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Internet exclusive. (A shorter version of this piece appears in the January-February 2006 issue of Union Democracy Review #160)
Pipefitters, feisty Canadians, and Pilots: results of AUD's Best Rank-and-File Website Contest 2005
"The GREAT contests for web sites run by LabourStart and by the AUD are the "Oscar ceremonies" of the Labor Cyber World." - Art Shostak, author of CyberUnion and the CyberUnion Handbook.
Collaboration, free speech, "we are the media," online communities, the internet's long tail, self-organization... if you want to see the new internet being built, the websites and blogs of rank-and-file unionists are a great place to start. The large informal network of rank-and-file and reform websites is a workshop for union democracy, social software, and union regeneration.
AUD's annual Best Rank-and-File Website Contest offers a tour of the work in progress. This year's contestants reflect the richness and diversity of the rank-and-file web, the current best practices, and some trends in its evolution.
AUD runs the annual Best Rank-and-File Website Contest in order to:
- spotlight the great work that rank-and-file activists are doing and make their work known to a broader audience,
- promote the use of the internet as an organizing tool for union reformers, and,
- encourage discussion among rank-and-file webstewards about best practices -- both technically and in terms of organizing -- so we can all be more effective.
Thirty five websites (and blogs) from the US and Canada entered this year, from fourteen unions and a wide range of industries.
Sites were rated according to AUD's "50 Guidelines for Building an Effective Rank-and-File Website" and judged by a panel of experts in website and blog design, union democracy law, and rank-and-file activism. This year we also held an experimental online survey. (Note: contest results do not indicate AUD's endorsement of the site's contents or sponsoring organizations/individuals. Sites change frequently, to see them as they were at the time of the contest, use the Wayback Machine.)
(Want to see how your website measures up against our criteria? Do the website self-diagnostic test on the "50 Guidelines for Building an Effective Rank-and-File Website" page on the AUD website.)
And the winners are:
First Place: Pipe Trades for a Democratic Union (http://www.p4du.org/) United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters (UA).
"Well organized and intuitive."
The focus is on action at P4DU, home to the reform group of the same name in the corruption-plagued UA. Effective design and good editing enable P4DU to strike a balance between exposing the corruption in the union and supporting the efforts of reformers at the local and international level. P4DU formed at an AUD building trades conference in 2002. With the UA convention coming up in 2006, P4DU's top priority is the campaign to elect Tommy Preuett General President of the UA.
Strengths:
- Solid design. The home page is well organized with a clear title and slogan, a nice logo and a great use of space. Without scrolling down, a visitor can find the main navigation and the top priority content items.
- Clear priorities. Right off the bat on the home page you find P4DU sharing information (about corruption in the UA leadership, about members' legal rights, and about local reform efforts), and organizing support for the Preuett Team.
- Focus on action: information about the "Preuett Team" is the lead item in the main column on the home page, with links to the Preuett campaign site. (The Preuett site is also well organized to get members involved).
- Integrates contributions from several members in different locals.
- RSS on a static html site. Syndication enables others to stay updated about changes to the website and to add the information to their blogs. Blogs and CMS-based websites include syndication by default, but P4DU has added an RSS feed to an otherwise static HTML website using the open source program ListGarden.
Room for improvement:
- The left navigation could use a standard "About Us" link to basic information about the group, in addition to the existing "Our Mission" link.
- There should also be a "Contact Us" page, ideally with names and emails of P4DU supporters in different parts of the country (which are available elsewhere on the site). A "Get Involved" page is also a good option, (though the central table on the home page does this for the Preuett campaign).
- The Mission Statement would be better if it had more specific and measurable benchmarks that will enable members to see what P4DU members think needs to be done and if progress is being made. See HEARDNY for an example http://www.heardny.org/main.htm
- Labels. Some items in
the left navigation are unclearly labeled. "Members Sound Off"
sounds like it might lead to a forum, but the forum is elsewhere. Members
Sound Off leads to reports from local activists. Those reports deserve
more prominent billing. "Local Unions" suggests a list of
locals, maybe local websites, but leads to news from various locals.
Other labels are vague. What's the difference between "Labor Issues" and "Education"? It would be better to either make the buttons more specific and descriptive, or simplify the left navigation by creating a few main sections and then listing high priority content from each section under the navigation link. - The P4DU logo should be on the top left, with a link to the home page, now the standard location/use for website logos.
- Forum. It would be worth figuring out why the Forum has not taken off. Is there another UA forum that is more active? If so, would it be better for P4DU people to participate in that, and put a link on the P4DU page?
P4DU is a good candidate for a Content Management System makeover. P4DU could host blogs for the local activists, do more with RSS feeds and news aggregation, use the registration process to collect contact information for members, and get more people involved in the website and the group.
Second Place: Members for Democracy (http://www.ufcw.net/) - Cross-union reform site. (Recently reincarnated as http://www.uncharted.ca where there will soon be a MFD archive. To see the site as it was in 2005, see the Wayback Machine.)
"Solid and deep, with a union democracy focus and an excellent toolkit."
