Mobilization and collective bargaining on Facebook
In an article in Work, Employment and Society, Nana Wesley Hansen and Mark Friis Hau analyze how trade unions and their grass roots use Facebook and what consequences this has for the understanding of collective bargaining.
Trade unions are increasingly active on Facebook - also in connection with collective bargaining negotiations. Nana Wesley Hansen and Mark Friis Hau have developed a model of political and communicative motivations or logics for posts on Facebook, which trade unions must balance. On one hand trade unions must demonstrate willingness to strike and expose the injustices that members experience, as well as show strength to gather support among members. This includes 'us-them' attitudes about wage earners and employers that can increase members' willingness to mobilize – a so-called 'mobilization logic'. On the other hand, the trade unions must signal that they can enter into settlements with the employers and secure improvements for the members through agreements where not all of the members' demands are met. This involves explaining negotiation processes and outcomes once a settlement has been reached. This is a 'conciliation logic'. These two political logics inform the social media strategies of unions and their grassroots, and is reflected in how unions and grassroots interact with their followers, their choice of words and the issues they address.
One challenge is that although both trade unions and grassroots uses both logics, the grassroots emphasize mobilization to a greater extent. From the trade union's side, this can be experienced as problematic during collective agreement negotiations, where the focus is on reaching a settlement.
Various demands are also articulated on Facebook, which are an important part of the game of political logics. Certain requirements can be accommodated by the Danish model, while others cannot. For example, a statement calling for illegal strikes in the construction sector cannot be accommodated in the trade unions collective agreement negotiations. Nana Wesley Hansen and Mark Frii's Haus model is therefore a 'coordinate system' over the communication on Facebook about how different collective agreement requirements fit with a mobilization or settlement logic . The model can help to analyze the political strategies in online communication during collective bargaining and where disagreements arise between unions and their grassroots.
Read the full article 'Between Settlement and Mobilization: Political Logics of Intra-Organizational Union Communication on Social Media' by Nana Wesley Hansen and Mark Friis Hau, published in Work, Employment and Society.
The article is based on 31 qualitative interviews with union consultants and grassroots activists, as well as 2,927 individual posts collected on Facebook from February 9 to April 16, 2020, including links, images, videos, and the number of shares and likes for each post or comment. Data was drawn from these sites: Arbejdere i Bevægelse, OKFakta, Sammen om OK, Sammen om OK20, Byggegruppen 3F and Enhedslisten – Faglig.