1st July 2009

    • Home ownership subsidy scheme limit shall be increased from R100 000 to R135 000

    • Employees with 2 – 5 years service shall qualify for a 30% subsidy. Those with less that 5 years service were not qualifying previously.

    • Educational assistance shall increase from R5 000 to R8 000

    The issues of averaging of hours of work and scheduling of permanent staff and other unresolved matters will be explored in future interactions with the Company, with the Union reserving its right to pursue the legal route.

    ]]>

    This is the full text of the statement issued by SACCAWU today:

    After a brave and bruising strike by more than 4 500 workers lasting for seven weeks since 4 December 2009, SACCAWU and Sun International reached an agreement that effectively saw the end of the strike. Workers are expected to return from 26 January 2010 and by the latest 28 January 2010.

    This strike was marked by an extreme intransigence on the side of the company, coupled with violence from the SAPS and private security on the picket-line, including racist and sexist insults, extreme provocations, assaults as well as arrests of numerous strikers, a full-time shop steward and a union official.

    Despite all these provocations, workers remained united and determined, continuing their strike over the festive season throughout January as schools reopened. Despite all these pressures on working class families, the strikers remained united. This unity of the striking workers was further boosted by the solidarity from COSATU, especially by the COSATU North West Province and Moses Kotane Local. The morale of the striking workers was further boosted by the international solidarity and the Labour Start campaign that saw thousands of letters from unionists and the public in general from all over the world, sent to the management of Sun International. SACCAWU and the striking workers wish to acknowledge and express our gratitude for the solidarity, on the picket-line, in the communities and internationally, that played an important role in keeping the unity and building the morale of striking workers throughout the strike.

    While the striking workers did not see all their demands met, the significance of the victory should not be underestimated. Because of the drawn out nature of the dispute, and the since we once again were on the eve wage negotiations, the Union felt it was a strategic necessity to enter into a two-year agreement, which was accepted by both parties.

    The agreement reached covers the following:

    • Extension of the bargaining unit to a range of supervisory categories previously excluded from the bargaining unit, while others will be included into the bargaining unit for the purposes of accessing benefits and housekeeping supervisors will also benefit from the 2009/2010 wage increases.

    • The current minimum will increase from R66 479.00 to R72 295.91 from July 2009

    • An across the board increase of 8.75% effective from 1 July 2009

    • Back pay to workers from July 2009 will be paid to workers not later than 31st January 2010

    • An increase of CPI + 1.75% or 7.75% whichever works out greater will come into effect from July 2010

    • Shift allowances will be increased to R3.00 per hour from 1st July 2009

    • Home ownership subsidy scheme limit shall be increased from R100 000 to R135 000

    • Employees with 2 – 5 years service shall qualify for a 30% subsidy. Those with less that 5 years service were not qualifying previously.

    • Educational assistance shall increase from R5 000 to R8 000

    The issues of averaging of hours of work and scheduling of permanent staff and other unresolved matters will be explored in future interactions with the Company, with the Union reserving its right to pursue the legal route.

    Last updated 184 days ago by Eric Lee

    ]]>

    This is the full text of the statement issued by SACCAWU today:

    After a brave and bruising strike by more than 4 500 workers lasting for seven weeks since 4 December 2009, SACCAWU and Sun International reached an agreement that effectively saw the end of the strike. Workers are expected to return from 26 January 2010 and by the latest 28 January 2010.

    This strike was marked by an extreme intransigence on the side of the company, coupled with violence from the SAPS and private security on the picket-line, including racist and sexist insults, extreme provocations, assaults as well as arrests of numerous strikers, a full-time shop steward and a union official.

    Despite all these provocations, workers remained united and determined, continuing their strike over the festive season throughout January as schools reopened. Despite all these pressures on working class families, the strikers remained united. This unity of the striking workers was further boosted by the solidarity from COSATU, especially by the COSATU North West Province and Moses Kotane Local. The morale of the striking workers was further boosted by the international solidarity and the Labour Start campaign that saw thousands of letters from unionists and the public in general from all over the world, sent to the management of Sun International. SACCAWU and the striking workers wish to acknowledge and express our gratitude for the solidarity, on the picket-line, in the communities and internationally, that played an important role in keeping the unity and building the morale of striking workers throughout the strike.

