In a world where one tweet or meme can make or break a brand, could social media be the new frontier for the labor movement? Despite Millennials and Gen Z emerging as the most union-supportive generations in recent history, union membership remains surprisingly low. What if the key to changing this trend lies in our social media savvy?
At the beginning of the pandemic, my coworkers & I unionized when our job went completely remote. The day after our Los Angeles office filed with the National Labor Relations Board, our president sent a nationwide email to over 200 staff members. The message expressed their appreciation for what unions had achieved in the past, but believed a union was not necessary here. They stated that their HR philosophy was to ‘work directly with us’ and not 'through a third party that does not understand our work.' Management strongly encouraged us to vote NO.
After the initial email went out, I rejoined a biweekly POC meeting with fellow staff from across the US. During these calls, we often discussed the systemic racist structural issues and microaggressions that predominantly women of color faced in the office and courtrooms. Unfortunately, without any real collective power, these meetings usually consisted of statements like, 'I can relate to that issue,' and 'Me too.' I took the opportunity to interject, 'We're always talking about the same issues, but we hardly ever discuss how we can change them. If anyone wants to know why LA is unionizing, I'll leave my number in the chat.' About 20 minutes later, I received a text that said, 'Hey, I work in the Seattle office. Can we talk?' We hopped on a call and realized that none of our problems were isolated. Roughly a month later, Seattle filed their petition to unionize.
“We were really inspired by what LA did. I think that was a really big part. Like I just so I felt so disrespected. I just was like, f***, f*** all this. Let's do something!”- Seattle Staff
Two Offices, One Fight
Our union campaigns shared common issues, but our approaches differed significantly. In Los Angeles, we actively participated in our mandatory captive audience meetings, which are meetings where the boss attempts to persuade workers to not unionize often times through intimidation. We prepared with questions beforehand and reinforced each other’s points. "I agree with my coworker," or "I too, feel the same way," we would write in the Zoom chat during the intense two-hour sessions.
Seattle chose a more silent strategy, informed by our meetings. During their brief 16-minute session with HR, they chose silence. The HR president pressed, “What are the issues so we can try to fix them without a union?” met with no response. Frustration mounting, she yelled, “What are we doing here if you don’t want to speak?!” One by one, each worker typed in the Teams chat, “I am in support of unionizing.” This silent, but loudly unified technique may be what led to their voluntary recognition, which meant the organization recognized their union without an election.
Meanwhile, back in LA, we were now labeled the problematic office. We endured multiple captive audience meetings, and despite the internal strife and external pressures, we won our election and later obtained our first collective bargaining agreement.
Digital Solidarity: When Memes Meet Movements
The Seattle staff’s solidarity was crucial to our LA fight and vice versa; when the president tried to sow division by painting LA as disruptive, Seattle responded with public support, halting all divisive communications from management.
Seattle had been relatively lax during the beginning of the negotiating process because they were not fighting an internal anti-union battle like LA, but when management sent out emails to depict LA as “bullies” and “mean” in comparison to Seattle who were “making so much more progress during negotiations”, it pissed off Seattle. “When they sent that email, we were mad. Like don’t pin us against LA like that so we had a meeting to talk about how we can support Los Angeles. ” - Seattle Attorney
Our nonprofit is a multi-million dollar organization created by a celebrity and a massive tech company in Silicon Valley. We didn’t make much money, but we did have a pristine image of our organization that racked in thousands of dollars in donations and pro-bono hours from corporate firms. We may not have money to take on our organization in the courts, but we did have Millennial and Gen-Z meme experts, natural organizers, and the internet: the holy trinity for 21st-century organizing. We began by creating accounts on the platforms that our organization was on: Twitter and Instagram.
“We wanted to get the information out there that we were unionizing & that the nonprofit was aggressively anti-union. They have a very public image they wanted to protect & we thought this would be the best way to put pressure on them.” -Los Angeles Staff.
Our nonprofit attempted to pin both the unionizing offices against the entire organization and also against each other. They claimed unionizing would make it “us v them” but the only ones creating that environment was the boss. When we created our social media pages, the president sent out nationwide emails saying that “the bullying online from Los Angeles would not be tolerated and that they hoped our pages would not affect the donations our clients relied so heavily on.”
Memes Versus Management: Turning Digital Tools Into Union Power
“I wasn’t on the bargaining team and I wanted a role. So I did the Instagram. I knew it was scaring & bothering them. We used Canva & got the Bargaining Units’s approval. We were very legit.” - Seattle Staff. One of Seattle’s first post expressed solidarity with LA. After Seattle posted this on Instagram, management no longer sent all-staff emails about bargaining.
Connecting for a Cause: Harnessing Social Media Wisely
Strategic Timing: It’s crucial to activate social media platforms only after securing a union election victory. Early engagement can sometimes distort the real level of support, as the vocal online labor community might not reflect the actual voters. Social media is a powerful tool, but it should empower the workers actually organizing.
Know Your Arena: If your organization is active on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, make sure your union presence is there too. This way you ensure your message reaches the same audience, enhancing visibility and impact of your fight.
Build Broader Connections: While one-on-one meets remain at the heart of organizing, social media is invaluable for fostering solidarity. As remote work becomes more common, these digital connections are not just helpful—they’re necessary. Remember, Millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha are digital natives, spending hours online daily; why not use this time to also organize.
Keep It Engaging: Leverage the funny and relatable power of memes. An management insider informed us that during mandatory management meetings they called memes, "Meh-Mehs" and were constantly frustrated in not understanding the pop culture references of our posts. Their confusion and anger showed us the impact of well-crafted, fun content. Memes aren't just jokes anymore; they're tools to fight for dignity and respect in the workplace.
Empowerment Through Unionizing:
Unionizing might seem daunting, but nobody starts as an expert. What we do have is the collective wisdom of those who've walked this path before and the shared commitment of our coworkers. We’re not just fighting for better terms—we're advocating for our dignity and securing protections that go beyond the immediate whims of management. We may not be experts in forming a union, but we understand our work better than anyone else and recognize that our jobs can treat us all better.
When you organize, you transform not just your workplace but also your sense of possibility. If we can challenge our bosses on fundamental issues like at-will employment and our working conditions, what can't we challenge? Organizing doesn't just change our work for the better; it changes us.
Make memes & unionize your workplace!