What we're reading Archives

GDPR being misused by employers to hinder trade unions

An ETUC survey of affiliates about the implementation of GDPR in member states found a worrying new trend of employers abusing the law to deny trade unions their right to contact workers digitally at work.

Yours, mine and our data

UNI Global Union’s Christina Colclough features on a Norwegian union podcast, talking about why we need to be critical towards the massive surveillance and monitoring we are subject to as workers and as citizens.

Measuring People Power in 2020+

How could we better measure the value and impact of grassroots power building, organising and volunteer initiatives? MobLab’s latest report surveys voluntary organisations to find out the opportunities and challenges in getting smarter on our metrics.

Spotlight Beta Test II 🚀

Prospect and Bectu teams dug deep into the possibilities of using Spotlight – UNI Global Union’s privacy respecting, worker empowering tool – at a beta launch event.

The rise of 21st-century unions

In 2020, a new kind of union will rise to fight for the rights of workers in modern workplaces, predicts innovation charity Nesta’s Jack Orlik.

Unions, social media and young workers—evidence from the UK

Academics Andy Hodder and David Houghton analysed tweets sent by unions’ young workers sections. They found potential for engagement but also a risk of an echo chamber, where those already active become more active, and reach ultimately diminished.

Which unions are the most influential on Twitter in 2019?

Simon Parry has compiled an 8th annual league table of the most influential UK union Twitter accounts.

General Election 2019: Digital Campaigning Wrap-Up

The Labour Digital blog looks at some of the digitally inspired or amplified trends that shaped the 2019 general election.

FOI helps reveal the new surveillance tools deployed by police

MySociety’s Myfawny Nixon interviews Privacy International’s Camilla Graham Wood about her research into the range of digital surveillance being used currently by police forces. As well as being used in investigating crime, there is concern growing that this stuff could have an impact on surveillance of protest and activism.

Online Petitions: A way forward for unions?

Unions21’s Henry Skewes writes on some of the learnings from the first stages of their online petitioning project.