Trade unions on line: technology, transparency and bargaining power

Presentation for: Workshop on Cyber-ontology at the University of North

London Business School

Trade unions on line: technology, transparency and bargaining power.

John Hogan,
Royal Holloway College,
University of London

john_hogan@talk21.com

and

Margaret Grieco,
Business School
University of North London

msgrieco@aol.com

Abstract:

Introduction: proximity and solidarity: the imminent logic of online trade union organisation.

Information technology is dramatically transforming the world of decision-making: global interaction between geographically distributed agencies and agents is now a rapid and highly iterative process. Multinationals routinely make use of intra and internets in organising their daily and their strategic business ; political campaigns both grassroot and elite now routinely make use of the technology in achieving visibility for themselves and enforcing transparency on others (see: The power of transparency: the Internet, e-mail, and the Malaysian political crisis: http://www.unl.ac.uk/relational/papers/malaysia.htm ). Agencies and agents who were traditionally separated from solidarity by the physical barriers of distance are now highly proximate electronically - they are in daily reach and range of one another with important consequences for social mobilisation and enhanced solidarity. Electronic adjacency or proximity provides opportunity for new enhanced forms of solidarity at every level from the local to the global: at the local level, the dispersal of occupational communities as a consequence of rail and motorised transport technologies has had relatively negative consequences for trade union organisation. Electronic adjacency enables the reconnecting of workforces which have become residentially distributed. At the global level, electronic proximity enables the ready connection of those with similar interests or aims at minimal effort and with highly distributed costs so that no one agency or agent is bearing the total cost of communication. The old understanding of physical proximity as the primary precondition for solidarity is clearly under challenge: virtual organisation is a new and important key in the process of synchronisation of political and industrial relations movements (Pliskin et al., 1997).

Despite the clear and obvious benefits of on-line communications for agencies whose key function is synchronising action and organisation in changing environments, trade unions in Britain have, in the main, been slow to respond to the opportunities that information technology affords for mobilisation both within and beyond sectors and workplaces. A clear exception to the pattern is UNISON:

In fact Unison was the first union in the world to set up a web site (1993) and this year (1999) became the first union to set up a free Internet service for its members through Poptel. (http://www.poptel.org.uk/poptel/index.html )

Similarly, the academic industrial relations literature has been slow to reflect or deliberate upon the organising opportunities the new phenomenon of global electronic adjacency offers the trade union movement with some notable exceptions (Castells,1991, Shostak, 1999, Lee, 1996, Pliskin et al. 1997). In the context of a comparative dearth of academic reflection on union organising in a ‘network society’ (Castells, 1996), despite the increasing presence of union web sites, this paper explores the extent of the engagement of Britain`s Trade Unions with information technology as evidenced by their use of the internet for information, recruitment and mobilisation purposes. It should be noted that the research for this paper has primarily been conducted upon the Internet – supported by a field visit to a major ‘unions on line’ conference in London (Union Futures 2000: http://www.cyber-citizens.org.uk/exchange/seminars/unions2000frameset.html ) and email exchange with a leading trade unionist. This web search of union sites and recording of industrial relations activities conducted through the web produced an abundance of material: the mapping of the wealth of connections between organised labour and ad hoc industrial relations sites is worthy of a major research project. Such complexity will require major management of information by the unions themselves as they assist the web site visitor to enter relevant domains of information.

Whilst there can be no doubt that Trade Unions have been slower to respond to the opportunities that the new information technology provides for global solidarity and local and national organisation than commercial and industrial organisations have been to respond to the corresponding economic opportunities, there are clear signs of the take up of electronic organisational forms by the Trade Union Sector. A first stop for the novice exploring the impact of cyber forms on unionism in the UK is the main TUC site entitled ‘The TUC Virtual Building’ http://www.tuc.org.uk/vbuilding/tuc/browse/object.exe?868&0&0&1&1). In order to help the novice explore the site, the site designers have retained the language of a physical building (entrance, floors, building map, rooms) to describe the locations on the site (See Appendix 1). The site is well organised and provides ready access to a wealth of current and archived industrial relations materials. On the touch of a button, the individual union member can access and marshall a range of relevant industrial relations materials which would have been almost impossible for the individual citizen to identify and collect together in the past Appendix 2). The proximity of rank and file union members to official resources is altered by this new electronically created possibility. Shostak (1999) reviewing the internet experience of rank and file union members in the USA indicates the importance of this new development for union organising in his book, Cyberunion : Empowering Labor Through Computer Technology (Issues in Work and Human Resources). Comments on the book on Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com ) stress the importance of this aspect:

