The following article, published in the most recent issue of Labour Research magazine, was out of date before it ever saw print. Working together with the union and the global union federations, we were able to make use of online campaigning tools both to send protest messages and to raise money. Nevertheless, the article does point out the importance of launching such campaigns on time — striking while the iron is hot.

We’re more than a decade into the Internet revolution and British unions still hardly make any use at all of the power of online campaigning.
Last week, for example, strike action at Gate Gourmet and British Airways shut down most of Heathrow Airport. Tens of thousands of passengers were stranded, people’s holidays were ruined, and yet there was widespread public support for low-paid workers who were sacked by megaphone and ordered to leave the premises.
It was the perfect opportunity for a rapid-reaction Internet campaign.
The union could have had an online campaign up and running the same day as the strike began. Members of the public could have been flooding the two employers with the demand that they bring an end to the strike by the only means possible: negotiating a fair deal with the workers.
When thousands searched the net for information about their flights, the union could have used Google’s keyword based advertising to ensure that anyone looking for ‘Gate Gourmet‘ or ‘British Airways’ would have found a union site with updated information, laying out the workers’ case.
This dispute was another test of British unions’ use of the new communications technology and once again they have lagged behind.
I think part of the reason for this is skepticism about whether things like online campaigns really help. Let’s be absolutely clear about this: online campaigns work.
Last week, a day or two before the walkout at Gate Gourmet, we learned of a huge victory won by hotel workers in Pakistan — a victory achieved in part through an online campaign. The campaign focussed on a dispute at the Quetta Serena Hotel, where the local union president was beaten by hotel security guards. The workers who protested this were themselves jailed. According to the global union federation IUF which led an international online protest campaign, more than 750 email messages reached the hotel. The result was a reinstatement of the union president and other activists. The local union asked the IUF “to convey their heartfelt thanks to all those who sent messages of support. The union also stated that the email messages made a visible difference to the campaign, with the management and owners clearly affected by the international response.”
If a small international campaign can have that affect on a hotel in Pakistan, imagine what tens of thousands of email messages would have done to BA and Gate Gourmet.