LaborUnion

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Using SeedWiki to host a pilot Labor Union Wiki http://www.seedwiki.com/page.cfm?doc=Labor%20Union%20Wiki&wikiid=2301 Why Host LaborUnion On SeedWiki (see below)? (how to anchor a link?)

A labor union is a legal entity granted the right to represent workers to their employers. In the US, labor unions are "certified" to represent groups of workers with a shared community of interest by winning a federally sanctioned secret ballot election.

It wasn't always this way http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020624&c=1&s=rogers This article advocates Wiki:OpenSourceUnionism as the future of Labor. In the last 100 years unions also represented groups of workers who had not won certification elections.

Unions elect officers to represent them. Unions face the challenges of decision making in a democratic system, and convincing members (and potential members) to put collective interest above personal interest.

: The above statement is one way to think about unions. Another is direct democracy, facilitated by organizing. Organizing for strength is the job of union leaders. By organizing, I mean focusing on leadership development, transparent decision making and creating an organizing culture. --MarkDilley

Is Wiki useful as a communication tool for a union? Does anyone have any experience using Wikis as an organizing tool or to communicate with members?

: I started a wiki for the union I worked for, [GEO], but I was new and I just fell into a bad habit and had the wiki PasswordProtected?. Thus the participation on the wiki never really reached more than 6 people. But we used it quite extensively to think and argue hot topics and strategize a bit. -- MarkDilley

http://www.quicktopic.com/ Free open forums, although users can't edit others posts, and every thread has an admin/ super user. Marginally searchable with Google. An alternative to Wiki, which looks free to the world for legal, non-commercial use (No "unsolicited advertising, promotional materials, or other forms of solicitation to other users"). I take that to allow education just short of advocacy and recruiting.

To date Labor Union wikis are in a very early stage. An inventory of Wiki links 21 April 2003:

PowerStructures

Wiki:OpenSourceUnionism, - a similar page, exploring using network technology for organizing

: YpsiEyeball?:UnionWiki? -- (may be blocked by your firewall)

: [MadPeace:LaborCaucus] - (comes up 1st - Google:wiki+labor) (but its not an active discussion)

: Sure, but SocialWelfare comes up first on Google:wiki+labour.

[ThoughtStorms:WiredTradeUnionism]

http://driveonmedia.com and http://retailworker.com are both weblog portals and some of the best uses of the internet to share info for union purposes.

IMHO Driveonmedia.com is not a portal its more a basic storefront. These folks have some impressive clients and results. Retailworker.com is a (labor) newsy portal like page, with forums, free membership etc. Retailworker.com is leans IWW, but I don't see the edgy "abolish private property" theme.

Dave, I think this is a great page, and I look forward to working on it with you. I have been working with wiki since Jan 7, 2002 and have not found much on organized labor, what I have found is on my page at Wards Wiki: Wiki:MarkDilley (checking about the firewall issue. not sure what it means - [1] found out why. .) I started a wiki for my union, but since I was new to wiki I password protected it, so it is pretty dead. minor activity as a notes keeper for our grievance committee. Wanting to establish a Union Wiki sometime. . .Best, MarkDilley.

Mark & I are trading email about how to proceed with empowering Unions through a Wiki, 5/9/03 DaveChristenson -- except now my email account has been cancelled. md

Here's my plan so far: find a Union Wiki host, invite my local and other contacts to participate, see how it goes. No progress on a host to date. -- dc

Several months age, maybe 6, geez, I found this guy through a progressive web site. offering to host content for free or cheap. I emailed with him, and he was familiar with wikis, they used one internally. (I remember it was october.) and I never called him because I went work on an organizing drive for 30 straight days. . .but that might be our first step. here is the email:

Hey Mark,

We are quite familiar with hosting wikis and use one ourselves (internally at eggplant). We would love to host your projects and do so on a sliding scale basis.

Best, Jason

--md

- let's use a temporary site to get started.
, we should talk and come up with a more solid plan. also, I would like to talk about your union experiences, and vice versa.
, call Jason Lemieux and see what the deal is, I would think we should talk and maybe call him together?

Why Host LaborUnion On SeedWiki:

The acceptable use terms seem a little more open to using a Wiki for labor organizing.

We can go to password protection down the road for $ if we want.

See http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?SeedWiki for features

It gives you a nice recent history breadcrumb trail.

On the con side RecentChanges is tedious.

The UI is a bit trickier.

: It also could be temporary too! Although KennethTyler? emailed me saying that he is putting togeather a version specifically to organizing. -- MarkDilley

OrganizingModel? vs ServiceModel?, AssymetricKnowledge?

LaborUnion

Why Host LaborUnion On SeedWiki:

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