    While the striking workers did not see all their demands met, the significance of the victory should not be underestimated. Because of the drawn out nature of the dispute, and the since we once again were on the eve wage negotiations, the Union felt it was a strategic necessity to enter into a two-year agreement, which was accepted by both parties.

    The agreement reached covers the following:

    • Extension of the bargaining unit to a range of supervisory categories previously excluded from the bargaining unit, while others will be included into the bargaining unit for the purposes of accessing benefits and housekeeping supervisors will also benefit from the 2009/2010 wage increases.

    • The current minimum will increase from R66 479.00 to R72 295.91 from July 2009

    • An across the board increase of 8.75% effective from 1 July 2009

    • Back pay to workers from July 2009 will be paid to workers not later than 31st January 2010

    • An increase of CPI + 1.75% or 7.75% whichever works out greater will come into effect from July 2010

    • Shift allowances will be increased to R3.00 per hour from 1st July 2009

    • Home ownership subsidy scheme limit shall be increased from R100 000 to R135 000

    • Employees with 2 – 5 years service shall qualify for a 30% subsidy. Those with less that 5 years service were not qualifying previously.

    • Educational assistance shall increase from R5 000 to R8 000

    The issues of averaging of hours of work and scheduling of permanent staff and other unresolved matters will be explored in future interactions with the Company, with the Union reserving its right to pursue the legal route.

    ]]>

    This is the full text of the statement issued by SACCAWU today:

    After a brave and bruising strike by more than 4 500 workers lasting for seven weeks since 4 December 2009, SACCAWU and Sun International reached an agreement that effectively saw the end of the strike. Workers are expected to return from 26 January 2010 and by the latest 28 January 2010.

    This strike was marked by an extreme intransigence on the side of the company, coupled with violence from the SAPS and private security on the picket-line, including racist and sexist insults, extreme provocations, assaults as well as arrests of numerous strikers, a full-time shop steward and a union official.

    Despite all these provocations, workers remained united and determined, continuing their strike over the festive season throughout January as schools reopened. Despite all these pressures on working class families, the strikers remained united. This unity of the striking workers was further boosted by the solidarity from COSATU, especially by the COSATU North West Province and Moses Kotane Local. The morale of the striking workers was further boosted by the international solidarity and the Labour Start campaign that saw thousands of letters from unionists and the public in general from all over the world, sent to the management of Sun International. SACCAWU and the striking workers wish to acknowledge and express our gratitude for the solidarity, on the picket-line, in the communities and internationally, that played an important role in keeping the unity and building the morale of striking workers throughout the strike.

    While the striking workers did not see all their demands met, the significance of the victory should not be underestimated. Because of the drawn out nature of the dispute, and the since we once again were on the eve wage negotiations, the Union felt it was a strategic necessity to enter into a two-year agreement, which was accepted by both parties.

    The agreement reached covers the following:

    • Extension of the bargaining unit to a range of supervisory categories previously excluded from the bargaining unit, while others will be included into the bargaining unit for the purposes of accessing benefits and housekeeping supervisors will also benefit from the 2009/2010 wage increases.

    • The current minimum will increase from R66 479.00 to R72 295.91 from July 2009

    • An across the board increase of 8.75% effective from 1 July 2009

    • Back pay to workers from July 2009 will be paid to workers not later than 31st January 2010

    • An increase of CPI + 1.75% or 7.75% whichever works out greater will come into effect from July 2010

    • Shift allowances will be increased to R3.00 per hour from 1st July 2009

    • Home ownership subsidy scheme limit shall be increased from R100 000 to R135 000

    • Employees with 2 – 5 years service shall qualify for a 30% subsidy. Those with less that 5 years service were not qualifying previously.

