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Editor Login


Convener in chief:


David Lazer
(Methodology, Networked Governance)

Editors:


Stanley Wasserman
(Current Trends, Methodology, Social Networks)

Guy Stuart
(Economic Sociology, Finance)

Allan Friedman
(Simulations)

Nathan Eagle
(Technology, Social Computing, Powerlaws, Current Trends)

Ben Waber
(Technology, Social Computing)
Ines Mergel
(Knowledge Sharing, Social Computing, Social Software, Current Trends)

Maria Binz-Scharf
(Qualitative Methodology, Knowledge Sharing, eGovernment)

Alexander Schellong
(Admin, eGovernment, Citizen Relationship Management)

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    « Social network website reaches a hire level: LinkedIn uses its own who-knows-whom tools to recruit a CEO. | Main | Watts to Yahoo »

    14 May 2007

    Using the Internet to Create a New Labor Movement: U.S., U.K., and Harvard Experiences

    This is an abstract of todays PNG/CCCSN seminar with Richard B. Freeman (Harvard University). We encourage you to discuss his presentation via comments on the blog.

    "With trade union membership falling relative to the work force, many workers cannot readily obtain the services that unions traditionally provided, ranging from information about their employer and the job market more broadly to representation in dealing with individual and collective problems that invariably arise at workplaces. This talk describes how unions and other worker organizations have used the Internet to provide some of these services, even in the face of employer opposition to traditional unionism. The US experience ranges from WorkingAmerica, which has quietly enlisted about 1.6 million members to reedyassociates.com, which pressured law firms to raise pay by informing law graduates about economic differences. The UK experience includes union provision of information to nonunion workers and a discussion board network for worker representatives. Harvard offers the worklifewizard,which provides information and answers work-related questions. I consider the extent to which these innovative uses of the Internet can create a new labor movement, better suited to the modern work force."

    Posted by Alexander Schellong at May 14, 2007 1:19 PM