Social Media Spotlight

by | Jul 23, 2015 | News

In an inevitable gaff, a woman who voted for unionization ruined the effort by tweeting a picture of herself casting her ballot, which was the deciding vote in a 5-vote turnout at Webster University in St. Louis. The NLRB Regional Director ruled that by ruining the secrecy of her vote, she nullified her ballot, thus creating a 2-2 tie which goes to the employer.  In a world where folks seem to think everybody wants to see what they had for breakfast via Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, be prepared to see more of this. Another social media development is worth keeping an eye on, for two different reasons.  A recent campaign on social organizing site coworker.org, led by Starbucks baristas, forced the company to make changes to dress code policies. Coworker.org has facilitated similar campaigns since its inception in 2013, none of which have been led by unions. coworker-org The younger, social media-savvy members of your workforce may find other powerful ways to use such tools to impact the employer-employee relationship. That’s the first reason to pay attention. The second reason is more subtle. Although proponents of this type of action celebrate that it is grass roots based and not currently led or encouraged by unions, it may not be long until unions work to try to manipulate the tool to be used on their behalf.  Remember the Occupy Wall Street movement?

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