A "must read" for the union activist! This book is for the serious unionist who is searching for better avenues for getting his message out. Art uses interviews with rank and file union members who are actively using computers and the internet as he suggests ways unions should be making use of the information highway and technology. A "must read" for union leaders who are wondering what all the fuss is all about as well as for those who do (know).

cantrell@cafes.net from Tennessee , August 30, 1999

The proximity of rank and file union members to local, regional, national and international on-line trade union resources through twenty four hour access information technologies greatly increases the transparency of the behaviour of union officials to the union membership and enables an independent assessment of performance of officials by the membership in a manner that was never previously possible. Cyber unionism has the potential not only to alter the bargaining stance of the union in respect of external organisations, it also has the potential to alter the bargaining positions of rank and file membership, or sections of that membership, in respect of union officials. New information technology can allow for a level of transparency not available from more traditional forms of social interaction (see Appendix 4): through the use of the intelligent auditing and search functions present in the technology (and already used by the US electorate and pressure groups in the monitoring of the voting records of politicians), individual union members or groups of members can muster and manage performance profiles of key organisational actors and activities well beyond the traditional surveillance capacity, capabilities and skill of rank and file union membership.

As we have outlined and Shostak(1999), Lee (1996) and a number of trade unions and labour organisations have recognised there is a fit between on line information technology and union purpose. There are, however, important considerations to be borne in mind in respect of customising the technology for union use. Poptel, the Internet Service Provider, most heavily involved in servicing British trade unions is alert to these needs (see Appendix 5): and in the wider global environment there are many technical developments relevant to the IT updating of trade unions such as the creation of secure electronic ballot boxes (see http://www.su.ualberta.ca/elections/plebiscitequest.html university of alberta students union electronic ballot box). To date the construction of union web sites has been largely technology led: it has been a matter of 'the technology is available so why not use it?' Indeed, the first round of trade union sites have been described largely as 'vanity sites' (http://www.labourstart.org) where the object was simply to have a presence on the web rather than create, functional, operational regularly updated sites. Clear policy thinking on the character of cyber-unionism would promote the customisation of the technology necessary to trade union purposes.

Although the major thrust of our argument here is that the web promotes transparency, the proliferation of union web sites (according to LabourStart there are over 1,700 union websites world-wide, with more coming on-line daily) and the number of comments on union and labour organisation web sites indicating the difficulty of managing this complexity suggest the need for a search engine dedicated to the activities of organised labour yet not even the largest labour organisations are demonstrating any such capacity. Each site contains a set of links, and these links vary from site to site but there is no one data base which enables the accessing of the universe of labour organisations.

To summarise this section, we have pointed out that the labour movement has been slow to grasp the benefits of on line communications for the organisation of labour as compared with commerce and with government. We have indicated that the number of unions with an on line presence has been growing rapidly and is a global phenomenon: the presence of other unions on line creates a pressure for unions not yet on line to make the adjustment. On line communications enable the rank and file to access services and to overview the organisation of their unions and the behaviour of their union officials. Official union sites have been shadowed and accompanied by other forms of labour organisation from personal web sites to special interest networks (see Appendix 4). The labour movement has to take stock of the implications of cyberunionism for its organisation and must promote the customisation of technology to serve this purpose: we have provided the example of the need for a labour organisation search engine or data base, a very simple principle to understand but relatively complex to deliver. Finally, we want to suggest that the balloting and auditing capabilities of new technology can provide for the intelligent identification of options: it becomes more possible to measure the preferences of memberships and to fine tune policy to meet these requirements through the use of electronic ballots with their lower administrative costs and immediacy of count. This last understanding raises the overall question of the relationship between technology and trade union democracy: the information equity which can now be practised as part of daily trade unionism enables more informed and detailed choices to be made by the rank and file membership. It may very well be the case that the Internet sounds the death toll for Michel’s iron law of oligarchy (Michels, 1915).

Research on the web: on line union practice and strategy.

There is no one site which gives a listing of all UK trade union web sites and some trade union web sites presently contain an index page which states that the site is under construction (http://www.gmb.org.uk/). UNISON, one of the U.K’s first trade union web sites, has a highly welcoming and user friendly presence on the web (http://www.unison.org.uk/). Its opening message encourages the user to explore further:

Welcome to our brand new site. It's got lots of new content and has been redesigned to make it easier for you to use.

