n By Keith Hatch
Staying connected in the countryside has always been a challenge, and as rural communities become ever more isolated by increased lone working and cuts to infrastructure Unite members are turning to social media to stay in touch and organise.
Reports suggest that nearly a fifth of the UK’s population suffers from long term loneliness – and a lack of positive social connections can be damaging to health, increasing the risk of heart disease, stroke, depression and dementia and reducing life expectancy. In rural areas this can be made worse by physical isolation, poor transport infrastructure and limited public services.
However during the Covid-19 pandemic there was a rise in people using social media to work and network – and Unite members were quick to adopt various platforms to stay connected and organise.
Mark “Pasty” Turner is Community Coordinator with Unite Wales and explained how social media has been vital in rural branches.
“During the pandemic social media was the best, and in many cases, only way that branches, members and communities could stay connected. “It’s not perfect – and problems with poor signal and broadband provision in the countryside is a major issue. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has had to walk down a lane or up a hill to get a signal and take a call, however it has definitely come into its own when it comes to organising.
“WhatsApp seems to be what most people have been using.”
Pasty highlighted some of the examples he’d experienced in his Unite Community role. There have been food banks in mid Wales that use WhatsApp to arrange deliveries of food parcels, while a community group in Ceredigion shares knitting patterns. Pasty said, “In some cases a WhatsApp group has become a substitute for the local shop or pub – where people can come together and share news and ideas.
“In particular this is apparent in some of the market towns like Welshpool and Abergavenny. In the past everyone would come into town once a week to the local cattle market, but now these
have been moved out of town and the community aspect of the markets have been lost.
“Social media has filled some of the gaps left by these changes.”
The Unite Community Cambria branch is very active around housing issues, particularly no fault evictions, and makes the most of social media to arrange meetings, share stories and organise direct actions as well as developing an active facebook community that reaches to local people to get involved.
Increasingly area branches are turning to social media video conferencing platforms, such as Zoom or Teams, to ensure that members can get involved with meetings.
Dorset’s Tolpuddle branch now runs meetings through a hybrid model where members can attend in person or join via Zoom.
Tolpuddle Branch Chair John Burbidge said, “Zoom has been
really helpful, hybrid meetings go a long way in getting over time and distance constraints in attending branch meetings.”
Fellow Tolpuddle branch officer Alan Daniels added that he finds WhatsApp
really useful for communication. “In my industry of transport, my company has set up a group at depot level and I've also got one running for Unite members in my workplace. I am also involved in a group for Unite green reps across the South West, and another is set up for my RISC.”
Though Alan did note that a few members were uncomfortable with phone numbers being made public - and that in some rural areas “the phone reception is dire”.
A major issue can be learning to use the technology. Though many who once avoided IT soon became masters of Zoom – it has evolved into a two-tier system where some have embraced the changes whilst others have become increasingly isolated.
In particular older people or those on low income who struggle to afford the technology or haven’t developed digital skills have been left behind.
Though returning to the classroom, for 27 uniteLANDWORKER Autumn 2023
a while most of Unite’s training programme for reps moved online into a virtual classroom, leading to challenges for many workers with a totally different skill set.
To help reps Learn with Unite offers training and free resources. In cases where the problem was the equipment needed Unite Education Teams have been loaning out laptops to reps so that they didn’t miss out.
Many Unite tutors have been encouraging reps to set up WhatsApp groups to share experiences and ideas and support each other.
South West Unite tutor Kevin Dawes said, “One of the things I say on virtually every course is that reps will almost certainly learn more from each other than they learn from us as tutors. It is for this reason I encourage them to stay in touch by setting up a WhatsApp group.
“Sometimes this can improve joint learning and joint working at big sites like Hinkley Point C. In other cases, such as the bus industry, they have worked together on standardising pay and conditions across a region or combine.”
Unite is keen to support members using social media to stay connected and, as well offering training, has produced a set of guidelines for reps, organisers and officers.
These guidelines point out the benefits of social media, but also highlight some of the pitfalls and the responsibilities laid out in the rule book along with some useful do’s and don’ts. In particular the guidance stresses that, “Careless use of social media risks damaging the union’s reputation, work and interests, even indirectly.”
However, used responsibly, social media can bring huge benefits to members in rural areas – bringing people together, helping reduce isolation and allowing branches to support members and organise activities and social events.
FIND OUT MORE
To see if there are any courses near you contact your regional office (page 39)
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