Interview of Pierre-Samuel Guedj for PlanetLabor – Last February, Italian clothing brand Benetton agreed to contribute to a compensation fund for victims of the Rana Plaza disaster (c.f. article No. 8912). This last minute turnaround by the company came about not from union pressure but instead from a million signatures on an e-petition that had been put online by Avaaz the cyber activist site. With the advent of online petition sites like Change.org or Avaaz, causes that would have formerly been purely union supported are now being scaled up by millions of online signatures. Far from criticizing this development, on the contrary, unions see it as presenting new opportunities for battle. However for businesses it is more a question of a new and bald risk to their reputation that needs careful handling…
Online petitions are becoming more and more common and encompass the world of business. Mobilization headquarters are now virtual spaces that allow millions of people to get involved in specific issues, in just a matter of a few clicks. Issues in which they would not necessarily have got involved in from the ‘real’ world platforms.
LabourStart: the unions’ platform. Trade unions are far from being on the back foot over this technology. For some years now they have been using a specialist militant union platform called LabourStart.org. From here they can gather support from thousands of union members across the globe for a wide array of topics including even quite specific issues.“For example, we started a campaign on LabourStart against the merger of cement makers Lafarge and Holcim. We knew that Avaaz would never be interested in this specific topic…” explained Adam Lee, Director of Organizing and Campaigns / IndustriALL Global. Finally, our work now is to choose between different campaign options. Of course, when Avaaz chooses to speak about one of our fights – because Avaaz chooses you, it’s not us who decide – we always say yes, because we want to get a million signatures! Since this development, the real issue now for us is to find how to take best advantage of it. But I never hear anyone saying that these websites are a threat for unions.”
A very different type of combat. And a similar message can be heard from Mike Sunderland, Deputy director of communications / UNI Global Union “There is a space for both: unions and cyber-mobilization websites. Nonetheless these websites prove to us that we need to find news ways to coordinate our digital skills in order to exert the same influence, even if the virtual world is not our raison d’être. We’ll see if this kind of mobilization will work over the long run. I mean, maybe in ten years time we will see that mail no longer takes center stage, but face-to-face meetings will never be considered obsolete,” he said reassuringly and appeared surprised to hear questions over the risk of unions perhaps getting weaker in the face of the rising popularity of these types of websites. Yet, in Brazil, the Street sellers (‘baiana’) managed to obtain certain rights before the last football World Cup competition and did so via an online petition with Change.org. The question now is what are businesses more scared of; trade unions or solidarity websites and platforms? “The answer is a function of the power the union wields in a company and it also depends on the issues at stake, “answered Mike Sunderland. “Unions are still the biggest campaign groups in the world, but they need to find how to coordinate these millions of unionists just like digital campaigning groups are already doing… Finally, I’ll say that unions and digital campaigning groups are not asking the same thing. For example, looking at the issue of Bangladesh’s working conditions, we have secured meetings and we negotiate with managers. Even if the power of one million signatures is enormous, digital campaigning groups are unlikely to have this kind of influence.”
A multifaceted threat. It is the very fact that these sites do not try to negotiate that is new and unnerving for businesses. “Union mobilization is a structured procedure. Unions are partners and have a relationship with businesses. Rules over social dialogue have been established and are now institutionalized. In the world of virtual actions there is not counterpart with whom to negotiate and nothing is institutionalized. Anyone can start a petition,” underlined Pierre-Samuel Guedj, President of Affectio Mutandi, a consultancy agency covering issues on society, norms, and reputations. “These are new forms of pressure that pose a very real reputational risk not least because being digital, events can quickly go viral. The attack is multifaceted coming as it does from a diverse set of actors known or unknown. We just don’t know what form or what scope it will have in the end.”
Anticipate, anticipate, anticipate. The only way to keep on top of potential ‘curve balls’ is to anticipate them. This is what Swiss food giant Nestlé has had to learn to do after a 2010 shock video published by the NGO Greenpeace that criticized their use of palm oil and the disastrous consequences it was having on the Orangutan population. Since then, Nestlé has devoted a team of ‘virtual world’ specialists who trawl day and night through the networks and platforms looking for potential bad buzz. “You have to monitor everything. We can anticipate the risks by analyzing technological developments such as new applications and new methods designed to bring about conflict”… advises Pierre Samuel Guedj. “In Africa for example anonymous applications are available that raise corruption alerts. In other words someone can anonymously and immediately denounce a company. European companies working in Africa need to know this sort of information. Another important point is to know who we are up against and how creative they are or can be. You have to know what they stand for and what they are looking for to the point of engaging with them so as to better anticipate their actions. You have to be constantly on the ball. You have to realize that technology has put the spotlight on transparency and ethical behavior. In short, bad practices are no longer allowed and with the ‘net’ everyone knows everything.”