    • Educational assistance shall increase from R5 000 to R8 000

    The issues of averaging of hours of work and scheduling of permanent staff and other unresolved matters will be explored in future interactions with the Company, with the Union reserving its right to pursue the legal route.

    ]]>

    This is the full text of the statement issued by SACCAWU today:

    After a brave and bruising strike by more than 4 500 workers lasting for seven weeks since 4 December 2009, SACCAWU and Sun International reached an agreement that effectively saw the end of the strike. Workers are expected to return from 26 January 2010 and by the latest 28 January 2010.

    This strike was marked by an extreme intransigence on the side of the company, coupled with violence from the SAPS and private security on the picket-line, including racist and sexist insults, extreme provocations, assaults as well as arrests of numerous strikers, a full-time shop steward and a union official.

    Despite all these provocations, workers remained united and determined, continuing their strike over the festive season throughout January as schools reopened. Despite all these pressures on working class families, the strikers remained united. This unity of the striking workers was further boosted by the solidarity from COSATU, especially by the COSATU North West Province and Moses Kotane Local. The morale of the striking workers was further boosted by the international solidarity and the Labour Start campaign that saw thousands of letters from unionists and the public in general from all over the world, sent to the management of Sun International. SACCAWU and the striking workers wish to acknowledge and express our gratitude for the solidarity, on the picket-line, in the communities and internationally, that played an important role in keeping the unity and building the morale of striking workers throughout the strike.

    While the striking workers did not see all their demands met, the significance of the victory should not be underestimated. Because of the drawn out nature of the dispute, and the since we once again were on the eve wage negotiations, the Union felt it was a strategic necessity to enter into a two-year agreement, which was accepted by both parties.

    The agreement reached covers the following:

    • Extension of the bargaining unit to a range of supervisory categories previously excluded from the bargaining unit, while others will be included into the bargaining unit for the purposes of accessing benefits and housekeeping supervisors will also benefit from the 2009/2010 wage increases.

    • The current minimum will increase from R66 479.00 to R72 295.91 from July 2009

    • An across the board increase of 8.75% effective from 1 July 2009

    • Back pay to workers from July 2009 will be paid to workers not later than 31st January 2010

    • An increase of CPI + 1.75% or 7.75% whichever works out greater will come into effect from July 2010

    • Shift allowances will be increased to R3.00 per hour from 1st July 2009

    • Home ownership subsidy scheme limit shall be increased from R100 000 to R135 000

    • Employees with 2 – 5 years service shall qualify for a 30% subsidy. Those with less that 5 years service were not qualifying previously.

    • Educational assistance shall increase from R5 000 to R8 000

    The issues of averaging of hours of work and scheduling of permanent staff and other unresolved matters will be explored in future interactions with the Company, with the Union reserving its right to pursue the legal route.

    Last updated 184 days ago by Eric Lee

    ]]>

    This is the full text of the statement issued by SACCAWU today:

    After a brave and bruising strike by more than 4 500 workers lasting for seven weeks since 4 December 2009, SACCAWU and Sun International reached an agreement that effectively saw the end of the strike. Workers are expected to return from 26 January 2010 and by the latest 28 January 2010.

    This strike was marked by an extreme intransigence on the side of the company, coupled with violence from the SAPS and private security on the picket-line, including racist and sexist insults, extreme provocations, assaults as well as arrests of numerous strikers, a full-time shop steward and a union official.

    Despite all these provocations, workers remained united and determined, continuing their strike over the festive season throughout January as schools reopened. Despite all these pressures on working class families, the strikers remained united. This unity of the striking workers was further boosted by the solidarity from COSATU, especially by the COSATU North West Province and Moses Kotane Local. The morale of the striking workers was further boosted by the international solidarity and the Labour Start campaign that saw thousands of letters from unionists and the public in general from all over the world, sent to the management of Sun International. SACCAWU and the striking workers wish to acknowledge and express our gratitude for the solidarity, on the picket-line, in the communities and internationally, that played an important role in keeping the unity and building the morale of striking workers throughout the strike.

