A social media campaign against Doctor Pepper Snapple during the recent Mott’s strike was so successful (some credit it as bringing the strike to an end) that it will be the focal point of a panel discussion at the November convention of the International Labor Communications Association (ILCA). According to the AFL-CIO blog, “the morning session will feature a special panel on ‘Winning Campaigns with Social Media.’ ” This annual gathering of the country’s labor press focuses on best practices and new tactics for communications in support of Big Labor. Unions are becoming more effective in using tools like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media venues to pursue their objectives – starting with fomenting pre-campaign angst among a company workforce, to organizing campaigns, to securing the support of local communities during strikes and pickets. With the recent move by the NLRB to protect employee Facebook disparaging of company management, we may see this trend explode. As Big Labor’s circle of friends in Washington, D.C. continues to shrink, and they are forced to head back to the streets to attempt to re-inflate their membership, it is highly likely social media campaigns will become an integral part of union activity, including strikes, short-term job actions, sabotage, and corporate campaigns.