The index page of UNISON stands in stark contrast to that of the TGWU. On its web site (http://www.tgwu.org.uk/ ) the TGWU issues a clear and firm warning: its materials are not for general circulation but only for individual use.

The material on this Web site is copyright © 1998 and onwards. You have the right to view this page and, where applicable, to copy this page and any images to a cache for reference by yourself only at a later time. You are not granted any other rights and the Web page owner reserves all other rights.

This opens up a question of the limitations of using this particular web site for community mobilisation purposes. A comparison with the ‘copyright’ arrangements of Impact on line, a virtual volunteering community mobilisation agency, is instructional:

Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this information without charge for non-commercial or educational purposes if the information is kept intact and without alteration, and is credited to:

Impact Online http://www.impactonline.org

Similarly, the TUC has moved with a statement of openness on access to and circulation of its materials: imposing copyright restrictions necessarily reduces circulation:

We have a great deal of information that we would like to make freely available, but often lack the resources to get it to everyone who would find it useful. As a campaigning organisation it is clearly in our interests to get our arguments and our briefing to as many people as possible. The web, particularly as its user base grows, provides an ideal way to make our material widely available.

In line with its goal of circulating its materials as widely as possible and with the intention of ensuring the operability and sustainability of its site, the TUC reached some interesting conclusions about how to build its site:

It became clear to us that we could not afford to take on new staff to maintain our web site, nor could we justify spending a great deal of money with one of the new web design houses that were beginning to spring up in response to the new corporate push for a web presence. We therefore decided on a different approach. The criteria we set for developing a new presence were:

it should be possible for every member of TUC staff to publish directly on the site with minimal training and no need to learn HTML (the web page mark up language).

the site should be easy to configure and self indexing

the site should be easy to navigate and fast to use.
the aim of the TUC site is the provision of information in a

stylish and helpful manner, but not gimmicks or the expensive

design values used by companies using the web as a marketing

tool.

that it should be cheap to run.

The consequence of these decisions is a relatively open and living site. Whilst the TUC has promoted the progressive strategy of enabling its membership to enjoy autonomy in respect of their contributions to its web site rather than produce a corporate profile web site, UNISON has positively encouraged its membership to participate in web activity by offering free internet services. Such free internet services clearly have the potential to bridge the divide between home and work which have accompanied the emergence of modern transport forms:

Unlimited free email addresses and free web space for you, your family, friends or UNISON branch. 24 hour technical support. Sign up here or ring 0870 009090 for your free installer CD. (quote this ref: 5069)

UNISON are also encouraging their membership to feedback views on the shape of the web site. Exactly the same feedback tools can be used in gaining membership feedback on policy, regulations and bargaining actions:

Whether you are a first time visitor or a UNISON activist, there is something here for you. Have a browse around and then let us know what you think, using the new feedback form.

Like the TUC, UNISON has moved with a multiple author, multiple entries approach to the structure of its web site:

UNISON is made up of many different sections and many of these have their own Web sites. These sites make up the area we call UNISON Online. You will find all kinds of useful information here, so

have a good look around.

There are pages dealing with Campaigns, with information designed for and by young people in UNISON, a branch publicity booth with downloadable artwork and a hotlinks page with useful suggestions for further surfing. Check them out!

UNISON members are divided up into six groups according to the broad area they work within. These are called 'service groups' and they cover local government, healthcare, higher education, energy, water and transport. Not all our service groups have their own sites. Have a look at those which do for information on pay, bargaining and workplace issues.

In order to make sure all interests get covered within its organisation, UNISON has ensured that self organised groups are also entitled to web space and presence:

To make sure all our members have a voice in the union, UNISON members have set up 'self-organised groups' to provide a voice for people who are traditionally under represented. UNISON has groups at national, regional and local level for women, lesbians and gay men, black members and disabled members.

Not all of these have web pages, but the Lesbian and Gay Men's site is well worth a visit. Lesbian and Gay Web http://www.unison.org.uk/lesandgay

Yet another move which UNISON has made which is in step with the growing levels of net activism experienced globally is the explicit use of the web site for campaigning issues:

Check out the What's hot! page for UNISON's top campaigning priority. Whether it's a workplace issue or a political strategy, here's how to get plugged into the latest UNISON campaign.