    While the striking workers did not see all their demands met, the significance of the victory should not be underestimated. Because of the drawn out nature of the dispute, and the since we once again were on the eve wage negotiations, the Union felt it was a strategic necessity to enter into a two-year agreement, which was accepted by both parties.

    The agreement reached covers the following:

    • Extension of the bargaining unit to a range of supervisory categories previously excluded from the bargaining unit, while others will be included into the bargaining unit for the purposes of accessing benefits and housekeeping supervisors will also benefit from the 2009/2010 wage increases.

    • The current minimum will increase from R66 479.00 to R72 295.91 from July 2009

    • An across the board increase of 8.75% effective from 1 July 2009

    • Back pay to workers from July 2009 will be paid to workers not later than 31st January 2010

    • An increase of CPI + 1.75% or 7.75% whichever works out greater will come into effect from July 2010

    • Shift allowances will be increased to R3.00 per hour from 1st July 2009

    • Home ownership subsidy scheme limit shall be increased from R100 000 to R135 000

    • Employees with 2 – 5 years service shall qualify for a 30% subsidy. Those with less that 5 years service were not qualifying previously.

    • Educational assistance shall increase from R5 000 to R8 000

    The issues of averaging of hours of work and scheduling of permanent staff and other unresolved matters will be explored in future interactions with the Company, with the Union reserving its right to pursue the legal route.

    ]]>     Send off your message here!

    The international campaign of solidarity with striking workers at Sun International have substantially boost the morale and determination of workers and we have witnessed an increase in numbers of striking workers on the picket-line and other activities. However we have also witnessed a growth in the use of violence, intimidation and provocation of striking workers coupled with other means to break the strike.

        • At Sun City hundreds of SACCAWU and COSATU members were harassed and prevented by the South African Police Services from picketing during a peaceful demonstration at the Miss Teen South Africa. When confronted by the local COSATU leadership the police the police alleged that they were instructed by the Sun International Human Resource Director to prevent the demonstration. On calling the HR Director he told police that they should not interfere with the picketers as their action is legal.
        • In the meantime we've been informed that the former full-time shop-steward who tried breaking the strike on behalf of management was given a car and booked into Hotel in Durban by the company. His attempts to sabotage the strike back-fired as all the workers in his department have now decide to join the action and the Restaurant that he worked at are closed.
        • At Board Walk and Fish River in the Eastern Cape the police have removed all the picketers from the premises of the company and they are also not allowed to picket outside the company premises. Further all permission by the strikers to protest has been refused by the Local Municipality including planned protest marches to  company premises to hand over a memorandum with their demands.
        • At Grand West in Cape Town the company approached the High Court to obtain an interdict against 700 striking workers on the picket-line to prevent striking workers from picketing outside the company premises. The application to interdict our members at Grand West Casino will be heard by the Cape Town High Court today.
        • At Morula Sun on Sunday striking workers demonstrating at a Jazz show were attacked and assaulted by the organisers disrupting the picket-line.
        • At Wild Coast, Naledi, Windmill, Carousel and Carnival City our members are still strong and participating in picketing despite harassment and intimidation by the private security and SAPS (South African Police Service).


    The international solidarity are playing an important role in this struggle by workers against an intransigent Sun International management. We wish to express our gratitude for the support and call on our comrades throughout the world to intensify the international solidarity.

    red regards

    Mike Abrahams
    media@saccawu.org.za

    Send off your message here!

    ]]>

    Send off your message here!

    The international campaign of solidarity with striking workers at Sun International have substantially boost the morale and determination of workers and we have witnessed an increase in numbers of striking workers on the picket-line and other activities. However we have also witnessed a growth in the use of violence, intimidation and provocation of striking workers coupled with other means to break the strike.

