News

Union Busters To Go Cyber

Professional web-site hackers hired by big companies to infiltrate trade union web-sites could be the next generation of union-busters, Internet activist Eric Lee warned this week.

	"Who's Piers anyway?" - Eric Lee in Trades Hall

Speaking to the Workers Online Sydney forum on "Organising in a Virtual World" this week, Lee urged unions to start looking at ways of making their web-sites more secure.

As unions develop their ability to run global campaigns, companies will adapt union-busting techniques to the new medium - such as viruses and virtual paint bombs to disable their opponents.

"How many unions are taking measures to prevent their sites from being cracked and destroyed? Not many," he said.

He also warned of the need to develop encryption for emails so that information shared by unionists is not readily available to management. "We're talking about simply placing your mail in an envelope", Lee said.

Net Not the Net Answer

Of course, the threat of hacking won't be great until unions develop the Net into a more effective tool. Lee spent the bulk of his address outlining how some unions are taking the first steps to making that happen.

But he warned the Internet was no salvation to a movement in serious, perhaps, terminal decline, merely a new tool for reinventing the core union functions of educating, organising and agitating..

Lee showcased the potential in each of these areas by working examples:

- UK unions are running on-line education courses, where employers have agreed to give workers time off to study. Lee describes it as a true partnership between unions, employers and academics.

- Workers at Microsoft are being organised over the Net, with the union site not only providing a forum for workers to discuss issues, but also offering training in skills that will help them secure better work.

- ABC's lock-out of Disney workers was fought in cyberspace, when activists started posting protest notices on the ABC web-page's recipe section and posting photos of strike-breakers on the union site.

ACTU Computer Deal "Moot Point"

As for Internet access Lee says the debate raging over the ACTU-Vizard computer plan was probably a "moot point", because very few unionists would sign up to the offer.

He says he had brokered a deal involving free computers and Internet access for the Communication Workers Union. Despite widespread publicity of the deal to the union's 260,000 members, just 900 took up the offer.

Lee believes universal access to the Net is inevitable, with several US and UK companies offering free access.

The big challenge is how the Net is used and Lee says its up to unions to keep developing their presence to make the most of the technology. Lee's own site, LabourStart is to begin a 24 hour news feed for other union sites.

And new programs like Gooey, which allows people hitting on the same web-site to talk to each other, will already offer unions the chance to conduct discussions with groups of workers.

While in Australia Lee also gave workshops in South Australia, Newcastle, Sydney and Melbourne on harnessing the latest advances on the Web.

Eric Lee's Visit was Sponsored by Adult Learners Week -

   visit Eric Lee's Labourstart

  View entire issue - print all of the articles!

  Issue 30 contents

»	Ramos Horta Calls for Workers� Support
»	Sydney Unionists Forced to Leave Dili
»	TWU Questions Timor Action
»	SOCOG Called to Cancel Indonesian Contracts
»	Union Busters To Go Cyber
»	Not-So Aussie Post for Sydney 2000
»	Horror Tales - the Nights of the Living Dead
»	Asbestos Sufferer Bequests $30,000 To Union
»	Woodlawn Workers Edge Towards Justice
»	Telstra Shareholders Asked to Block Union-Busters
»	Reith Letter to be Revealed in Conspiracy Case
»	Shock: Tele Thumbs Up For New Years Eve Holiday
»	Tales From the Picket Line

»	Guest Report
»	Sport
»	Trades Hall
»	Piers Watch

»	League's Working Class Takeover
»	Proverb for the Cyber Age
»	Postcard from the Emu
»	Mind Your Language
»	The Other Young Speaker
»	Timor: A Call to Action
»	A Letter to Downer

Notice Board
- Check out the latest events

Latest Issue

View entire latest issue
- print all of the articles!

Previous Issues

Subject index

Search all issues

© 1999-2000 Labor Council of NSW

LaborNET is a resource for the labour movement provided by the Labor Council of NSW

[ Privacy Statement | Disclaimer | Credits ]

LaborNET is proudly created, designed and programmed by Social Change Online for the Labor Council of NSW