Although UNISON and a number of other unions provide an application path (though not a full electronic application procedure) on their web site, little attention seems to have been given yet to using the net as a way of mass recruiting new union members. Full electronic application facilities would support such a process of expanded recruitment with on-line credit card payment in the same way that goods are processed in e-commerce. In a similar vein, twenty four hour access to the Internet site better enables women are time poor to rapidly view ‘recruitment web pages’ and to weigh the advantages of union membership. The asynchronous features of the technology could be of great assistance in the recruitment of women trade union members.

None of the trade union web sites visited so far have focused on increasing the recruitment of home workers or part time workers through the Internet yet the voluntary sector has already begun to use the tool in developing virtual volunteering. The ability of the technology to reach into the home and recruit union members for the work place and the work force amongst previously marginalised groups has been underused.

Historically, labour organisations have had substantial experience of external agencies trying to break or dismantle their history by disrupting the social relationships which constituted the basis of union solidarity. Within the new on line communication technologies there are some important tools for maintaining continuities and ensuring that histories do not get lost or go missing. One such tool is that of archiving: through a well constructed archive, rank and file members can trace and track through the unfolding of events. UNISON encourages its membership to make use of its archive facilities:

An archive of previous issues will give you all the information you need on campaigns we have featured earlier.

To keep an eye on all the latest news for activists and members of UNISON, click through to UNISONfocus online-the latest edition of our fortnightly bulletin.

If you missed an issue, don't panic-all the best bits are stored in our online Focus archive. And to see what UNISON has to say to the press on some of the biggest national stories, drop into the press releases bulletin board. As much news as you can handle!

UNISON has already realised and emphasised the importance of the online form of unionism for campaigning. The net enables the union to turn the searchlight on organisations which default in their relationship with its membership or affiliated memberships. The web provides the tools for tracking the behaviour of international companies in their relationships to trade unions world wide: it also enables unions to track the voting records of politicians and governments in respect of their adherence to fair labour practice. Transparency of social and political action becomes a feature of the new technical form. Similarly the visibility of issues of merit places a pressure upon individual unions to provide support for adjacent causes and interests. The track record of the union also becomes visible and transparent. Global visibility gave impetus to the campaign of the Liverpool dockers: the development of web sites entitled the cyber picket line (http://www.cf.ac.uk/ccin/union/ Cyber Picket Line) provides a clear indication of the benefits the web can bestow on groups with less resources than the big unions.

The Liverpool dockers' dispute was one of the defining moments in awakening union activists to the possibilities of the internet. An international campaign was constructed on a shoestring, supported by unpaid labour movement internet enthusiasts. Conducted largely independently of the dockers' own union headquarters (TGWU), remarkable things were achieved. Two international Days of Action were co-ordinated, conferences held, funds raised and news circulated around the world. So successful was the information campaign that senior managers of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board (MDHB) complained that Liverpool's international image was that of a strike-bound port. For the Liverpool dockers, the most important payoff was when ships that docked at MDHB ports found themselves pariahs, unable to enter American ports.

(Steve Davies, Workers of the World On-line, in People Management, September 1998 http://www.cf.ac.uk//ccin/union/eng.html )

The voices of labour interests which have historically been marginalised are amplified by the new on line technologies placing them in better bargaining positions for main union support than would have previously been the case. Following on from Foucault (1995 reprint), the web can be seen as a reverse pan-opticon in which the least powerful can organise to provide surveillance over the most powerful. This is a feature of the new cyber-relations which is key to the future of trade unionism. Exactly how the most organised sectors of labour will interact with the historically more peripheral must become an imminent matter for union reflection. (http://www.btinternet.com/~donald.macdonald/homepage.htm (post office data)

Way to go: some obvious improvements

On line unionism represents a challenge to the iron law of oligarchy: one of the ways in which union officials have been able to maximise power has been through their near monopoly and control over the means of communication within the union. On line unionism has implications for informality, for the articulation of alternatives, for the organisation of unofficial and counter official modes of activity. The web site LabourStart http://www.labourstart.org which runs Web Site of Year ‘competitions’ indicates that increasingly the ‘emphasis is on interactivity (web forums) streaming multimedia (Real Audio) and search engines within labour websites. The age of first generation websites which were little more than online brochures is behind us.’