        • At Sun City hundreds of SACCAWU and COSATU members were harassed and prevented by the South African Police Services from picketing during a peaceful demonstration at the Miss Teen South Africa. When confronted by the local COSATU leadership the police the police alleged that they were instructed by the Sun International Human Resource Director to prevent the demonstration. On calling the HR Director he told police that they should not interfere with the picketers as their action is legal.
        • In the meantime we've been informed that the former full-time shop-steward who tried breaking the strike on behalf of management was given a car and booked into Hotel in Durban by the company. His attempts to sabotage the strike back-fired as all the workers in his department have now decide to join the action and the Restaurant that he worked at are closed.
        • At Board Walk and Fish River in the Eastern Cape the police have removed all the picketers from the premises of the company and they are also not allowed to picket outside the company premises. Further all permission by the strikers to protest has been refused by the Local Municipality including planned protest marches to  company premises to hand over a memorandum with their demands.
        • At Grand West in Cape Town the company approached the High Court to obtain an interdict against 700 striking workers on the picket-line to prevent striking workers from picketing outside the company premises. The application to interdict our members at Grand West Casino will be heard by the Cape Town High Court today.
        • At Morula Sun on Sunday striking workers demonstrating at a Jazz show were attacked and assaulted by the organisers disrupting the picket-line.
        • At Wild Coast, Naledi, Windmill, Carousel and Carnival City our members are still strong and participating in picketing despite harassment and intimidation by the private security and SAPS (South African Police Service).

    The international solidarity are playing an important role in this struggle by workers against an intransigent Sun International management. We wish to express our gratitude for the support and call on our comrades throughout the world to intensify the international solidarity.

    red regards

    Mike Abrahams
    media@saccawu.org.za

    Send off your message here!

    , , , ,

    Last updated 227 days ago by Eric Lee

    ]]>     Send off your message here!

    The international campaign of solidarity with striking workers at Sun International have substantially boost the morale and determination of workers and we have witnessed an increase in numbers of striking workers on the picket-line and other activities. However we have also witnessed a growth in the use of violence, intimidation and provocation of striking workers coupled with other means to break the strike.

        • At Sun City hundreds of SACCAWU and COSATU members were harassed and prevented by the South African Police Services from picketing during a peaceful demonstration at the Miss Teen South Africa. When confronted by the local COSATU leadership the police the police alleged that they were instructed by the Sun International Human Resource Director to prevent the demonstration. On calling the HR Director he told police that they should not interfere with the picketers as their action is legal.
        • In the meantime we've been informed that the former full-time shop-steward who tried breaking the strike on behalf of management was given a car and booked into Hotel in Durban by the company. His attempts to sabotage the strike back-fired as all the workers in his department have now decide to join the action and the Restaurant that he worked at are closed.
        • At Board Walk and Fish River in the Eastern Cape the police have removed all the picketers from the premises of the company and they are also not allowed to picket outside the company premises. Further all permission by the strikers to protest has been refused by the Local Municipality including planned protest marches to  company premises to hand over a memorandum with their demands.
        • At Grand West in Cape Town the company approached the High Court to obtain an interdict against 700 striking workers on the picket-line to prevent striking workers from picketing outside the company premises. The application to interdict our members at Grand West Casino will be heard by the Cape Town High Court today.
        • At Morula Sun on Sunday striking workers demonstrating at a Jazz show were attacked and assaulted by the organisers disrupting the picket-line.
        • At Wild Coast, Naledi, Windmill, Carousel and Carnival City our members are still strong and participating in picketing despite harassment and intimidation by the private security and SAPS (South African Police Service).


    The international solidarity are playing an important role in this struggle by workers against an intransigent Sun International management. We wish to express our gratitude for the support and call on our comrades throughout the world to intensify the international solidarity.

    red regards

    Mike Abrahams
    media@saccawu.org.za

    Send off your message here!

    ]]>     Send off your message here!

    The international campaign of solidarity with striking workers at Sun International have substantially boost the morale and determination of workers and we have witnessed an increase in numbers of striking workers on the picket-line and other activities. However we have also witnessed a growth in the use of violence, intimidation and provocation of striking workers coupled with other means to break the strike.

