Labor Unions Look to Learn From “Netroots” Community
| By Elliott D. Petty - Aug 11th, 2007 at 3:54 pm PDT |
Despite the enviable combination of financial resources, strategic thinking, the capacity to mobilize its members and accountable leadership; UHW believes it has a lot to learn from the "netroots" community.
The progressive blogosphere is younger, hipper and politically engaged in a way the union believes could be critical to its future. And its hard for them to ignore the success of Howard Dean, Ned Lamont and Barack Obama's current fundraising machine.
There's a progressive conversation going on and they want in. Why?
The natural order of things of course. Many union organizers are hip 20-somethings with lots of ideas and experience with Web 2.0.
The young turks are pushing their union to break from the limited traditional media strategies for more alternative methods of appealing to the general public. These waters are still largely untested in the highly educated-less unionized world of the progressive blogosphere but the Courage Campaign has found success in blogging about labor campaigns and how they benefit communities.
No, they're not just trying to get younger, Labor wants to introduce its members into the blogosphere. UHW represents more than 150,000 healthcare workers, you can just imagine the stories they can tell about America's crumbling health care system.
It will be entertaining and educational reading I'm sure. And who better to spread the message about the need for health care reform than those who are on the front lines?
For me, I see another plus. Labor, particularly service unions like SEIU an its affiliate UHW is largely a diverse union. Its members are more likely to be low-income families, women and people of color.
If big labor could successfully initiate their participation in the blogosphere, the infusion of diversity would be unrivaled. For this reason alone, I'm willing to push them all the way.
This fall, they plan to host a bloggers retreat to discuss and take reccomendations from the nation's foremost bloggers about how labor can engage the "netroots."
The progressive blogosphere is younger, hipper and politically engaged in a way the union believes could be critical to its future. And its hard for them to ignore the success of Howard Dean, Ned Lamont and Barack Obama's current fundraising machine.
There's a progressive conversation going on and they want in. Why?
The natural order of things of course. Many union organizers are hip 20-somethings with lots of ideas and experience with Web 2.0.
The young turks are pushing their union to break from the limited traditional media strategies for more alternative methods of appealing to the general public. These waters are still largely untested in the highly educated-less unionized world of the progressive blogosphere but the Courage Campaign has found success in blogging about labor campaigns and how they benefit communities.
No, they're not just trying to get younger, Labor wants to introduce its members into the blogosphere. UHW represents more than 150,000 healthcare workers, you can just imagine the stories they can tell about America's crumbling health care system.
It will be entertaining and educational reading I'm sure. And who better to spread the message about the need for health care reform than those who are on the front lines?
For me, I see another plus. Labor, particularly service unions like SEIU an its affiliate UHW is largely a diverse union. Its members are more likely to be low-income families, women and people of color.
If big labor could successfully initiate their participation in the blogosphere, the infusion of diversity would be unrivaled. For this reason alone, I'm willing to push them all the way.
This fall, they plan to host a bloggers retreat to discuss and take reccomendations from the nation's foremost bloggers about how labor can engage the "netroots."
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