The August 20, 2023, Labor Workshop investigated options for networking by phone. At present, there seems to be no standardized approach to linking labor activists by phone, but there are a great many ways it could be done.
In the simplest version, activist leaders each create a texting group of fewer than 10 people. Like an old-fashioned telephone tree, they text information both ways, up and down the information chain. There are many ways to improve on the simplest version. Texting apps such as Signal, Slack, Whatsapp, Telegram, and others allow activists to send more than 10 texts at once. They also offer levels of encoding and channels with features especially adaptable to the needs of labor activists.
Denise Maben, retiree activist, spoke glowingly about the many uses of Facebook. Her basic unit is the chat group, but the tremendous versatility of Facebook and Instagram add important dimensions of outreach to her communications process. Although Facebook was developed for computers, Denise says it adapts effectively to mobile phones.
Various labor groups are already using different methods, but there is no standard so far. Dallas AFL-CIO may have to adopt its own.
--Gene Lantz