A pioneering website

United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1518

In 2003 this local knew they would be negotiating new collective agreements in the retail food sector with Safeway and Overwaitea/Save-On Foods involving more than 16,000 workers. The challenge was to control the agenda and keep the membership involved and informed through the process. Although the union has a tradition of strong print communications with its members, they were seeking even greater immediacy going in to the fast-paced negotiations environment.

They asked us to develop a website paired with an E-zine system which would enable union communications staff to send news bulletins to members from a laptop computer in the middle of the night as developments occurred in negotiations.

They also wanted to give their members a sampling of how Safeway was treating other negotiations in other parts of their food empire. The website we developed fit all their needs, was protected with a specially-designed security system which made it impossible for anyone to crack into it and copy the email list. Additionally, we developed a system which could send emails to their members in the space of several minutes. Conventional mail distribution systems would have taken three to five days to deliver the same information.

The news media also identified the web site as their fastest, most reliable, on-the-record source of information on the possibility of a strke, forcing management into a defensive posture responding to the union’s take on the issues.

The union credits the web site for a large part of their success in negotiations because members were able to receive negotiations information and react at the store level within minutes of developments at the bargaining table. You can view that site at www.UFCW1518.com