Post by rayancaleb on Feb 1, 2018 15:10:13 GMT
Over the past decade, the importance of digital organizing has soared in electoral and issue based campaigns on the left. The idea that an electoral field organizer need not be a capable database user is patently ridiculous at this point. Political campaigns understand that they need to invest in staff with expertise in digital organizing—whether those are people who can write e-mail subject lines that will be opened by hundreds of thousands of people, data managers who can refine an entire state’s voter rolls to target the handful that can swing an election, or people who know how to create content to be shared on social media, that may go viral. Capable campaign managers do not see field and digital organizing as competing interests, but complementary ones that help campaigns move forward most effectively.
The traditional labor movement has been a late adopter of most of these technologies, if they have adopted them at all. It is not un-common to hear older union leaders complaining about social networks like Twitter, or why unions need to invest money in setting up and maintaining decent databases, instead of investigating how they might use those tools to reach the next generation of workers. Staff running union organizing drives and contract fights are sometimes known to say things such as, “we just need to keep house visiting, that other stuff doesn’t matter.” That fact has led some of us to ask, “Why haven’t unions adopted more new technologies in organizing campaigns or to mobilize current members?”
The difference between how traditional labor unions use data for organizing, versus how political campaigns (whether electoral or legislative) do, is based on the differences in how both approach data and targeting. A campaign that is working on a statewide or national issue will almost never have the ability to reach every single voter or constituent in their state. It is always the job of political organizers to winnow down the list of voter targets to people the campaign will most likely succeed in moving or persuading. A union organizer working on a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election, however, rarely has the ability to “write off” voters in the way an electoral organizer must—because the universe of voters is so much smaller than in even most city council races. In a union election, every single voter must be targeted for conversation, assessment, and repeated follow-up
For More Details:
Business Explainer Examples
The traditional labor movement has been a late adopter of most of these technologies, if they have adopted them at all. It is not un-common to hear older union leaders complaining about social networks like Twitter, or why unions need to invest money in setting up and maintaining decent databases, instead of investigating how they might use those tools to reach the next generation of workers. Staff running union organizing drives and contract fights are sometimes known to say things such as, “we just need to keep house visiting, that other stuff doesn’t matter.” That fact has led some of us to ask, “Why haven’t unions adopted more new technologies in organizing campaigns or to mobilize current members?”
The difference between how traditional labor unions use data for organizing, versus how political campaigns (whether electoral or legislative) do, is based on the differences in how both approach data and targeting. A campaign that is working on a statewide or national issue will almost never have the ability to reach every single voter or constituent in their state. It is always the job of political organizers to winnow down the list of voter targets to people the campaign will most likely succeed in moving or persuading. A union organizer working on a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election, however, rarely has the ability to “write off” voters in the way an electoral organizer must—because the universe of voters is so much smaller than in even most city council races. In a union election, every single voter must be targeted for conversation, assessment, and repeated follow-up
For More Details:
Business Explainer Examples