Kristin Blom / Кристин Блом Campaigns Officer Специалист по организации кампаний International Trade Union Confederation Международная конфедерация профсоюзов kristin.blom@ituc-csi.org

Blogs Translation Blogging is a good way of telling stories that are more complicated and can’t be made in 45 words like Twitter, or for example that follows a path of action. Maybe there is a process going that can be documented. Blogs can be of interest because of a leader writing it (the Swedish foreign minister has a blog for example), or because someone has an important story to tell (a worker in a factory for example) or by many people as in a subject (Like the ITUC blogs; Forced labour, Young workers, Green jobs, Financial Crisis and Women Workers). A blogger can be open or anonymous. There are many free and good blogger tools, my personal favourite is Wordpress.

Facebook Translation All ITUC news goes automatically on Facebook and Twitter. (Twitter-feed based on RSS feeds). ITUC has several presences on Facebook: ITUC group Play Fair Decisions for Life PERC gender equality Trade Unions and Climate Change Etc There are only circa 1700 people on the ITUC website, however, most of these are multipliers: so they represent a network where they can share too.

FlickR Translation FlickR is a good tool to share photos online. You can set the rights in the Settings part of the website. You can set them as Creative Commons, which means that people can use your photos as long as they are mentioning your name when doing so. ITUC has a big number of people visiting our FlickR account – sometimes we have more visits on FlickR than on our website. 45 000 – 50 000 visits on the ITUC website a month 400 000 views in total for 4700 photos on the ITUC FlickR account.

YouTube ITUC has 254 videos on YT and the 3 most viewed videos: Hammerchild, 30 000 views Women at Work 20 000 views Joe the Dog 17 500 views 390 subscribers Some of are really good quality and some are more “home made”. And they all have different purposes. The good productions are there to raise the value of our brand. And others are there to make leaders feel part of the organisation and to encourage them, like interviews with General Council members etc. ITUC has its own channel which is free. Having all the videos put in one place also helps ourselves in organising our videos, and it is easy to embed them from YouTube in blogs, web sites or other social media.

Arab spring revolution and social media Translation This is the girl whose video sparked the revolution in Egypt (this is not the original video). After four people had set fire to themselves to try and spark a revolution like the one in Tunisia, this girl made this video which travelled around the web. She is asking people to send this video to everyone they know, to share it on Facebook and everywhere they can. And to show up to the square and stand up for the people’s rights. Twitter, Facebook and Youtube were also important tools for the revolutions. Tunisia happened fast and there the authorities didn’t have time to block Internet, but in Egypt the Internet was blocked. This is when Google made a service where people could call in and leave a voice message which would then be transformed into a Twitter message. The different demonstrations and meetings for the revolution were made via Facebook and Twitter. People were making messages and videos and uploaded them directly with their mobile phones on Youtube and other sites. Blogs were also widely used to tell the stories of the revolution and the people making it. Most of these activists are young people without jobs, but with a good knowledge of social media. http://youtu.be/SgjIgMdsEuk

Good practice from good unions Хорошая практика от хороших профсоюзов

Second Life and IBM employee unions in Italy Вторая Жизнь и союзы рабочих корпорации IBM в Италии Second Life is a virtual world that was very popular a couple of years ago. At the time, the employees of IBM were facing major problems with management. They organized the 1st virtual strike of history and they won – IBM Italy Director resigned and IBM signed the union agreement. More info, check on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dja5rlSGo0s&feature=related The strike was also important because IBM owns Second Life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dja5rlSGo0s&feature=related

Zeal/Air New Zealand cabin crew union Профсоюз кабинных экипажей Zeal/Air в Новой Зеландии

A cabin crew union EPMU in Zealand has a lot of young workers, only remotely accessible due to their job. They developed a Facebook private group where any worker can get information about his rights, check the latest news about the bargaining negotiations but also ask direct questions about his rights, his job,… to the members of the group. To create the group, they simply create a closed Facebook group (by invitation only) and invite all the members on their mailing list. Each member can receive updates via email. The group is a success and very well used – it is not costing money but time and involvement. Warning: Facebook groups can be removed at any time, keep double records of members! And think about the security issues. More info, check on epmu.ppt

Worksmart by TUC UK Сайт «Работай с умом» от Конгресса профсоюзов, Великобритания http://www.worksmart.org.uk

The TUC has developed a special website www. worksmart. org The TUC has developed a special website www.worksmart.org.uk for union communication based on new Medias. It includes basic information about your rights, written in an easier way but also a blog, short videos, mini games, quizzes, tools… http://www.worksmart.org.uk

SAK Finland recruitment campaign Кампания по набору новых членов, Центральная организация финских профсоюзов Last year, SAK Finland organized a web campaign to recruit new members. All the campaign was a website based on a personalized video with viral feature starring Finnish celebrities The Dudesons. When clicking on the website - which no longer exists due to SAK contract with the Dudesons, there was a video intro where the Dudesons urged you to send them "to have words with your friend". Then there was a form which you had to fill out with info on your friend: sex, name, employment status (temporary or permanent, student or else), occupation (NGO, small firm, big corporation etc.), "marital" status (having kids, dating, single) and whether your friend lived on rent/with parents/in student housing etc. When you had given all the information, the site created you a personalized video where the Dudesons told your friend why he should join the union. The message was something like: "Hey Philippe, whassup?" - they actually said the name: the database covered 100 most common Finnish given names. "I hear that you are working for a NGO...", "Now you do have a job, but what about the future… The video ends with the campaign slogan "Only a jackass would not join the union". From the website you could click onwards to a site where you can search for the right SAK-affiliated trade union to join to. In the summer they went to rock festivals with marketing stands and laptops - people could watch and make the videos for their friends and in winter, they went to shopping mall. The results were pretty good: the number of members under 30 years of age increased by 14 000 (net),they gained a lot of positive media coverage and the site attracted some 120 000 viewers. According to SAK, after the campaign the youth were joining the unions more actively than before. Finally, SAK also won a Marketing award in Finland for effective marketing.

