Archive

 
 
Page 1 of 111: Next

CWU at International Communications Conference

15th June 2009

0Over 70 delegates from all around the world gathered in Protaras in Cyprus last week for a three-day Communicators' Forum organised by international union federation UNI.

With over 20 million members from some 900 affiliated unions - including our own CWU - across Europe, Africa, Asia, Australasia and the Americas, UNI provides a platform for workers at international level, fosters international solidarity and seeks parity for workers at multinational corporations, a particularly important aspect of its work in this age of globalisation. As part of its current Organise and Recognise campaign, UNI is working with its member unions to ensure that organising and bargaining rights are enshrined in law. UNI also works in developing countries to build trade unions where there are none and to offer training to its members. Last week's summit focussed on how new media, such as web-based and e-campaigning, can help unions get their message across in the course of such initiatives. 0After a hearty "welcome to Cyprus" message from banking union ETYK president Loizos Hadjicostis, delegates heard UNI communications chief Rachel Cohen outline the federation's strategy, before a series of speakers from different nations spoke about their own unions' web and e-campaigning work. The second and third days followed a similar pattern, various presentations from member unions interspersed with "speakers' bus stops" - regular pauses for delegates to ask questions, or contribute points of view. 0For our UK delegation, the highlight of Day Two was a presentation from Matthew McGregor (left), on behalf of leading e-campaign consultants Blue State Digital (BDS), who gave a presentation outlining some of the key strategies used by his team during Barack Obama's US presidential election campaign last year. Matthew also focussed on some of the work that BDS has carried out with the CWU on Keep the Post Public, which was extremely well received by delegates. And the third day saw our very own CWU communications and campaigns manager John Colbert explain, in detail, our union's 360 degree communications strategy. Summing up the three-day event, John Colbert said afterwards: "The experience gained from the various presentations only outlines the increasing importance that web-based campaigning is having on our overall effectiveness in communicating our key messages and getting our case across to the wider public in our own countries and across the globe. "Social networking has now become the quickest way in which to propogate campaigns amongst a younger audience. It is no longer an option for campaigners to have access to facebook, bebo, unionbook, twitter and flickr - these are now essential tools," he added. The use of web-based TV was shown on the last day to be of increasing importance, alongside written press and publications in supporting a 360 degree communications strategy.