        • At Sun City hundreds of SACCAWU and COSATU members were harassed and prevented by the South African Police Services from picketing during a peaceful demonstration at the Miss Teen South Africa. When confronted by the local COSATU leadership the police the police alleged that they were instructed by the Sun International Human Resource Director to prevent the demonstration. On calling the HR Director he told police that they should not interfere with the picketers as their action is legal.
        • In the meantime we've been informed that the former full-time shop-steward who tried breaking the strike on behalf of management was given a car and booked into Hotel in Durban by the company. His attempts to sabotage the strike back-fired as all the workers in his department have now decide to join the action and the Restaurant that he worked at are closed.
        • At Board Walk and Fish River in the Eastern Cape the police have removed all the picketers from the premises of the company and they are also not allowed to picket outside the company premises. Further all permission by the strikers to protest has been refused by the Local Municipality including planned protest marches to  company premises to hand over a memorandum with their demands.
        • At Grand West in Cape Town the company approached the High Court to obtain an interdict against 700 striking workers on the picket-line to prevent striking workers from picketing outside the company premises. The application to interdict our members at Grand West Casino will be heard by the Cape Town High Court today.
        • At Morula Sun on Sunday striking workers demonstrating at a Jazz show were attacked and assaulted by the organisers disrupting the picket-line.
        • At Wild Coast, Naledi, Windmill, Carousel and Carnival City our members are still strong and participating in picketing despite harassment and intimidation by the private security and SAPS (South African Police Service).


    The international solidarity are playing an important role in this struggle by workers against an intransigent Sun International management. We wish to express our gratitude for the support and call on our comrades throughout the world to intensify the international solidarity.

    red regards

    Mike Abrahams
    media@saccawu.org.za

    Send off your message here!

    ]]>

    Send off your message here!

    The international campaign of solidarity with striking workers at Sun International have substantially boost the morale and determination of workers and we have witnessed an increase in numbers of striking workers on the picket-line and other activities. However we have also witnessed a growth in the use of violence, intimidation and provocation of striking workers coupled with other means to break the strike.

        • At Sun City hundreds of SACCAWU and COSATU members were harassed and prevented by the South African Police Services from picketing during a peaceful demonstration at the Miss Teen South Africa. When confronted by the local COSATU leadership the police the police alleged that they were instructed by the Sun International Human Resource Director to prevent the demonstration. On calling the HR Director he told police that they should not interfere with the picketers as their action is legal.
        • In the meantime we've been informed that the former full-time shop-steward who tried breaking the strike on behalf of management was given a car and booked into Hotel in Durban by the company. His attempts to sabotage the strike back-fired as all the workers in his department have now decide to join the action and the Restaurant that he worked at are closed.
        • At Board Walk and Fish River in the Eastern Cape the police have removed all the picketers from the premises of the company and they are also not allowed to picket outside the company premises. Further all permission by the strikers to protest has been refused by the Local Municipality including planned protest marches to  company premises to hand over a memorandum with their demands.
        • At Grand West in Cape Town the company approached the High Court to obtain an interdict against 700 striking workers on the picket-line to prevent striking workers from picketing outside the company premises. The application to interdict our members at Grand West Casino will be heard by the Cape Town High Court today.
        • At Morula Sun on Sunday striking workers demonstrating at a Jazz show were attacked and assaulted by the organisers disrupting the picket-line.
        • At Wild Coast, Naledi, Windmill, Carousel and Carnival City our members are still strong and participating in picketing despite harassment and intimidation by the private security and SAPS (South African Police Service).

    The international solidarity are playing an important role in this struggle by workers against an intransigent Sun International management. We wish to express our gratitude for the support and call on our comrades throughout the world to intensify the international solidarity.

    red regards

    Mike Abrahams
    media@saccawu.org.za

    Send off your message here!

    , , , ,

    Last updated 227 days ago by Eric Lee

    ]]>     Send off your message here!

    The international campaign of solidarity with striking workers at Sun International have substantially boost the morale and determination of workers and we have witnessed an increase in numbers of striking workers on the picket-line and other activities. However we have also witnessed a growth in the use of violence, intimidation and provocation of striking workers coupled with other means to break the strike.