Amongst the sites nominated were Labournet and Labour Left Briefing both of which give some indication of the extent to which the openness of the web can change existing power relations and power outcomes. Labournet assists in global challenge to unfair labour practices whilst Labour Left Briefing challenged the current British political orthodoxy effectively, an orthodoxy which has real consequences for labour organisation:

Labournet UK http://www.labournet.org.uk/index.html
A South African reader writes: "This is much much more than a just a website - LabourNet breaks news, assists unions around the world with html files on issues for their own sites, carries research and photos of events - it's a one stop, high quality, reliable labour news and resource service."

Labour Left Briefing (UK) http://www.llb.labournet.org.uk
"This site combines pluralism with purpose. It played a major role in campaigning for the Grassroots Alliance candidates in the recent elections for Labour's National Executive - and helped the left seize four of the six seats in the members' section of the ruling party's top body, a real blow to Tony Blair and all those who claim ‘there is no alternative'. "

From the Labourstart list of commended web sites come examples that can usefully be adopted in the UK context. One such example is the notion of extending organising facilities to labour activists outside of a particular union’s membership:

NATCA Voice (USA) http://www.NATCAVoice.org
A reader writes: "Extensive Labor resources, both links and articles. Has A BBS that features free conference capabilities for any labor union activists. "

Another useful model derived from the LabourStart listing is that of creating communication paths between trade union rank and file members and leading intellectuals:

ZNet http://www.zmag.org
A US reader wrote: "Znet is the most overwhelmingly fantastic site dealing with labor issues and a host of other issues as well. The best thing I think, is that you have direct access, via their remarkable forums, to people such as Howard Zinn, Michael Albert and Noam Chomsky who are up on issues that effect workers."

Within the LabourStart listings there is no mention of the desirability of setting up union web sites to increase the responsiveness of the union officials to the rank and file membership. There are some obvious steps that could be taken with the advantages of the new technology in this respect:

It is possible to profile leaders performance in respect of key decisions to be assessed by the membership and beyond (especially in response to forms of mobilisation which go beyond the workplace and involve the community) similar to the on line voting profiles of politicians in the USA
Increasing the participation of the rank and file in a range of decisions through the adoption of on line ballot arrangements.
It is possible to profile union’s up to date performance in respect of gender representation and other relevant social categories.
Streamlining the decision time and decision location of union activities through new electronic forms can expand the level of gender participaton in those activities.

On line organisation can have strategic benefits in enabling memberships to participate in union activity whilst making it simultaneously difficult to control or police the activity. Messages can be sent to memberships on where to congregate faster than resources can be mustered to meet the ability to rapidly change venue. To get a handle on this capability , the on line capability can be viewed as an extension of the example of the 1989 London tube strikes where the ability of workers to surprise management with the timing and location of their industrial actions was a key element of the action. On line calendars of activity represent an important tool for organisation in such circumstances.

Shifting boundaries, shifting models: the potential for community forms of global solidarity

The exchange of on line information and models of activity between trade unions in the different parts of the world is aptly demonstrated by the web site of the GPMU http://www.gpmu.org.uk/hub.html . Here in a newsy, informal style rank and file members can catch sight of how unions organise themselves elsewhere; four items from the web site serve to make the case.

Firstly, the GPMU is explicit about its intention of providing a view of different modes of organising and the issues involved:

We also report on the different approaches taken to organising across the world - including South Africa, where some employers happily pay the wages of full-time organisers!

Looking towards North America the GPMU site focuses on the importance of recruitment and organising in union budgets, the advice being that one third of the budget should be spent in this way given the seriousness of the labor organisation crisis:

US & Canada . They're certainly facing the problem of restoring union influence head-on in the USA, where the TUC's counterpart, the AFL-CIO, has told its affiliate unions they should be spending one-third of their budgets on organising. Len Adams, vice-president of the Graphic Communications International Union, which operates in Canada as well, says his union isn't spending quite that much yet - indeed, he reckons none of the affiliates are - but it's a sign of how serious they all are that those sort of figures are being talked about. Part of the GCIU's organising budget is being spent on the Train The Trainers programme across the States, where the union takes activists from the shopfloor for centrally-funded seminars where they learn everything from meeting potential members at home to running a tight organisation at the office.

Turning to South Africa, the GPMU site stays focused on the importance of organising, this time emphasising the allocation of a substantial window of time explicitly reserved for recruitment:

South Africa.

In South Africa, where the unions built the only overground organisation in the battle against apartheid, they've been rewarded with enlightened employment rights enshrined in the country's constitution - including the right to strike.

