We apparently struck a nerve with a recent story about the impact of social media on workplace labor issues. When over 100 INK readers responded to an offer for a Social Media Strategy Call, we also developed a webinar on the topic, and after listening to the questions and hearing the concerns of those on the webinars and calls, we’ve added this new section to INK designed to highlight social media news and issues. Keep an eye out for it! This month, in an interesting twist on the “Facebook” question, it appears Canada may be more business-friendly in its approach to employee conversations and comments on the mammoth social media venue than the U.S. When two workers at a British Colombia car dealership were fired because of comments they made about their employer and managers on Facebook, the labor board upheld the dismissals, despite the fact that the employer had just been unionized, and one of the two fired employees was an organizer of the union drive, and the other a union supporter. There are likely to be more decisions of similar cases in the near future, so stay tuned. Here is another example of a type of social media space to keep your eye out for. Good Jobs First (www.goodjobsfirst.org) bills itself as an economic development watchdog group, and maintains several databases. One allows searches by company name for businesses who been recipients of government subsidies, and another contains a page for each state, listing tax dollars given to businesses. Information like this can be used in corporate campaigns and during organizing activity. If your name appears on a site like this, you should be proactive in how you frame the discussions surrounding activity. For example, focusing on the relationship with the municipality that contributed to your ability to bring a number of new jobs to the community would be a prudent move. Big Labor is already aware of the site and is promoting its use by their followers. [note – the main website sometimes has trouble loading, but the links to the subsidy and accountability pages seem to load properly]
