All the union news that's fit to blog...
The value of retaining union members is obvious. Unions should always be recruiting new members, but losing them unnecessarily means you need to work even harder to grow. This TUC Digital Lab webinar launched our new guide “A six-step plan to retaining more members”. Sam Jeffers of Join Together and Guste Matuleviciute of RCM joined unions … Continue reading Video: Retaining members webinar
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Here’s a fact of union life – all members leave, one way or another. They often do it for a reason you can do nothing about. They might stop working in an industry, decide to study, emigrate, retire and so on. But others leave for avoidable reasons. They don’t think membership is worth the money, … Continue reading A six-step plan to retaining more members
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Unions have huge amounts of data to draw on in our membership records. But how do you get that data into the hands of the people in a union who need it, and how do you support them to understand how to act on it? Unlocking the membership data building up in our CRM systems … Continue reading Video: Visualising union membership data
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Generative AI tools are being introduced into workplaces across all sectors and, whether officially or informally, will be being used inside many trade unions too. Tools such as ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot offer potential for increases in productivity in many common tasks. But at the same time, the hype around generative AI has obscured a … Continue reading A context guide to generative AI for unions
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We all know that the best decisions are those that are grounded in relevant and accurate data. But how do you get that data into the hands of the people in a union who need it, and how do you support them to understand what it could tell them? One important development could be the … Continue reading Video: Visualising data for union bargaining and organising
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To launch our new report on managing Shadow IT in unions, author Simon Parry presented to a TUC Digital Lab webinar on the subject. Following on from our last webinar on wider cyber security issues, this 30 mins video is a deep dive on Shadow IT. Simon looks at what it is, what it means for … Continue reading Video: Shadow IT and unions: How do we keep innovation without adding risk?
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Shadow IT is the use of technology in an organisation without formal approval or oversight. It particularly refers to online, Software as a Service (SaaS) tools. That could mean reps using private Google accounts for union email, organisers setting up WhatsApp groups for member communication, or staff setting up new tools like Survey Monkey to … Continue reading Managing Shadow IT in unions
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At the TUC Digital Lab, we get most of our good ideas from the unions we collaborate with. One such need we found recently was for unions to know more about the various IT tools that other unions were using. The ideas was that by compiling a shared list of tools, unions could see where … Continue reading Union tech survey 2024 – some thoughts on the results
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To launch our new report on cyber security for unions, author Simon Parry presented to a TUC Digital Lab webinar on the subject. This 30 mins video is a great introduction to some specific threats to trade unions, and where current trends are heading in cyber crime and responses to it. And if you’d like … Continue reading Video: Cyber security challenges and strategies for unions
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On 7th March, the TUC Digital Lab held our first workshop on generative AI for unions at the NUJ’s offices in King’s Cross. Over 40 colleagues attended from across TUC affiliated unions, showing the deep interest in a topic that’s causing so much hype, but also concern, for both union members, and unions as organisations. … Continue reading What could AI do for unions? And where should we start?
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Cyber security underpins everything we do in unions to build up our digital systems and create a better digital experience for our members. Without the trust that our data is safe from attack any union would be severely compromised. As data storage has moved online, this has seen an increase in the scope of digital … Continue reading Cyber security for unions
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In recent months, technical standards for all bulk email have been tightened. It’s started as a response to changes in the US, but as of this month will be affecting everyone. At the TUC, we’re seeing some cases of union email not getting through to the members and stakeholders we want to communicate with. That’s a … Continue reading Why recent email authentication changes matter to unions, and what we should do about it
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A TUC Digital Lab practical guide Your CRM contains the heart of your union’s data. It manages your key interactions with members and your intelligence about what’s happening to the union over time. As such, migrating your data from one CRM to another absolutely must succeed in a way that keeps the integrity of that … Continue reading Migrating your union’s data to a new CRM
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Back around April 2022, our Senior Deputy General Secretary kicked off a big review of IT at CWU. It was a chance to look across the union at what we needed to do, including our core membership tools. I thought the challenge of our old membership system contract coming to an end in 18 months … Continue reading Moving to Dynamics at CWU: a case study from discovery to delivery
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2024 marks the fifth year of our shared journey into digital change for unions, with the TUC’s Digital Lab programme. Since we started, we’ve tackled best practice in digital on many areas of union activity, and we’ve worked directly with many unions to test new ways of working. And unions have done some brilliant work … Continue reading Four tech trends for unions in 2024
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Accurate member data is essential for a trade union of any size. If the purpose of a union is to build power and improve members’ experiences in workplaces, it is fundamental that it is clear who members are, where they work and how to get hold of them. This is especially true in the context … Continue reading Checking member data with commercial data cleaning services: NASUWT case study
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The TUC Digital Lab held a webinar on how unions can run the most effective online campaigns to switch members from check off dues deduction to paying via direct debit. The context The government have laid secondary legislation to implement some of the remaining parts of the 2016 Trade Union Act that they were unable … Continue reading Digital tools to run check off to direct debit member switching campaigns
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More than 100 civil society organisations from across the UK and world have branded the government’s AI Summit as “a missed opportunity”. In an open letter to Rishi Sunak they warn the “communities and workers most affected by AI have been marginalise…Read more…
Making first contact with non-member workers in a new workplace is getting steadily more difficult for unions. Our changing economy has for a long time meant that there are increasingly industries with higher union density, and others with little or none. Changing work patterns towards casualisation have made it harder for workers to meet each … Continue reading Engaging childcare workers online – case study
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In early October, the Digital Lab met to discuss digital aspects of member retention. UK union membership fell overall in both 2021 and 2022, and now stands at the lowest level since records began in 1995. Colleagues from a dozen unions joined our workshop to consider together why members might leave, and what unions can … Continue reading How do we retain more members in our unions?
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