Fast tracking communications expertise. Well aware that they now exert significant influence on the world of work these digital campaigning sites nevertheless contend that they are not out to ‘kick companies into touch’ but rather they are looking to be catalysts for the defense of all rights. Nonetheless their up to date know-how is causing business bosses problems. Thus the petition platform Change.org, with its 90 million users and several local union bodies as well as various confederations like the CFDT who has just launched an e-petition protesting late pension payments, does not hide the fact that it does everything it can to create a buzz. “We want everyone to be aware of how to do ‘good communication’, explained Benjamin des Gachons, Director of the French platform. When someone registers, we try to have them really think through to whom they wish the petition to be addressed and by whom they wish the petition to be signed. Automatic messages are then sent out to better spread the petition. The underlying premise is that best lobbying practices should not be solely in the domain of lobbyists. They can also be used in citizen campaigns.” “When Change.org identifies a petition the originator receives fast track training, like Patricia Cordier, whose son, a policeman committed suicide. This woman who also had union support fought for the State to take action following this highly sensitive situation and she launched an e-petition on Change.org that received some 100,000 signatures.” ‘We contacted Patricia and trained her up on both form and substance,” remembers Benjamin des Gachons as Patricia’s fight has now finally been taken up by the French Home Affairs Minister who in January unveiled an anti-suicide plan for the police services. Patricia herself has however died.
Businesses can answer back ‘live’. All of this does not mean however that companies and politicians have to remain silent on this particular platform. For a year now, a tool has been available to businesses, their bosses, as well as to public officials whose profiles are potentially of interest to Change.org. This tool, now being used by names such as LinkedIn, Ikea, Facebook, and Uber, alerts the person in question when a petition has been launched about them and offers an opportunity for them to respond. The response, once formulated, whether it be in favor or against the issue (so for example when a company decides to give tis reasons as to why it will not be responding favorably tot the petition) is then sent to all the signatories of the petition. “This proves that our approach is not solely confrontational but also based on dialogue. Our sole objective is change,” reminded Benjamin des Gachons. Another surprising feature that is more likely to interest trade unions is that since 2010 Change.org has been making fee paying sponsored campaign services available. The idea behind this chargeable service is that unions or NGOs can build a militant base. Site users receive (if they have previously agreed) sponsored campaign proposals that relate to their particular concerns. This way they can recruits tens of thousands of sympathizers and build their future base of ‘active-donators’. There is a real return on investment with this strategy because 10% -15% of those who sign up also sign up to the direct debit option,” indicated Benjamin des Gachons.As yet no trade union body in Europe has taken this step, like as in the U.S. For example, there, a union opted to use the platform to lead a sponsored campaign over youth unemployment.
U.S. non-unionized workers groups. This virtual approach is much more prevalent stateside and this is because the Internet is much more widely used and presents a real alternative to the traditional trade union. An example of this is the group Our Walmart that recently obtained a rise in the minimum wage (c.f. article No. 8911). “ I really do not know what we would have done without the net and Facebook, remarked Barbara Gertz who works nights for this retail giant in Denver and who manages Our Walmart’s health and safety issues. The little group of people who founded our movement first wanted to create a union but it didn’t work and they asked themselves: “What can we do? What about just a group of workers fighting for their rights?” But the challenge was that we were all so dispersed. So we created a Facebook page for each town and for specific groups. Thus, workers can write to us directly, and we can answer and inform everyone about demonstrations. Now, we will use these pages to give weekly information about safety at work. We want to educate workers, to help them know their rights. Of course, the unions are backing us and they check we have the means we need to face our employers. But one of our challenges is precisely to explain to employees that we are not a union, because oftentimes workers are afraid of unions and sometimes they don’t want to join us because of that.”
Proof again if anymore needed that digital campaigning being more anonymous, more direct, and more easily scaled up is in the process of changing the world of social relations and fast becoming a significant actor that business leaders can no longer ignore.
By Jessica Agache-Gorse in Planet Labor, 13 April 2015, N°9017, www.planetlabor.com