        • At Sun City hundreds of SACCAWU and COSATU members were harassed and prevented by the South African Police Services from picketing during a peaceful demonstration at the Miss Teen South Africa. When confronted by the local COSATU leadership the police the police alleged that they were instructed by the Sun International Human Resource Director to prevent the demonstration. On calling the HR Director he told police that they should not interfere with the picketers as their action is legal.
        • In the meantime we've been informed that the former full-time shop-steward who tried breaking the strike on behalf of management was given a car and booked into Hotel in Durban by the company. His attempts to sabotage the strike back-fired as all the workers in his department have now decide to join the action and the Restaurant that he worked at are closed.
        • At Board Walk and Fish River in the Eastern Cape the police have removed all the picketers from the premises of the company and they are also not allowed to picket outside the company premises. Further all permission by the strikers to protest has been refused by the Local Municipality including planned protest marches to  company premises to hand over a memorandum with their demands.
        • At Grand West in Cape Town the company approached the High Court to obtain an interdict against 700 striking workers on the picket-line to prevent striking workers from picketing outside the company premises. The application to interdict our members at Grand West Casino will be heard by the Cape Town High Court today.
        • At Morula Sun on Sunday striking workers demonstrating at a Jazz show were attacked and assaulted by the organisers disrupting the picket-line.
        • At Wild Coast, Naledi, Windmill, Carousel and Carnival City our members are still strong and participating in picketing despite harassment and intimidation by the private security and SAPS (South African Police Service).


    The international solidarity are playing an important role in this struggle by workers against an intransigent Sun International management. We wish to express our gratitude for the support and call on our comrades throughout the world to intensify the international solidarity.

    red regards

    Mike Abrahams
    media@saccawu.org.za

    Send off your message here!

    ]]>     The following is a statement from the Executive Committee of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers.

    The Executive Committee of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers mourns the murder of  Majiid Karim an executive member of the GFIW

    As a continuation of human and trade union right violations in Iraq, terrorists have committed another heinous crime on Thursday, 26 / 11 / 2009. Brother Majid Karim, member of the Executive Committee and the head of the internal relations died when his car exploded. The enemies of democracy have attached improvised explosives to his car that led to his death.


    The deceased had worked actively to organize, in the public sector, despite the anti union legislation150 of 1987, issued by the former regime of Saddam Hussein that banned workers from joining unions in the public sector. Our late colleague had contributed actively seeking to unit the trade union movement in Iraq.
    The GFIW demands that the Iraqi government and its security authorities conduct an urgent investigation to uncover the circumstances of this criminal incident and bring criminals to justice in order to receive punishment.

    Glory and eternity for the martyrs of the Iraqi working class.

    Executive Committee
    the General Federation of Iraqi Workers
    27 / November / 2009

    ]]>

    The following is a statement from the Executive Committee of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers.

    The Executive Committee of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers mourns the murder of  Majiid Karim an executive member of the GFIW

    As a continuation of human and trade union right violations in Iraq, terrorists have committed another heinous crime on Thursday, 26 / 11 / 2009. Brother Majid Karim, member of the Executive Committee and the head of the internal relations died when his car exploded. The enemies of democracy have attached improvised explosives to his car that led to his death.


    The deceased had worked actively to organize, in the public sector, despite the anti union legislation150 of 1987, issued by the former regime of Saddam Hussein that banned workers from joining unions in the public sector. Our late colleague had contributed actively seeking to unit the trade union movement in Iraq.
    The GFIW demands that the Iraqi government and its security authorities conduct an urgent investigation to uncover the circumstances of this criminal incident and bring criminals to justice in order to receive punishment.

    Glory and eternity for the martyrs of the Iraqi working class.

    Executive Committee
    the General Federation of Iraqi Workers
    27 / November / 2009

    ,

    Last updated 244 days ago by Eric Lee

    ]]>     The following is a statement from the Executive Committee of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers.

