Union Voice: Readers Write: Navigating The "Uncharted Seas" Of The Guild's HuffPost Boycott

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

“So here's a 21st century labor conundrum,” writes Andy Zipser of The Newspaper Guild. “One of your Street Heat pieces today (Will Facebook Replace Labor Unions? 3/22/11) quotes Tom Hayes talking about labor unions having outlived their usefulness as organizing devices because the internet has made it unnecessary for people to have intermediaries organizing them. You then go on to paraphrase Hayes as saying that the nexus of the internet and mobile communications makes collective action easier and more imperative than ever before providing a link to Hayes' original screed. Hayes' comments, it's worth mentioning, are on the Huffington Post. That's the same Huffington Post around which The Newspaper Guild has thrown a virtual picket line in support of unpaid writers who think it's only fair that they be compensated for their work. I realize this is new terrain for all of us, but I ask you to ponder issues of union solidarity in this context.” Zipser provided a link to coverage of the HuffPost boycott on the Guild website, noting that “you're not the only one who may be having trouble navigating uncharted seas. As the story notes, both (AFL-CIO President Rich) Trumka and (United Steelworkers President Leo) Gerard are HuffPo bloggers, and neither would issue a statement about whether they intend to continue to cross our picket line. I don't think it's for lack of sympathy, but simply because we're raising issues that most people simply haven't thought through.”