Labor Dept. ‘Friends’ Facebook to Help Job Seekers
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The U.S. Department of Labor is joining forces with Facebook and education and employer organizations to provide crucial employment resources to job seekers through the use of social networks.
A new Facebook Social Jobs Partnership page (click here) highlights available training programs, educational opportunities and job search resources. Also Facebook has made a commitment to drive traffic to the page through targeted online public service announcements that will appear to users in geographic areas experiencing high unemployment.
Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis says:
Linking American job seekers with the resources they need to get back to work is a top priority of the Obama administration and my department. By leveraging the power of the social Web, this initiative will provide immediate, meaningful and ready-to-use information for job seekers and employers, and a modern platform to better connect them.
Massachusetts Bridge: Not a Pretty Picture
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Jay Hurley, president of the New England Ironworkers District Council, says he wanted to prove a point to those who claim that the recent focus on the deteriorating conditions of the nation’s bridges and infrastructure is overblown.
So he picked a nearby bridge over Rt. 128 in Gloucester that carries more than 57,000 vehicles a day 100 feet over the Annisquam River. Hurley had District Council safety inspectors document the condition of the A. Piatt Andrew Bridge.
As you can see by the accompanying photo, it’s not a pretty picture.
The photos elicited some strong comments, including this one.
That bridge is a disaster waiting to happen…what are they waiting for—the bridge to collapse and kill some motorists? By then it will be too late.
New AFL-CIO Latino Facebook and Twitter Up and Running
The AFL-CIO’s social media family is growing with the addition of our new AFL-CIO Latino page and a Spanish language Twitter feed. The new initiatives are part of the union movement’s continous efforts to reach out to the Latino workforce, especially younger workers. We want to hear stories from Latino workers and forge new ways to work together for workplace and social justice.
The new Facebook page—a www.facebook.com/aflciolatino—is oriented toward U.S. Latinos whose primary language is English and the postings are in English. Discussions on the page will cover issues important to Latinos and all workers, including education, workers’ rights, health care, politics and more. The page will be updated frequently.
After you like us on Facebook Latino, please share with your Facebook friends or with anyone who might be interested in Latino-labor issues.
Our new Twitter channel—www.twitter.com/aflcioenespanol—is geared toward those who speak Spanish. We want to engage in conversation with Spanish-speakers to learn about the labor issues important to them. It also provides an opportunity to share information with Spanish speakers, including news about unions, upcoming actions, politics and other issues.
Don’t forget our AFL-CIO Facebook page here and follow us on Twitter here.
From the Fields to Facebook: Union Organizing Online
Tom Dalzell is business manager and financial secretary of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1245, which represents electrical workers in the state of Nevada (excluding Las Vegas) and Northern California. He describes how online organizing complements traditional organizing—and why both need to work together.
When I started with the United Farm Workers of America in 1972, some of the old hands taught me a trick: Before you organize people, you have to meet them. To meet them, you have to know where they are. Back then, that meant fields, parking lots where crews gather in the morning, their homes and the occasional bar. Now, with more than 500 million people on social networks like Facebook, that means going online.
In 2010, the local I represent, Electrical Workers (IBEW) 1245, started the Shame on NVEnergy campaign to shine a light on abusive labor practices the utility engages in—not the least of which is clawing back pensions and benefits of retirees who worked and negotiated with the company in good faith for decades.
Walker Has AFL-CIO Support? Of Course Not
UPDATE: Walker has removed the image from his Facebook page here.
Today’s word is duplicitous. Let’s use it in a sentence. If Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) claimed that he had the support of the AFL-CIO, that would be duplicitous. Now let’s use our Thesaurus to find similar words. Try these—double-dealing, tricky, deceitful, fraudulent, misleading, deceptive.
Guess what. It turns out our example is a real life situation that allows us to use our phrase of the day—Cease and desist.
Cease and desist is exactly what lawyers representing the AFL-CIO told Walker in an e-mail and letter this morning after it was discovered Walker’s Facebook page contains both the name and logo of the AFL-CIO that infers Walker has the support of the AFL-CIO.
