Shauna Curphey - Writing

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E-Trade Unions
Labor takes to the Net
SheNetworks.com, August 1, 2000

By Shauna Curphey

Far from the hype of Internet start-ups and pundit pronouncements on the New Economy, an altogether different revolution has flowered in cyberspace. Labor unions have embraced the Internet as a powerful organizing tool, and labor law has yet to catch up.

As of 1998, there were 1,700 union sites worldwide. That number is certain to be larger today. Karen Keiser of the Washington State Labor Council explains why unions have seized online opportunities. "Unions are often hampered from organizing because employers resist allowing free flow of information to employees."

Unions have vaulted to the Web to get their message out. For example, Communications Workers of America started a Web site to support their union drive at IBM. The site explains the importance of collective bargaining and provides a confidential form to join online. To further galvanize IBM employees, CWA posted the employment contract for IBM's CEO -- complete with his $1.5 million salary and $1.1 million pension.

Unions are also using the Web to invigorate and inform their members. The AFL-CIO launched a Web portal that offers news for union members, Internet access and a worker-friendly marketplace. Cyber Picket Line, LabourStart and LaborNet support union activity online by listing strike updates and providing extensive link libraries to other union sites.

Despite labor's Web enthusiasm, some believe the Internet might present disadvantages for unions. As companies conduct more transactions online, unions could lose their ability to picket effectively, says Professor Martin Mallin.

Mallin, director of the Institute for Law and the Workplace at Illinois Institute of Technology's Chicago-Kent College of Law warns, "Collective bargaining relies on economic pressure to motivate both parties to settle. Technology will change this tremendously. How do you picket in cyberspace?"

The answer: Unions have taken picketing from the sidewalk to the information superhighway. Recently, the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions conducted a "cyber picket" against Bridgestone Tires. With the slogan, "To Picket, Just Click It!", the federation launched a site that allowed visitors to email Bridgestone's executives, subsidiaries and investors. The site also included Bridgestone's toll free numbers and links to the company's online forms. Bridgestone was forced to set up a parallel email system to handle the flood of responses and the union succeeded in generating news coverage of their cause.

Though unions have plunged into cyberspace, labor law is just starting to test the waters. "The relationship between unions and employers is premised on 65 years of court doctrine developed in the context of physical workplaces," says Mallin. The National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency established to enforce the laws governing labor-management relations, has only recently begun to interpret how labor law applies to electronic workplaces. The Board has protected an employee's right--under certain conditions--to use email to promote collective bargaining or to discuss employment conditions. The Board has also grappled with defining an appropriate bargaining unit for telecommuters who work from home.

The NLRB has yet to tackle other legal issues that stem from technology's impact on the workplace. For example, the board has not determined appropriate behavior during a union drive among telecommuters. Under current law, an employer cannot contact an employee at home to discuss union organizing efforts. For telecommuters, the workplace is the home, making it much more difficult to draw this line.

As new technologies radically change the world of work, they also change the way workers organize. These shifts demand a new paradigm in U.S. labor law that is less reliant on the notion of physical workplaces. But until the law says otherwise, workers of the world will continue to unite -- online.