Nevertheless, they still have to get out and do the organising work, helped by an annual autumn offensive, where union officials are ordered to spend an entire month doing nothing but signing up new members and building union power on the shopfloor.

For the last three years, the figurehead of the campaign was none other than the then head of state, Nelson Mandela. "As the president of the ANC, rather than president of the country, he walked the streets during the autumn offensive telling everyone 'Join Cosatu' (the South African TUC)," recalls CCEPPWAWU president Pasco Dyani. (Hard to imagine Tony Blair, let alone Her Majesty, following Mandela's example!)

And while some of the employers are "screaming" about the pro-worker slant of the constitution, others have been persuaded to back the Cosatu organising drive in a unique way - paying union activists (Pasco among them) at their companies to go and sign up workers at rival businesses to prevent them from undercutting.

Moving its focus to Norway, the GPMTU site places its attention on the recruitment of young workers and the role of on line information technologies in securing this new recruitment base:

One of the international success stories of the 1990s is the way in which the Nordic Graphic Union has reached out to young printworkers.

At the beginning of the decade, just three per cent of the union's members were under 30 years old. Today that figure has increased tenfold, in the wake of an innovative education and training programme which has seen almost every member take advantage of the courses on offer at the union's training centres in Norway's four biggest cities.

But they haven't stopped there. "Last year, we gave all members a special offer of a free 12-hour course to learn how to use the internet because it's very important for the future," explains NGU president Finn Erik Thoresen. "Then we discovered that they wanted computers of their own to use their new skills, so we got them a half-price deal on hardware and software plus three years free internet support. To be honest, at the moment we are very popular!" The investment's been worth it, he says. "Now, many people want to join our union because they have heard about our education centres."

In the same way that the GPMU has brought together information on new approaches to recruitment so it seems probable that the extended base of membership provided by the new technology forms (family members making use of UNISON web sites, for example) will extend the model of industrial relations in Britain beyond its historically narrow sectoral boundaries towards a more community based form.

Concluding with Castells: catching up on an imminent logic

In 1991, Castells reflecting upon the emergence of the network society, though he had not yet coined the term, put the question of whether information technology will centralise or decentralise power. He wondered whether the advent of information technology and its global formation would benefit labour or result in enhanced control over labour. Labour has been relatively slow to move with the opportunities to capture the benefits of information technology for the global organisation of labour and as a movement is still far from having achieved a global strategy. But there are signs of global convergence of union resources in the increased evidence of global links and materials on national union sites.

As we have seen not only unions are equally embracing the inherent openness of the new information mode: some still remain within old views and power territories resisting the technical openness which offers new modes of organising labour. There is a necessary tension between control of the web site by the leadership and the open interaction between the rank and file membership on the web sites of organised labour- the closed format which gives control to the leadership limits the technical choices in the direction of open networking which appear to represent the imminent logic of the information age. In this new paradigm, technology can allow for a level of interaction between leadership and base not available from more traditional forms of bargaining and negotiation.

Labor's creative use of computers could assure renewal. Organized Labor may have just the tool it needs to renew itself, provided it adds futuristics, innovations, services, and traditions (F-I-S-T) to its ongoing employ of computer potentialities.

(Art Shostak, 1999)

References:

Brigham, M. and Corbett, J.M.(1997) 'Email, power and the constitution of organisational reality. . New technology, work and employment. Vol. 12 No 1 pp25-35

Castells, M. (1991) The Informational City : Information Technology, Economic Restructuring, and the Urban-Regional Process. Blackwell:

Castells, M. (1996)The Rise of the Network Society (Castells, Manuel. Information Age, 1.) Blackwell

Foucault, M. (Reprint 1995) Discipline and Punish : The Birth of the Prison. Vintage Books; ISBN

Lee, Eric, (1996) The Labour Movement and the Internet: The New Internationalism. Pluto Press, London .

Michels, R. (1915) Political Parties: A Sociological Study of Oligarchical Tendencies in Modern Democracy, translated by Eden and Cedar Paul (1959). New York: Dover.

Pliskin, N., Romm, C.T. and Markey, (1997) R. 'E-mail as a weapon in an industrial dispute'. New technology, work and employment. Vol. 12 No 1 pp 3-12

Shostak, Arthur B., (1999) Cyberunion : Empowering Labor Through Computer Technology (Issues in Work and Human Resources)

Appendices