[HacktionLab] virtual picket line technologies?

[Ember Burns]

It looks like the strategy is online rally rather than online picket.

Just incase interested people are not already aware, copied from today's UCU mailout.

in solidarity, ember.



Tomorrow (Wednesday 1 February), 500,000 workers go on strike across the United Kingdom.

Ahead of this day, the Enough is Enough campaign will be hosting a LIVE online solidarity rally tonight (Tuesday 31 January) at 19:30 with all of the unions taking strike action--UCU, RMT, ASLEF, NEU and PCS.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady will be speaking alongside the leaders from other unions.

Set a reminder and watch the rally LIVE via UCU's YouTube feed here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI2KXnDRBto

In solidarity

Simon Foster
UCU head of campaigns



On 30/01/2023 14:47, flour at aktivix.org wrote:
> 
> One of the ways that employers subvert picket lines is to hold meetings by zoom or other online software so as to allow workplace events to happen but individuals who might otherwise be turned away by a picket line don't have to see that line.  More and more work is in services or coordination or planning type work so virtual meetings can be useful to coordinate work from home (none of this really applies to factory or other fully on-site work obviously).  The use of work-from-home workplace coordination platforms like teams/zoom/SLACK/code management platform software/etc has all grown because of the pandemic.  The original meaning of the word direct action comes from the workplace, to strike- direct action at the means of the production.  All very easy if the workplace is a place.
> 
> Has anyone heard of tech that supports virtual pickets?  Or discussions about the internet as place where pickets can occur?  Are their bulletin boards where this question could be re-posted?
> 
> In the upcoming strike by UK university lecturers and school teachers (every university in the UK and many of the schools) there will be advice in many universities to teach online so as to allow ambivalent staff who would not want to  cross a picket line but might (if they couldn't see anything that made it seem unusual) follow a management instruction to teach online.  Likewise university students, many of whom don't quite know what a strike is.
> 
> Online meeting links have to be posted, usually in the online class forum (an intranet for teaching- there are several main learning management software that are used by universities- for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moodle ).  There may also be a university students classroom list available.  Usually any member of the intranet community has access to this.  I wonder if there are software not that complicated to use that would be able to scrape an available intranet for online classroom links that could then be paired with a re-mailer that sent all participants a video email of a picket or even a video message and opportunity to join a virtual 'street' of picketers for an alternative class or conversation.   Looking for something that could be pieced together and much more respectable/graceful/grown-up than zoom bombing (and not illegal/thus suitable for union-support-campaigns).
> 
> 
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