For Membership To Grow In The Union, Unions Must Change The Way They Communicate

Membership networks will be the basic fundamental way to communicate with other members, other locals, districts and national unions. The unions that accept this technology and develop systems to communicate with redistribution will benefit greatly, by having better informed members, better connected relationships; providing unions with a better chance of succeeding in their goals, causes and issues.

New Challenges

The changing landscape of unions is coming not only from membership, but from technology too.  Unions will need to become more effective, efficient, transparent and flexible. The ability to change and navigate these challenges will create demands on the union that have never been present before.  The ability to accept this change to the new model of unions through membership, mobilization and policy cannot be under estimated.

Information Overload

Technology has given unions a whole new set of tools to work with, but they come with challenges and expectations. Unions that do not have the ability to intelligently manage and redistribute the vast amounts of information in a positive way will lose the value and benefits. Most members will not be able to understand or synthesize the large volumes of information being generated by the union today.

Tsunami of Communication Overload

If the problem in the past was getting the information, today it is the problem of communication overload, knowing what is relevant and not relevant. What is junk mail, spam mail, useless information and how you control it is a job within itself. The inability to filter and monitor information today is as critical as sending it. Unions must understand that this interaction can provide meaningful information and collaboration, but it can be overwhelming for even the best.

Membership Information

Membership generating their own communications and opinions along with union communications can present several pitfalls if not handled correctly. While the social media networks, websites, email, and general communications like postal mail and the telephone seem to all work, making them all work together is another challenge. Today, there is no standard format, so scouring the system to fine the information you are looking for can be like finding a needle in a haystack.

Union Connects goal is to help unions bring the fragmented and un-optimized culture of information into a standard quantitative and qualitative system.

A Wealth of Information

Union leadership has always been a silo of information. With a wealth of knowledge pertaining to union issues, policy and history, unions have to learn to move away from isolation or “as I see needed” mentality. As unions become more dependent on membership to get involved, leadership is going have to learn to adopt these complex systems and adapt to new trends of communication within and without. Unions will not survive with an isolation mentality.

Unions are going to have to go beyond the traditional forms of communication and adopt different technologies to stay ahead. Maintaining all of the different systems can become expensive to maintain in aggregate. The systems become fragmented because the unions are not equipped to maintain them individually, they must become one system. Union Connects communication redistribution process allows unions to achieve this goal.

When Being Connected Isn’t Connected

Connecting membership with the union is only the part of the equation. One directional forms of communication that don’t require two way dialog with meaningful discussion becomes just disconnected streams of chatter. The ability to optimize repeatable processes of information is the core of the “communication redistribution” system.

Contrary to a lot of local unions, the old way is not working, membership is down, and members want to have a voice. Leadership must embrace this new technology, to provide connected segments of communication in a collaborative and cohesive way.

Creating new flows of communication, varied by different processes and systems will help unions grow. Leadership islands of information, holding it from those who want it and need it doesn’t work anymore.

The ability of the union to empower the membership with open communications can increase the success of goals and objectives. When replicated across all unions, districts and locals this will develop a solid union inertia.

Large unions have to struggle with an IT department that controls the technology, a communications department that controls information and a leadership that is slow in adopting change with technology. Leadership fights to maintain control, and looks at costs associated with bringing on new technology, creating a union that lacks the willingness to collaborate and improve the process.