For example, on the eve of the European elections, few union sites have any mention of the need to get out and vote, despite expectations of a very low turnout. Hardly any are highlighting the importance of completely isolating the BNP.

One of the very largest union sites has had nothing new to say for several weeks – and back then, its main news story concerned the fate of one of its top officials. This was replaced yesterday by a remarkably uninteresting, technical discussion of an issue that would only affect a handful in the union. The only content that might interest the bulk of the union's membership is months old.

Another large union voted to strike yesterday, but while the BBC and Guardian sites were quick to report this, it took the union a full day to get the news online.

Several months ago, when postal workers were voting on whether or not to launch a national strike, the results of their ballot were reported on several major media sites at the same time as the union was refusing to comment. This prompted a rather lively exchange on the web log of the union's general secretary – and triggered the union's admission late in the day that the members had not voted to strike.

On most days, by reading the BBC, Guardian or LabourStart websites, you'll learn much more about any union than by visiting the union's own site. Often, you'll see stories reported on those sites a day or even a week before the union website gets around to mentioning them.

The absence of timely and relevant content from the front pages of many British trade union sites can be damaging, particularly when the union is in the media spotlight (as was the case with the postal workers).

In many unions the problem is a bottleneck – a single webmaster with the skills and the password to make changes to the site. No one else can do it. This is the case with even the largest unions.

The key to getting timely and relevant content up on union sites is not to rely on a single individual, but instead to broaden the base of those who are authorised to update the site. This is hardly a new idea. The TUC's very first website was open to a large number of staffers. And LabourStart has become a model of how a very large number of people (over 250 in this case) can collectively maintain a lively website.

The precondition for a team, rather than an individual, updating a website is that the union must be using a content management system – and not updating individual web pages by hand. Incredibly, many unions are not yet using such systems, and are reliant upon skilled individuals with a knowledge of HTML. When those individuals are on holiday, or just busy with something else, the website languishes.

That Canadian local union was able to reach 3,000 hits an hour because its website was timely and filled with relevant content. If unions here in Britain want the same kind of success, they are going to have to learn from that experience.