The feisty Members for Democracy (MFD) grew out of reform efforts in UFCW local 1518, in British Columbia, but evolved into an online community for union reformers in Canada and the US. The action revolved around regularly updated front page articles and an active Open Forum. MFD owes its success to its many active participants and solid core group of contributors. MFD has also played a key role in defending the democratic rights of unionists online.
According to one core supporter, "Although the website is administered and moderated by just a few people, these few don't lead this community in the old way we think of leadership. The community is built on shared thought, reflections, and discussions. ...it is free flowing and adaptive in nature and therein lies the strength of the community IMHO."
Strengths:
- The writing. Punchy, provocative writing, with a sense of humor.
- Strong core group of moderators and contributors.
- Frequent interaction between core contributors and other participants keeps the forum lively and moves the discussions forward.
- Strict posting guidelines to keep discussion relatively civil.
- Great forums section with a simple and logical division of topics, including a well-used Questions and Answers forum where workers write in with specific questions about legal rights and reform organizing.
- The toolkit featured thoughtful pieces on grievances, duty of fair representation, the "tools of disempowerment, unplugged" and more.
Room for improvement:
- Inconsistent design.
The MFD home page and Open Forum shared a similar design sense and color
scheme and worked together dynamically. The blog-like front page articles
linked directly to forum discussions on those items; there was a list
of active topics, with icons representing hot topics and the number
of posts indicated; the forum discussions were quick moving.
On the other hand, the rest of the content listed in the main navigation - The Trough, Weekly, Articles, Toolkit, Files and Documents - led to pages with a completely different design and structure, even a different logo, often without links to the forums. - Updates. "The trough" - a fun feature that criticized union officers' salaries - seemed rarely updated.
- Labels. "Weekly" and "Articles" were poorly named. What does "Weekly" mean here? What articles are included in the "Articles" section, all the articles on the site, including those on the front page?
- User-unfriendly design. "Files and documents" lead to a list of filenames that was virtually incomprehensible.
MFD took honorable mention in our last contest and it may be that our criteria have finally caught up to them. We had felt that MFD's broad focus and general audience made it less effective as an organizing vehicle. But the internet is creating new forms of union participation, including the type of online reform community that MFD is building.
Third Place: APA Pilots Defending the Profession. (http://www.apapdp.org/cms/) Allied Pilots Association.
"Crucial, in the thick of things, helping members"
Pilots Defending the Profession is the vehicle for American Airlines Pilots who feel their beleaguered union needs new strategies and new leadership, immediately. PDP "leads from below" by providing thorough industry and union analysis, promoting alternative strategy, and organizing supporters. Not a union democracy focused site, per se, but an example of members using their democratic rights to try to turn their union, and industry, around.
Strengths:
- Clear, consistent design. PDP uses Mambo, a Content Management System, to good effect. It is easy to find your way around the site and while there is a lot of information it is well-organized.
- List of "PDP Supporters" by name, job, union experience, is a good feature - shows depth of support and experience and willingness of PDP supporters to speak out. Would be nice to have designated people to contact. "Sign up to support PDP" leads to a well-designed form that members can use to add their names to the list.
- Detailed contract analysis covering pay, sick leave, recognition, furlough pay, and more. Pay comparisons across airlines, including inflation adjusted pay rate analysis.
- Weekly editorials. These should get more prominence on the home page and be linked to the forums for discussion.
Room for improvement:
- Colors add interest and help the navigation, but the contrast is too low: orange type on a grey background is an unnecessary burden on the reader.
- Unused space at the top of the home page. On an information rich site like this, space is precious. The space given over to title, photo, slogan, should be used more efficiently.
- Contract Analysis should give user more upfront information about the contents; the first page makes it look like it is just pay comparison, which is already in a section of its own.
- Too much news. No need to list "Industry News" in the center table, it is listed in the right column and on a page linked to the main navigation. That is enough. Save the crucial home page space for content that is original to PDP, and for top priority content.
- Bad format for list of
items. Listing industry news and other items as unbroken paragraphs
separated by semi-colons is a bad idea. Nobody wants to read this:
"Industry News: Bankruptcy Judge Allows Northwest Airlines to Freeze Pilot Pension Plan; Northwest Pilots Authorize Strike Vote; Northwest Traffic Continues to Plummet; Delta Air Lines Traffic Falls 4.5 Percent in January As Capacity Declines; Judge Orders Delta to Pay $2 Million Monthly; Delta Ask Court For permission to Reinstate Severance Packages; Retired Pilots to Have Say in Delta Restructuring; Delta Pilots to Open Strike Center in Atlanta; Delta Pilots to Strike if Contract Nixed; JetBlue Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2005 Results; Continental Airlines Officers Surrender Restricted Stock Awards; US District Courts Rules Bankruptcy Court Lacked Authority to Cancel United Pilots' Pension; BA Pilots Set to Take Action Over Pensions; Mesaba Labor Groups React to 1113(c) Filing to Reject Contracts; Virgin America Appoints Donald J. Carty Chairman of its Board of Directors"
- Focus. Center of home page should be dedicated to pdp original content and on key docs and resources, the Special Updates, or example, deserve more attention.
APDP shows how unionists can use the web to provide education, information, and leadership in our out of union office.
