A few years back, I wrote up a set of 50 Guidelines for building an effective rank-and-file website. I got the guidelines idea from Jakob Nielsen and Marie Tahir's book Homepage Usability. But I didn't want to just focus on technical issues or even usability in general. I wanted to help union members use the new technology for union democracy and reform. We need sites that help us organize. How can rank-and-file workers use the internet to organize for democracy and power on the job and in the union? What are some of the best practice techniques that union reformers are using?

The problem is the Guidelines are out of date, given the advances in tech and in use by unionists. So, I want to revise them. I would love to hear any feedback and suggestions -- I have a lot to learn -- so I am posting them here, one by one.

1. Tell people who, what, and where you are.

It seems obvious, but many rank-and-file sites fail to do this. Every site should tell the visitor:

• what the site is about,
• who it is for,
• who puts it out,
• where they are located and
• how to contact them.

We posted this to the Teamster Myspace page earlier and thought to pass it along here. It is a story that was up on Union Review and thought it was worthwhile to post. The original appears here.

Today I sent out bulletins on MYSPACE requesting members contact me directly if they were interested in being in our newly minted online army. I wasn't sure that I would get any response at all. Shortly after pushing the bulletin I got insanely busy and, though I didn't forget about my recruitment message to potential online union soldiers, I wasn't exactly hawking over possible results either.

I stumbled across Communicate or Die, though it's possible that my preoccupation with reaching my members -- and by that I really mean reaching and moving them -- might have led me here.

Lack of member participation, lack of member interest, lack of member understanding about their own union as well as the Labor Movement in general, are serious frustrations for me. We have a monthly newsletter, a website, and monthly meetings, and still have difficulty moving members to act in their own interests.

Despite our tools and efforts, we still miss the mark more often than not. People are busy with second jobs, raising children, school, and whatnot, and they can't be bothered with a single additional drain on their time or attention.

Given all that we know about the unequal American economy, the Wal-Mart wage structure, outsourcing, and a tax structure that favors the wealthy, it's kind of remarkable to me that many union members are so passive. Working people should be outraged at the wholesale theft that has been going on for a generation.

Over the last few weeks I have fielded a few calls, emails and blog comments from union workers that seem to sound a little defeated.

Tonight I posted a piece to Union Review called What's the use? with the hope I could outline some of what the chorus is all singing about and provide some ideas. If anything, perhaps it will get people to talk a little.

I came over to Communicate or Die to share a little about this because I know many of you are deeply entrenched with technology that assists unions. I also know some of you are organizers and have a great deal more union-business experience than me and some of the readers/chorus singing their frustrations. I thought to reach out with some very broad questions:

Why is there such a huge gap in communications between the unions and their members ... and what can be done about that?

What is being done about educating union members of their rights? As we campaign endlessly to organize the nonunion worker, what is being done to strengthen the membership we have?

What do we tell an online community of concerned active workers so they stay encouraged in these times of doubt?

If anyone has any thoughts, please let me know ... I have a few people asking :)

All the best to you all,
-Richard

Just happened to be glancing at a story on the AFL-CIO blog and noticed that comments have now been enabled - I'm pretty sure they weren't the last time I checked!

Anybody tried posting a comment yet? I'm going to sign up for an account and try it out when the inspiration strikes me.

Folks might also be interested in the comment guidelines from http://blog.aflcio.org/guidelines :

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I just noticed this story of a university blocking union email.
There needs to be a way to test this. Maybe email blocking is
widespread and we don't know it. (Eg a site where a university
employee can click on something and get an email sent to him/her
from the appropriate union domain.)
http://www.realcities.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnists/fred_grimm/172...
*****