social media and unions

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http://wepartypatriots.com/wp/2012/03/13/unions-vs-corporations-on-facebook/

“If we’re at the point where employers are doing a better job of training workers to use social media for a purpose…than their unions are, we have a problem.”

The abandonment of Rush Limbaugh by his advertisers following ubiquitous outcry and disgust among social media users has proven once again the power of new media tools to incite action. But this power is unable to be corralled strictly for the common good. Corporations, too, are ahead of the curve in terms of social media and its marketing potential, especially when it comes to Facebook.

Derek Blackadder, writer for Canadian Labour magazine Our Times, recently wrote that when it comes to Facebook, big money is at stake and it is unreasonable to think Facebook would turn it’s back on money in order to be “the people’s voice.”

According to Blackadder, the social media paradigm is tricky with respect to unions and management as well. He suggests that management is winning the battle thus far. Transnational corporate willingness to employ people for new media management, coupled with Facebook’s willingness to help them in order to build their own product, means collective action may soon have no place on Facebook, Blackadder says:

If we’re at the point where employers are doing a better job of training workers to use social media for a purpose, and are more trusting of them to go out there and spread a message without supervision or approval than their unions are, we have a problem.