Challenge 5: Attracting and retaining members
It’s a refrain at this point. Unions are losing members, people do not join political parties, community organisations are hollowed out and led by activists at the top. As the world around us becomes more individualistic and people are less likely to join communities, bosses take advantage of this by dividing workers further to build a climate that is comfortable for capital. Unions can show that there is power in organising and that we can change our workplaces and society for the better.
Solution 1: Use digital tools to reach out to potential new members
So, you created some engaging content. First of all, you need to make a choice of where to put that engaging content. If you want to reach out to workers in new forms of employment, is it LinkedIn? Probably not. If you want to engage the youth, is it TikTok? Maybe. There is no sense in screaming into the void. You need to go where the people are.
And while the face-to-face approach is still the best way to recruit new members, digital tools can help you to amplify your messages quicker and to a broader public.
Partnering with relevant entities can help get your message out. Women’s groups, youth forums, migrant networks can work together with trade unions to pass messages of solidarity and campaigns for better conditions.
Monitor engagement with GDPR-compliant analytic tools like Matomo and other analytics built into social media applications to see if your message and campaign is having the effect you want.
If you are looking to reach out to workers in non-standard forms of employment, or women, or young people then the answer is to use the tools that they use.
For instance, Italian colleagues used WhatsApp to organise migrant workers around common themes of better conditions, better pay and a decent life for all.
Solution 2: Get to know your audience
Different platforms require different communication styles. If you don’t know the best way to reach out to certain audiences, the easiest and most effective way is to ask them.
Spanish colleagues at USO selected the youngest members from their database and brought them together in their office in Madrid. They then interviewed them to define their needs, expectations, and the language to use, as well as collected their feedback on previous social media campaigns.
Based on this they started a completely new social media campaign, starting with more traditional channels (LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter) and then jumping to newer platforms like Instagram and TikTok. With great success: one video on TikTok was seen by 12 million people!
Also, there is a lot more information on the topic of reaching out to young people, check out our guide on how to engage young people in the work of trade unions.
Solution 3: Retain your members
Someone has decided to join the union. This is fantastic news. However, a major problem arises when others decide to leave at the same time. Unions defend workers by creating collective force, so we want more members overall, not just to gain a new one and lose another. We need to fill in the bathtub but also plug the drain at the same time.
One method to retain this person is to send an email to them, however Danish and Norwegian colleagues found that the member was five times more likely to stay if they were contacted by phone. Although the phone may not be the most digital solution on earth, it goes back to the importance of having a clean database with clear information. This is not to mention that there are digital calling applications which can help facilitate reaching out to a vast number of contacts.
Gathering data is crucial to staying effective. The database should be filled with the reasons why each member felt the need to leave the union. We cannot improve if we do not base our actions on real information shared with us by members.
Solution 4: Join a union function
Make it easy to join a union! Are you still using paper signatures at your organisation? Sometimes that can work, after all paper signatures are better than having absolutely no way to sign up new members. But why not make it easier? Have a link on your website that you can share digitally with QR codes, or on social media so that workers can directly join the proper union and get in contact with someone to guide their journey from member to activist.
Always keep in mind that the more steps that you ask a supporter to go through, the less likely they are to complete the process. Have the adhesion form front and centre and make sure that their data inputs are immediately entered into a database to be taken care of by membership teams.
The ETUC has a “join a union” function that is used when communicating through social media to make it easy for any member across Europe to find a labour union to contact. The centralised database of all affiliates means that any European worker can find their place. Having an easy link to join a union allows for each ETUC message and campaign to include a clear way engage supporters and turn them into union members.
Tips for your join a union button:
- Make the button prominent on your website: It should be in a banner or highly visible
- Simplify the process: Remove steps by going straight to the adhesion form
- Divide by sector or type of job: A small questionnaire that directs people to the appropriate union
- Add the button to mailings for supporters: When mailing supporters of campaigns, add the button as a call to action