Never cross a (digital T


Online activism, including strike action, is proving successful. Cristina Lago reports


echnology is shaping how we work - and how we protest. With workers scattered across locations and time zones, digital picketing is a powerful tool. One NUJ activist who understands the


power that digital pickets have to mobilise members and raise public awareness about industrial disputes is Matt Capon, former chapel chair at The Mirror and a member of the negotiating committee during the 2022 pay dispute at Reach. Capon managed the Mirror NUJ chapel account on X (then Twitter). He created the @MirrorNUJ handle in June 2020 to engage with union members during the covid pandemic lockdowns when staff were being furloughed and the company announced its first wave of redundancies. “We were all working from home and the best way to engage


with people was online,” explains Capon, who is now a freelance video journalist and a visiting lecturer in the Department of Journalism at City University. “I kept the account ticking over because I could see that having an online presence was important for union and audience engagement. It helped draw together new and existing NUJ members, younger and older.” Through the X account, Capon kept his chapel members up


to date with developments during the dispute at Reach while also attracting new workers to the union, which saw a large influx of young members on the back of the negotiations. Mirror teams that would usually work separately, such as


the national sports desk and the Westminster political reporters, would come together thanks to the online organisation orchestrated through the X digital picket. The account also helped interaction between NUJ branches and other trade unions and counteracted publicly in the Twittersphere Reach management’s line about the dispute.


A shifting from stereotypes Despite these results, Capon says membership-led bodies and trade unions “are very scared of” the digital pickets concept. “One of the problems trade unionism has is that we use a language that can be very archaic: signing off with ‘solidarity’, calling people comrades… Online engagement doesn’t suit that type of vocabulary and isn’t comfortable with internet culture or web audiences,” Capon says.


16 | theJournalist


Digital pickets talk about what’s going on and why people are going on strike in a way that is “free from preconceptions”, but activists can struggle to find a middle ground between the official union line and a language that is more free flowing. “Those two languages are not always compatible,” adds


Capon. “Online, you have to work really hard to shift away from the stereotype of, ‘Oh, so you’re an unhappy union member and of course go on strike.’ ” Among posts plastered with the #JoinAUnion hashtag and


links to the NUJ’s website, The Mirror chapel’s X account is full of memes and gifs popular in the internet culture with a twist relating to the Reach dispute. (The account’s bio includes: ‘Check back here for updates, sarcasm and memes.’)


Law on online picketing


The Trade Union Act 2016, which came into effect on 1 March 2017, introduced restrictions on trade unions, including the requirement to appoint a picket supervisor who must be readily identifiable on the picket line, familiar with the Code of Practice on Picketing, and carry a letter of authorisation. It is unclear how this


would work in a digital picket line designed to prevent workers from working online. Digital trade unionist activities are developing and no legislative framework governs digital organising. The Employment


Rights Bill, expected to come into force next year, should remove some of the provisions that the Trade Union Act introduced,


including the requirement for the union to appoint a picket supervisor. “That’s going to be quite a


comprehensive overhaul of existing legislative provisions, including those that relate to picketing,” explains Neil Todd, partner at Thompsons Solicitors’ trade union law group. Neither the Trade Union


and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 nor the Trade Union Act cover picketing or were designed with a digital element in mind, he adds.


Todd adds that the Code of


Practice on Picketing is about conventional picketing in person: “It isn’t considering digital picketing activity.” The Employment Rights Bill


does not deal with picketing but recognises the importance of digital activities for trade unions. For example, it provides for them to enter into access agreements with employers. These enable union officials to meet, support, represent, recruit or organise workers and/or to facilitate collective bargaining. These rights comprise physical access to a workplace and/or the right to communicate (including digitally) with staff. Unions were keen to secure these because of the importance of digital access in engaging and recruiting members.


EKIN YALGIN / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO


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