Viral video in Sweden Вирусные видеоролики в Швеции TCO has produced a short video clip about the importance of having a collective agreement. Video The video shows how much money a collective agreement actually is worth. 70 000 SEK is circa 7000 E. The video was also shown in cinemas etc.

A union Internet café in Ouagadougou Профсоюзное интеренет-кафе в Уагадугу The CNTB union in Burkina Faso has recently opened an Internet café in its headquarters. The café is open for free to all CNTB members. Since the opening of the café, more young people are joining the union.

www.workpower.nl www.jobcircle.nl FNV Youth websites Молодежные веб-сайты Федерации рабочего движения в Нидерландах The youth branch of FNV has developed 2 websites for young people. The first one is www.workpower.nl where you can find everything that has to do with the labourmarket (how to look for a job, internship, money, rights, student job,…) The website has been set up by young people for young people. The second one is www.jobcircle.nl an online FNV network for young people in a labourmarket, a mix between social network and information. The interesting tool on this website is the Work Wiki where users can fill in tips and information about the labour market and the workplace rights at work. Wikis are tools that should be more used by unions. WIKI = What I Know Is = Information sharing Best example: Wikipedia www.workpower.nl www.jobcircle.nl

Hungarian flash-mob helps Pakistanian workers Флэш-моб в Венгрии в помощь пакистанским рабочим In Hungary when union activists learned about the situation workers at the Lipton/Brooke Bond tea factory in Khanewal, they decided to support the campaign to change the unjust state of affairs in his workplace. Despite working at the Unilever-owned tea factory for more than 20 years some workers still had not been given a permanent contract and the benefits associated with permanent status. Creative activists decided to head to the Unilever Budapest head office to show their solidarity with the Lipton Khanewal workers. The Hungarian Trade Union Federation (MSZOSZ) and the Metal Workers Federation (VASAS) staged a symbolic action: they drank a Lipton tea toast to the Pakistani worker activists who had been trying to improve their working conditions, then they threw the tea bags into a trashcan and handed it to a Unilever representative, together with a written demand from the Hungarian Unilever workers’ union that the company "Make the Khanewal casual workers permanent through direct negotiations with the Pakistan Union.“ Unilver to finally sign an agreement with the IUF to set up more permanent jobs at the Khanewal workplace. With the new agreement, workers are no longer barred from joining a union and negotiating for fair working conditions.

BWI campaign on IKEA in the US Кампания Интернационала работников строительства и деревообработки в ИКЕЯ в США In December 2010 the Building and Wood Workers International started a campaign in IKEA in the US. IKEA needs to respect the rights of the workers who produce their furniture! Send a christmas card to the CEO of IKEA! A few years ago, IKEA’s subsidiary Swedwood, opened a factory in the small town of Danville in the state of Virginia in the USA. Swedwood is 100% owned by the IKEA group and has its headquarters in Sweden, the home of IKEA. Swedwood is the company which produces more wood furniture products than any other for IKEA.   Soon after the factory was opened, it was clear that some things were not right. This has been pointed out to both IKEA and Swedwood several times. From what workers were saying, there were safety problems at the factory. Many workers have said they would like to join a union, but the company has refused the union entry to come and talk to the workers and explain to them that they could choose to join and help each other to improve their working conditions. The company has been was asked on many occasions to open its doors to allow a union in to be a able to talk to the American workers and ask if they would like to join the union and negotiate a collective agreement. Many workers have said that they want to join a union to protect their rights. Surely, that is not too much to ask of the furniture giant IKEA, which has reported over 3 billion francs in profit, and 31 billion francs in sales, to allow 300 workers in one factory the opportunity to hear and decide themselves. When you are visiting a IKEA store, please sign the card and give it back and we will send it or hand this information to an IKEA employee and ask them to pass on the message to IKEA’s head office. 

Wisconsin crisis US 2011 Translation Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and other Republican Party state governors including in Indiana and Ohio have launched a major assault on the rights of public sector workers to union representation and collective bargaining, with heavy pay cuts and new obstacles to freedom of association. Demonstrations have took place in several US states beginning of the year, as opposition grew to the coordinated anti-union onslaught, which has its roots in the ultra-conservative “tea party” movement. Lots of people demonstrated outside the governors office in Wisconsin. They were there 24 / 7. A pizzeria in Wisconsin decided to only produce pizzas to deliver to the demonstrating people. Soon news about this initiative started spreading all over the world and people started calling in to buy pizzas, paying with credit card over the phone, to support the struggle of the workers. This is also an example of how news travel fast via the new social medias. This is the sign of thank you in the Pizzeria in Wisconsin.

Thank you! Спасибо!