    The Executive Committee of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers mourns the murder of  Majiid Karim an executive member of the GFIW

    As a continuation of human and trade union right violations in Iraq, terrorists have committed another heinous crime on Thursday, 26 / 11 / 2009. Brother Majid Karim, member of the Executive Committee and the head of the internal relations died when his car exploded. The enemies of democracy have attached improvised explosives to his car that led to his death.


    The deceased had worked actively to organize, in the public sector, despite the anti union legislation150 of 1987, issued by the former regime of Saddam Hussein that banned workers from joining unions in the public sector. Our late colleague had contributed actively seeking to unit the trade union movement in Iraq.
    The GFIW demands that the Iraqi government and its security authorities conduct an urgent investigation to uncover the circumstances of this criminal incident and bring criminals to justice in order to receive punishment.

    Glory and eternity for the martyrs of the Iraqi working class.

    Executive Committee
    the General Federation of Iraqi Workers
    27 / November / 2009

    ]]>     The following is a statement from the Executive Committee of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers.

    The Executive Committee of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers mourns the murder of  Majiid Karim an executive member of the GFIW

    As a continuation of human and trade union right violations in Iraq, terrorists have committed another heinous crime on Thursday, 26 / 11 / 2009. Brother Majid Karim, member of the Executive Committee and the head of the internal relations died when his car exploded. The enemies of democracy have attached improvised explosives to his car that led to his death.


    The deceased had worked actively to organize, in the public sector, despite the anti union legislation150 of 1987, issued by the former regime of Saddam Hussein that banned workers from joining unions in the public sector. Our late colleague had contributed actively seeking to unit the trade union movement in Iraq.
    The GFIW demands that the Iraqi government and its security authorities conduct an urgent investigation to uncover the circumstances of this criminal incident and bring criminals to justice in order to receive punishment.

    Glory and eternity for the martyrs of the Iraqi working class.

    Executive Committee
    the General Federation of Iraqi Workers
    27 / November / 2009

    ]]>

    The following is a statement from the Executive Committee of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers.

    The Executive Committee of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers mourns the murder of  Majiid Karim an executive member of the GFIW

    As a continuation of human and trade union right violations in Iraq, terrorists have committed another heinous crime on Thursday, 26 / 11 / 2009. Brother Majid Karim, member of the Executive Committee and the head of the internal relations died when his car exploded. The enemies of democracy have attached improvised explosives to his car that led to his death.


    The deceased had worked actively to organize, in the public sector, despite the anti union legislation150 of 1987, issued by the former regime of Saddam Hussein that banned workers from joining unions in the public sector. Our late colleague had contributed actively seeking to unit the trade union movement in Iraq.
    The GFIW demands that the Iraqi government and its security authorities conduct an urgent investigation to uncover the circumstances of this criminal incident and bring criminals to justice in order to receive punishment.

    Glory and eternity for the martyrs of the Iraqi working class.

    Executive Committee
    the General Federation of Iraqi Workers
    27 / November / 2009

    ,

    Last updated 244 days ago by Eric Lee

    ]]>     The following is a statement from the Executive Committee of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers.

    The Executive Committee of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers mourns the murder of  Majiid Karim an executive member of the GFIW

    As a continuation of human and trade union right violations in Iraq, terrorists have committed another heinous crime on Thursday, 26 / 11 / 2009. Brother Majid Karim, member of the Executive Committee and the head of the internal relations died when his car exploded. The enemies of democracy have attached improvised explosives to his car that led to his death.


    The deceased had worked actively to organize, in the public sector, despite the anti union legislation150 of 1987, issued by the former regime of Saddam Hussein that banned workers from joining unions in the public sector. Our late colleague had contributed actively seeking to unit the trade union movement in Iraq.
    The GFIW demands that the Iraqi government and its security authorities conduct an urgent investigation to uncover the circumstances of this criminal incident and bring criminals to justice in order to receive punishment.

    Glory and eternity for the martyrs of the Iraqi working class.

    Executive Committee
    the General Federation of Iraqi Workers
    27 / November / 2009

    ]]>