UAW steps up social media to avoid another failed vote
DETROIT — With a new tentative agreement to ratify with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, the UAW has another chance to prove itself to members, some of whom helped kill the first proposal by filling a vacuum of information on social media with criticism and information of varying degrees of accuracy.
The union began to roll out a new social media strategy last week aimed at improving the sluggish flow of information during negotiations that left workers frustrated and ultimately rejecting the first plan by 65% of the vote.
Union leaders don’t want to repeat mistakes that could impact voting this week on a new agreement, details of which were released Friday.
Harsh lessons were learned the first time around. When the union provided few updates during the first two-week ratification process, its members enthusiastically filled the void on places such as Facebook, Twitter and Chrysler Topix. The sites were filled with attacks on a proposal that UAW leaders, analysts and the company thought was a sound agreement.
Now it is time to sell a new tentative agreement. The UAW is devoting more resources to providing details and controlling the message — before someone else does.
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As union members prepare to vote on the new agreement, the UAW has an opportunity to take back control of its message and try to re-establish trust with its members. As soon as the national council approved the new proposal Friday, highlights were posted for the membership to start reading before information meetings and ratification vote times are scheduled.
There was a clear pivot in the communications strategy Oct. 5 as UAW President Dennis Williams resumed talks with Fiat Chrysler to craft the new agreement now before workers.
“We are also going to tell the whole story,” Williams said in a letter on the union’s Facebook pages. “I ask that you get the facts as we continue to address your issues. Over the next several days we will be posting more facts and explanations, hoping to get these facts into your hands.”
The new, more aggressive outreach effort continued throughout a tense week that culminated in a second proposed tentative agreement just before midnight Wednesday. Messages by Williams and Vice President Norwood Jewell were followed by a series of new-look, stylized Facebook posts telling members what the next steps are in the process and warning them against relying on third parties — including the media — for their information. They provided more information on topics such as health care. And when a strike deadline approached, they instructed workers to stay on the job.
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A new wave of transparency doesn’t mean much if the new deal doesn’t contain the “significant gains” promised by Williams on Wednesday, but it can’t hurt either.
The failure to connect is as much a symptom of the union’s missteps as it is of new technology in the hands of almost every worker.
“We’re a ‘right-now’ communications culture,” said Matt Friedman, a Farmington Hills, Mich., communications specialist. “That’s why people feel the need to answer a text from a moving vehicle. The expectation is that ‘I need to answer this now.’ ”
In the old days, before social media and smartphones, union negotiations were conducted under a cone of silence.
“They could tell their members, ‘We’ve got your back.’ And that was enough,” Friedman said. “The expectations of the audience have changed. You have to interact with your audience in a two-way fashion, particularly when sensitivities are at their highest.”
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Daniel Cherrin, who owns a public relations firm and was a Detroit mayoral spokesman, said unions and other long-established organizations have to constantly reinvent themselves to remain in control of their message.
“Workers are no longer gathering at the union hall as the center of the community,” Cherrin said. “They’re picking up their smartphones. That’s where they get their news and information.”
Statistics back that up. A 2015 Pew Research Center study found nearly two-thirds of American adults carry smartphones, compared with 35% just four years ago. The study also found that a majority of those people use their phones for breaking news and to keep updated on things going on locally.
Increasingly, union members are getting their news, union updates and even some misinformation from other members of the rank-and-file as opposed to official sources.
Brian Keller, 46, of Mount Clemens, Mich., is one of a number of UAW members who manage their own social media sites for members to discuss their jobs and the negotiations. Keller, who works at Fiat Chrysler’s Mopar operations in Center Line, created a Facebook page in May 2014.
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Keller said he was unhappy with the union’s own page and felt his contrarian views were censored. So he went rogue with his own site.
UAW members have been turning to pages such as Keller's as a forum to learn about and comment on negotiations. His “UAW Real Talk, GM. Ford, FCA” page has added more than 200 “likes,” in the last few days, boosting the total to more than 1,900.
“The page has been blowing up for probably the last three, maybe four weeks.” Keller said. “It helps with the communication because if there was a document out there that somebody happens to get their hands on ... we can post it for others to see.”
Shortly after the UAW officially began negotiating with the Detroit Three in July, the union told members they could sign up for e-mail and text updates and repeatedly encouraged workers to do so in messages posted on the official Facebook page.
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Members have complained that the UAW’s Fiat Chrysler, Ford and GM departments have sent out few substantial updates. Exacerbating the problem is workers want details when bargaining is most intense, and that is when the people at the table deliberately go quiet.
One of the dynamics at play is this is the first set of negotiations for the many new workers at the three automakers. At Fiat Chrysler, 43% of the 39,000 workers are entry level, hired since 2007. They are more likely to get frustrated and turn to other sources for their information.
During the failed ratification vote on the first agreement, workers snapped pictures of voting results and emailed them to colleagues or posted them on social media, thwarting efforts by union leadership to keep the tally secret until all the results were in.
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Union official Jewell has implored members to get their facts from the official UAW Facebook pages but it may be an unrealistic demand.
Friedman, the communications specialist, said, “It seems like this is a symptom of something we’re seeing across industries. ... They have a really hard time keeping up with the ways that their audiences communicate.”
And Cherrin had one more suggestion to get the message out to members: Make a video.
“The head of the UAW should post a video to explain the contract,” Cherrin said. “Hitting on the key messages that they want to communicate. ... People want to see their leader ... see the emotions, hear from the top what’s happening. I think it’s very important — if not crucial — to seeing this succeed.”
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