Will Smiley Ever Have a Union Label?

I say that because I have been really impressed of late with the incredible power of the web to organize and mobilize people at a grass roots level. What brings it to the fore for me are the efforts of WakeUpWalmart, a project of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW.)

I don't have to tell you want the UFCW wants. To unionize Wal*Mart's 1.4 million employees. I also don't have to tell you what Wal*Mart wants. For WakeUpWalmart to go away right now.

Now, as a project of the UFCW, WakeUpWalmart is no tiny chronically underfunded initiative based in Berkeley and headed by people who remember the mud of Woodstock. This is a national union initiative, which perhaps removes a little of the people power story to this post, but I don't think by much.

Unions have a brand problem in the US. Many people have a reflexive reaction to unions -- a psychological recoil. Whether you like unions or not, you surely see this in your life.

The WakeUpWalmart effort is clearly designed to help on that score. Focus on a company that pays workers very little and doesn't offer hundreds of thousands of them health insurance. Their effort centers on a content rich web site and a lot of "TV ads" that I suspect get a lot more play online than on TV. Ads like:





There are also petitions, exposes, and a site that is very easy to link to.

And the efforts have significant effects on media coverage:



So much impact that Wal*Mart is spending millions and millions to combat this effort and fight off unionization.

The viral nature of the web has helped WakeUpWalmart attract about a half million members. That's a lot of people. Whether it leads to unionization -- we'll see. But it IS plain that the nature of the web and virality give WakeUpWalmart a leg up.

It's certainly seems to be driving plenty of UGC:



It'll be interesting to see if Wal*Mart tries to use virality or other aspects of the web to fight back. From what I have seen so far, their PR effort appears to be focused on traditional media outlets. And, let's be frank, it's been a bit ham-fisted. Even that's generous.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.