The AFL-CIO wants to make it very clear that it in no way endorses or supports Governor Walker. In addition, the AFL-CIO certainly does not endorse or support your unauthorized use of the AFL-CIO’s name or any of its marks. This letter is to demand that you, Governor Walker, and those acting on your behalf, must immediately cease and desist from any and all unauthorized uses of the AFL-CIO name and marks, or risk legal action. Read the rest of this entry »
Join Online Day of Solidarity with the Jobless Dec. 7
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Republican lawmakers continue to hold hostage vital unemployment insurance survival help for millions of jobless workers, vowing to keep the Senate gridlocked until the nation’s wealthy are guaranteed continued tax breaks.
More than 900,000 workers already have lost their unemployment insurance since Republicans pulled the plug Nov. 30. Every day another 38,000 job-seekers lose their unemployment insurance.
So please join us Tuesday, Dec. 7 for an online day of solidarity with the jobless via Facebook and Twitter. It’s simple.
- Update your status on Facebook and Twitter to say you’re “in solidarity with jobless workers.”
- Sign our petition urging Congress to extend emergency unemployment aid here.
- Change your Facebook and Twitter profile pictures with images here.
Click here for complete instructions.
Social Media: New Tools Aid in Organizing
They’re tweeting in Northern California about the Employee Free Choice Act, sharing about health care reform on Facebook in Montana and posting organizing messages on My Space for workers in York, Pa.
Across the country, union members are using the new social media to mobilize workers and share information.
Steve Selby, an Electrical Workers (IBEW) organizer in York, Pa., knows the value of social media. He urgently needed to reach 300 workers at a local Comcast office. Rather than standing outside the office and handing out a flier with different information each day, Selby taught himself how to set up a MySpace account. He handed out one flier directing workers to his MySpace page, where he shared information the workers needed to know.
Check Out Workers Memorial Day Via Facebook
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Workers Memorial Day is April 28 and as part of the preparation for the events and ceremonies to honor workers who have been killed or injured on the job—and to demand improved workplace safety—the AFL-CIO has set up a special Workers Memorial Day Facebook page.
On the just-created page, you can connect with other workplace safety activists, learn about Workers Memorial Day events in your area, or reach out to others to help organize actions where you live. The page also has a gallery of Workers Memorial Day posters from previous years.
If you are not are not already a Facebook member, it’s a simple, free process to register. If you are a Facebook member or have your own page, don’t forget to post the Workers Memorial Day information in your profile or on your page. That will help generate a community of people concerned about workplace safety.
UnionBook: A Social Network for Labor
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Union activists are, well, active. Sometimes that’s a problem on social network sites like FaceBook, MySpace and others that tend to limit an individual’s activity if it exceeds their arbitrary limits.
Our friends at LabourStart have an answer—UnionBook, the just-launched social networking website for trade unionists. Already with some 1,300 members, UnionBookis free of advertising—unlike other sites—and specifically designed for trade unionists around the world. Now, that’s a heck of community.
Says LabourStart Editor Eric Lee:
If you’re too active doing the kind of networking that we trade unionists do all the time—recruiting friends, sending out messages, and so on—FaceBook can blacklist you and close your account. This has already happened to a number of union activists.
New Look for Sheet Metal Workers’ Website
When you get a chance, cruise on over to the Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) revamped website. The just-launched site offers several new features—for visitors and SMWIA members—along with a clean and streamlined look.
The site’s new News section brings you a wide variety of worker-orientated labor and political news from the blog world and the mainstream press. The new Multimedia Resource Center gives you access to a wide range of SMWIA news, videos, podcasts and photos. Check out the video gallery here and photo gallery here.
New social networking features include SMWIA Facebook, the Sheet Metal Network and Sheet Metal Twittering.
The site’s Action Center provides information and the chance to join in the union’s and the labor movement’s latest campaigns, including the fight to win the Employee Free Choice Act.
