Generative AI tools are being introduced into workplaces across all sectors and, whether officially or informally, will be being used inside many trade unions too.
Tools such as ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot offer potential for increases in productivity in many common tasks. But at the same time, the hype around generative AI has obscured a range of potential limitations, societal harms and organisational risks.
Continue reading A context guide to generative AI for unionsWe all know that the best decisions are those that are grounded in relevant and accurate data. But how do you get that data into the hands of the people in a union who need it, and how do you support them to understand what it could tell them?
One important development could be the growth of dedicated business analytics tools in the union, such as Tableau and Microsoft Power BI.
Continue reading Video: Visualising data for union bargaining and organisingTo launch our new report on managing Shadow IT in unions, author Simon Parry presented to a TUC Digital Lab webinar on the subject.
Continue reading Video: Shadow IT and unions: How do we keep innovation without adding risk?Shadow IT is the use of technology in an organisation without formal approval or oversight. It particularly refers to online, Software as a Service (SaaS) tools. That could mean reps using private Google accounts for union email, organisers setting up WhatsApp groups for member communication, or staff setting up new tools like Survey Monkey to gather information from members.
These unofficial solutions often get used due to their effectiveness and ease of setup, coupled with the sometimes slow modernisation of official IT tools provided by the union.
Continue reading Managing Shadow IT in unionsAt the TUC Digital Lab, we get most of our good ideas from the unions we collaborate with. One such need we found recently was for unions to know more about the various IT tools that other unions were using.
The ideas was that by compiling a shared list of tools, unions could see where there were union colleagues that they could network with around best practice with specific tools, or ask for references for systems they might be considering. And they could see how their own tools and IT capacity measured up against the rest of the movement.
Continue reading Union tech survey 2024 – some thoughts on the resultsTo launch our new report on cyber security for unions, author Simon Parry presented to a TUC Digital Lab webinar on the subject. This 30 mins video is a great introduction to some specific threats to trade unions, and where current trends are heading in cyber crime and responses to it.
Continue reading Video: Cyber security challenges and strategies for unionsOn 7th March, the TUC Digital Lab held our first workshop on generative AI for unions at the NUJ’s offices in King’s Cross. Over 40 colleagues attended from across TUC affiliated unions, showing the deep interest in a topic that’s causing so much hype, but also concern, for both union members, and unions as organisations.
It’s this latter area – whether AI might help or affect unions as organisations – that this Digital Lab session focused on. We had a long day, hearing from expert speakers, grappling with the complex questions and trade-offs that AI poses for us, and finishing with an opportunity to directly experiment with some of the most popular generative AI tools to see how they might solve specific problems.
Continue reading What could AI do for unions? And where should we start?Cyber security underpins everything we do in unions to build up our digital systems and create a better digital experience for our members. Without the trust that our data is safe from attack any union would be severely compromised.
As data storage has moved online, this has seen an increase in the scope of digital threats. This has resulted in a new phase in the ‘arms race’ between cyber security and malicious actors, with innovation in both the threats and the responding security technologies.
Continue reading Cyber security for unionsIn recent months, technical standards for all bulk email have been tightened. It’s started as a response to changes in the US, but as of this month will be affecting everyone. At the TUC, we’re seeing some cases of union email not getting through to the members and stakeholders we want to communicate with.
That’s a big risk to unions if we could lose the ability to communicate with members when we need to. There are ways to put it right though, and prompt action in union IT teams will hopefully avoid damage.
Continue reading Why recent email authentication changes matter to unions, and what we should do about itYour CRM contains the heart of your union’s data. It manages your key interactions with members and your intelligence about what’s happening to the union over time. As such, migrating your data from one CRM to another absolutely must succeed in a way that keeps the integrity of that data, and that keeps it usable for the union’s core processes.
If you’ve been using your existing membership database for a long while, as many unions have, then you’ll likely have built up a huge number of workarounds and parallel processes. These can take a long time to unpick in order to bring them into the new system.
Continue reading Migrating your union’s data to a new CRM
