TUC digital Archives - Page 8 of 17

Using social media in strike ballot campaigns – CWU case study

Social media has been prominent in our recent campaigns, but the first point I want to make is that whilst it’s very visible, it’s not a silver bullet. Amongst all the things we do to get a vote out, it is quite far down the ladder. Other forums are often higher in our priorities – such as what we can do in the workplace.

Other organisations’ ballots can be run electronically, but industrial action ones are mandated by post, so we really focus around that. Obviously we represent postal workers, so we’ve got a vested interest, but whilst we support allowing electronic ballots for unions, we have to recognize the fact that we haven’t got them now.

So it’s really important that in any campaign we’re conditioning people to vote by post, via home mailings and pre-communications, via our reps network, on peer-to-peer, whatever.

How to start a CRM change project in your union

Many unions are currently considering the future of their membership databases. For some, products are being retired or contracts coming to an end. For others, a run of high pressure large ballot campaigns has highlighted a need for greater accuracy and agility. In some, there are fewer developers with the expertise to support an older system, and it’s simply time to move to a new one.

For most unions, taking this step forward is also taking a step into the unknown. We’ve used the same systems for a long time, we’ve bolted on processes over the years which are unique to our union. And moving to a new system is a risk – it’s expensive, time-consuming, means transferring a large amount of data, and depends on everyone getting trained and enthused about using the new system.

Managing CRM change projects in unions

As unions digitise more and more of their operations, new tech tools are becoming essential across all their functions. However, the systems used to manage membership data are still the most critical that unions rely on.

This new TUC Digital Lab report looks at Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems from the perspective of the union movement.

Running CRM projects in unions

In September, the TUC Digital Lab ran a workshop for unions working on or considering CRM migration projects.

This is the second time we’ve covered CRM in the Digital Lab and, for the second time, it was very popular, with 40 union staff from 20 union organisations of all sizes attending, ensuring we captured a range of experiences.

What we’ve learned from growing the TUC’s social media comms

The TUC has been evolving our approach to social media in the last couple of years. Here are a few of the principles of what we’ve tried, and what we’ve learned in doing it.

We Demand Beta: Digital responses to the cost of living crisis

Last week’s TUC Digital Lab workshop brought together colleagues from different unions to discuss unions’ digital responses to the cost of living crisis.

In short – what can we all do to help people when: Inflation is running at 9-11%; energy bills are soaring; the government response is weak; and their default position is to be anti-worker?

Improving inclusivity in online union meetings

Many unions found that the number of people attending union events and meetings rose during the pandemic, as events moved online. Also the diversity of members attending grew, as many of those who had previously found in-person meetings difficult could now join in.

But online events are not universally inclusive either, and present many of their own issues for inclusivity. There’s now a challenge to unions to make sure as many people as possible can participate as fully as possible.

Driving real world activity through distributed digital event campaigns

In the run up to the We Demand Better rally on 18 June, the TUC tested new ways to spread the word amongst union activists and potential marchers. As well as a series of local “road show” events, we sought to use the Megaphone campaign platform to support activists in hosting their own leafletting sessions at train stations across the country.

Tories’ online voting block makes digital more important for strike ballots, not less

This weekend, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng signalled in the Telegraph that the government would finally rule out allowing unions to use online voting in strike ballots.

Talking about digital campaigning in unions

This week, colleagues from 10 TUC unions came together at a Digital Lab office hours session to share thoughts on digital campaigning. Here’s a note of some of the points we discussed.