Honorable Mention: Members for a Stronger Local Union (http://www.membersforastrongerlocalunion.com/) International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
"Clear and effective."
Members for a Stronger Local Union (and its freestanding forum - Union Voices http://www.unionvoices.org/) is dedicated to member participation, with a focus on union meetings and bylaws reform. The site provides key information -- the IBEW constitution, local bylaws, and union referral rules -- and reports on the progress of its efforts. The list of supporters is a good feature as is the description of "our plans for the near future."
Room for improvement: the website has a clear focus on democracy and participation but is weak on strategic goals - democracy for what? The link to information on Robert's Rules is a good idea but too technical to be of much use. Better to link to something like the 10 Points for Meetings (pdf) published by the CAW. Better yet, provide a question and answer feature so that people can learn the ins and outs of Robert's Rules before going to the union meeting. The low contrast visuals of the Forum on the Union Voices site are hard on the eyes.
The survey results.
This year, AUD conducted an online survey in addition to the judged contest. Out of 46 replies the top three sites were:
- JD Walker's Website. http://clix.to/jdinpgh "JD has worked very diligently to try to keep the members of the ATU informed, while facing much resistance and without proper support. One of the only places where members can get the truth about the ATU/Greyhound situation..."
- The Laborers.net. http://www.thelaborers.net/ "This site benefits all union members! If you can't find it there, it is probably not available yet! Contact Jim McGough and he will find a way to get it! Thanks Jim
- Inside Local 767. http://insidelocal767.com "Great deep-digging source of info."
Other noteworthy practices and techniques:
- Syndication. An RSS/ATOM feed is a great browsing tool that also helps network websites. As blogs and CMS spread, feeds will become a basic feature of websites. It is possible to add an RSS feed to a regular HTML site, using programs like the free, open source, ListGarden.
- FAQs. Rail Operating Crafts United (ROCU) uses FAQs very effectively to explain the group's mission and strategy and respond to questions.
- Blog in action. The Independent Community of Educators, ICE-UFT played an important role in the intense debate on the UFT contract negotiations and ratification vote this fall, sharing information and opinion and distributing leaflets. ICE-UFT also helped bring the debate into the official union blog Edwize.
- Here's my card. Factory Rats Unite! has a pdf file of cards to download and print, with the site URL and a list of topics that the site covers. Great way to promote the site and get contacts.
- Show your work. Future of the Union uses photos and video clips of mass meetings and protest actions to put the emphasis on organizing and action.
- Campaign kit. Future of the Union also uses a "campaign kit" of flyers, stickers, buttons, and t-shirts.
Trends
General and cross-union sites. There were more sites aimed at a broad union audience this year (as opposed to a single local or international union), including KCLabor, Members for Democracy, and Working Life, as well as cross-union sites that aim at a given industry or sector: New York City Workers, and Rail Operating Crafts United.
More Blogs and CMS. In the 2004 contest there were no blogs and just one site using a Content Management System (Members for Democracy). This year, nearly one third of the sites used blog or CMS software.
Blog software used: Wordpress (2), Typepad (1), and Blogger (1). CMS software: Mambo (2), PHP Nuke (2), Drupal (1), Coranto (1), Plone (1).
Traditional html websites are still in the majority (sites using Frontpage outnumbered blogs and CMS together), but the ease of use, good basic design, and interactivity of blogs and CMS will likely make them the most popular tool for rank-and-file activism online. Blogs will probably multiply fastest. Said one judge, "if I were consulting with people today, I would tell them to explore the blog packages. They provide a good and free built-in interface for sites that are a good starter and are easy (well, easier) to maintain." (The default interface can also raise design problems, especially for sites aimed at organizing for union democracy. See Jakob Nielsen on weblog usability and AUD's 50 Guidelines.)
Articles
on the internet and union democracy:
Surrendering
to the internet: Democrats in spite of themselves?
IBEW
president Hill upholds Canadian member's rights
Union
officials "condone and endorse" attack on member's internet free speech
rights
Round
2 in the internet battle in AFSCME DC37
In AFSCME
DC37 - A round in the internet battle
Danger of democracy on the Internet? Kill it!
Whose
"IBEW" is it? An Electrician on the Internet.
Results
of the 2005 AUD Best Rank-and-File Website Contest
Union
democracy online survives two lawsuits
Online
Guide: build an effective rank-and-file website
SEIU
Pulls plug on "Labor's Future" discussion
52
Playing cards = fearsome "Local 52"
Using the Internet for Union Democracy
AUD's Best Rank-and-File Websites of 2004
Matt
Noyes on AUD and the Internet
2KB
of free speech? ACLU & Public Citizen sue in IBEW Local 46 election
Making a splash:
SEIU's Unite to Win and the "free and open debate" on Labor's future
SAG officers unnerved by actors' internet free speech
Free speech irritates UFCW
Free speech in NWU
IATSE 600: Internet
democracy triumphs over super centralization
Cyber-democracy:
your legal rights online.(handout)
See
also:
AUD's 50 Guidelines for
building an effective rank-and-file website, and the sample
homepage.
The labortech tag
on del.icio.us.
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