In early February 2009, LabourStart announced the public launch of UnionBook (http://www.unionbook.org), the social network for trade unionists. Within days, the site came alive with blogs, discussion forums, shared files and groups. As I write these words, there are already a large number of groups in UnionBook with new ones forming every day.

For anyone who’s ever used a social network, the concept of groups will be a familiar one. Facebook, for example, has long allowed users to form groups. The problem is, if for any reason Facebook doesn’t like your group, they can shut it down. This happened to a Canadian union trying to organise casino workers. UnionBook was created in part to prevent this sort of thing from happening, and to provide an online tool designed by trade unionists for trade unionists.
It’s very easy to form a group in UnionBook once you’ve signed up. You select ‘Groups’ from the Tools menu on top of the page, and then ‘Create a new group’. You give your new group a name and a description, and then designate it as ‘public’ or ‘private’. To join a private group, you need to be invited. The group’s content — its files, pages, discussion forums, and message board — can also be designated as private (for group members only), public (for everyone) or logged-on users (for UnionBook members only).
British trade unionists have been quick to create groups. These are in the very early stages, but some of the groups created so far include one for all UK trade unionists, groups for national unions (NUJ, UNISON), groups for union members by region (Leicestershire, Bristol), union branches (PCS Shropshire), cross-union groups (UK education workers), groups for young workers (UNISON South West), and groups close to the labour movement (Institute of Employment Rights, United Campaign for the Repeal of the Anti-Trade Union Laws).
In addition to these there are over 100 other groups many of which will interest trade unionists in Britain, including global groups for women, LGBT union members, union podcasters, supporting workers rights in Iran, and even one for unionised model aircraft builders (I’m not making this up).
UnionBook is in its very early stages and while the current tools on offer are already quite powerful — discussion forums, group pages, shared files, and a message board — we’re already planning to make the groups even more powerful tools. The next step will be to give group administrators the ability to send out email messages to all group members.
Once you’ve signed up to use UnionBook, if you’re a UK-based trade unionist you might want to start with the UK trade unionists group, which is probably the largest British group, located here – http://www.unionbook.org/pg/groups/305/uk-trade-unionists/. If your national union doesn’t have a group, start one. And of course you should use groups on UnionBook for your branches and workplace organisations.