IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/hbsfof/262.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Social media, the internet and the crisis of unionism

Author

Listed:
  • Nienhüser, Werner
  • Peetz, David
  • Murray, Georgina
  • Troup, Carolyn

Abstract

Public debates have been transformed by the internet and social media. This survey of employees in Germany and Australia asks: How are attitudes to unions shaped by use of traditional and social media and the internet? The results show that greater reliance on the internet and the use of social media tend to have a positive influence on trade union attitudes in both countries. It appears that even if social media spread anti-social conspiracy memes, they have little net effect in spreading anti-union ideology and may even be potentially useful for disseminating pro-union ideas.

Suggested Citation

  • Nienhüser, Werner & Peetz, David & Murray, Georgina & Troup, Carolyn, 2022. "Social media, the internet and the crisis of unionism," Working Paper Forschungsförderung 262, Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Düsseldorf.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:hbsfof:262
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/267849/1/p_fofoe_WP_262_2022.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Peetz & Georgina Murray & Olav Muurlink & Maggie May, 2015. "The meaning and making of union delegate networks," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 26(4), pages 596-613, December.
    2. Joern Pyhel, 2008. "Betriebliche Mitbestimmung und gewerkschaftliche Loyalitaetssicherung. Eine empirische Analyse des Einflusses des Betriebsrats und anderer Faktoren auf die Mitgliederbindung der IG Metall," Industrielle Beziehungen - Zeitschrift fuer Arbeit, Organisation und Management - The German Journal of Industrial Relations, Rainer Hampp Verlag, vol. 15(1), pages 32-52.
    3. Bradon Ellem & Caleb Goods & Patricia Todd, 2020. "Rethinking Power, Strategy and Renewal: Members and Unions in Crisis," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 58(2), pages 424-446, June.
    4. Virginia Small, 2021. "Strangling Aunty: Perilous Times for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-981-16-0776-9, December.
    5. Panagiotis Panagiotopoulos & Julie Barnett, 2015. "Social Media in Union Communications: An International Study with UNI Global Union Affiliates," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 53(3), pages 508-532, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mary Naughton, 2022. "Mobilising societal power: Understanding public support for nursing strikes," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 93-109, March.
    2. Caleb Goods & Bradon Ellem, 2023. "Employer associations: Climate change, power and politics," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 44(2), pages 481-503, May.
    3. Hüseyin Sevgi & Aysen Tokol, 2020. "Sendikaların Sosyal Medya Kullanımına İşçilerin Bakışı: Bursa ve Kırklareli Örneği," Journal of Social Policy Conferences, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 0(79), pages 299-328, December.
    4. Lijun Tang, 2022. "Defending workers' rights on social media: Chinese seafarers during the COVID‐19 pandemic," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 110-125, March.
    5. Alex J. Wood, 2015. "Networks of injustice and worker mobilisation at Walmart," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 259-274, July.
    6. Michele Ford & Michael Gillan, 2021. "Power resources and supranational mechanisms: The global unions and the OECD Guidelines," European Journal of Industrial Relations, , vol. 27(3), pages 307-325, September.
    7. Lorenzo Frangi & Tingting Zhang & Robert Hebdon, 2020. "Tweeting and Retweeting for Fight for $15: Unions as Dinosaur Opinion Leaders?," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 58(2), pages 301-335, June.
    8. Jack Fiorito & Irene Padavic, 2022. "What Do Workers and the Public Want? Unions’ Social Value," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 75(2), pages 295-320, March.
    9. Nancy D. Ursel & Ligang Zhong, 2022. "Unionization and CEO turnover," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(1), pages 53-70, January.
    10. Gregor Murray, 2017. "Union renewal: what can we learn from three decades of research?," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 23(1), pages 9-29, February.
    11. Torsten Geelan & Andy Hodder, 2017. "Enhancing transnational labour solidarity: the unfulfilled promise of the Internet and social media," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(4), pages 345-364, July.
    12. Marcel Thiel, 2021. "La psicologia critica come strumento per la ricerca sul sindacato e per l?azione sindacale: una proposta," ECONOMIA E SOCIET? REGIONALE, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 0(2), pages 122-144.
    13. Vincent Pasquier & Thibault Daudigeos & Marcos Barros, 2020. "Towards a New Flashmob Unionism: The Case of the Fight for 15 Movement," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 58(2), pages 336-363, June.
    14. Michael David Maffie, 2020. "The Role of Digital Communities in Organizing Gig Workers," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(1), pages 123-149, January.
    15. Grégory Jemine, 2023. "It takes two to tango: Reconceptualizing union power and union effectiveness in a relational perspective," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(6), pages 445-470, November.
    16. Lorenzo Frangi & Tingting Zhang, 2022. "Global union federations on affiliates’ websites: Forces shaping unions’ global organisational identity," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(2), pages 444-466, June.
    17. Pauline Stanton & Timothy Bartram & Greg J. Bamber, 2022. "The role of nurses' unions in workplace innovation in Australian and Canadian hospitals: Analysing union strategies," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(5), pages 484-500, September.
    18. Sean O'Brady, 2021. "Fighting precarious work with institutional power: Union inclusion and its limits across spheres of action," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 59(4), pages 1084-1107, December.
    19. Louise Thornthwaite & Nikola Balnave & Alison Barnes, 2018. "Unions and social media: Prospects for gender inclusion," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(4), pages 401-417, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    social media; trade unions; attitudes;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:hbsfof:262. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/boeckde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.