Understanding trade union usage of social media: A case study of the Public and Commercial Services union on Facebook and Twitter

• Published date: 01 July 2021
• Author: David J. Houghton,Andy Hodder
• Date: 01 July 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12209

New Technology, Work and Employment. 2021;36:219–239.

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219

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ntwe

DOI: 10.1111/ntwe.12209

SPECIAL ISSUE

Understanding trade union usage of social

media: A case study of the Public and

Commercial Services union on Facebook and

Twitter

David J.Houghton

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AndyHodder

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and

reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2021 The Authors. New Technology, Work and Employment published by Brian Towers (BRITOW) and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Birmingham Business School, University

of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

Correspondence

Andy Hodder, Birmingham Business

School, University of Birmingham,

Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.

Email: a.j.hodder@bham.ac.uk

Abstract

This paper provides the first cross- platform examina-

tion of trade union social media posts, focussing on the

online content of the Public and Commercial Services

(PCS) union. Data scraped from the union's Facebook

posts (n=282) were compared with data obtained from

the union's Twitter account (n= 1554) to investigate

the extent to which social media reflects a union's iden-

tity and utilises the language of mobilisation theory to

engage with their audience. Across a six- month period

(July– December 2019), findings demonstrated PCS be-

haved in an interactive manner on social media, avoid-

ing the pitfalls of a ‘bulletin board’ approach through

using the language of mobilisation theory. However,

content was engaged with users to different extents de-

pending upon which platform the content was posted.

Findings also suggest that social media posts can reflect

a version of union identity.

KEYWORDS

Facebook, Internet, mobilisation theory, social media, trade

union, Twitter, union

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INTRODUCTION

In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in the extent to which the Internet and social

media present opportunities for trade unions to broaden their membership base and improve lev-

els of activism and mobilisation (Panagiotopoulos, 2012; Wood, 2020). These studies have been

undertaken in the context of the established academic debate on ‘union revitalisation’, where

unions adopt a range of strategies and tactics fundamentally aimed at growth (Ibsen & Tapia,

2017). However, the extent to which union revitalization has been successful is questionable,

with Kelly rightly noting ‘application of various organizing models of trade unionism, to which

mobilization theory was one contributory element, has signally failed to halt, let alone reverse,

trade union decline’ (Kelly, 2018: 706). The literature on trade unions and the Internet, and more

specifically trade unions and social media, are dominated by research based on surveys and in-

terviews with union members, activists and officials and examines the perceived ways in which

social media is changing (or can change) union activities (see for example Panagiotopoulos, 2012;

Thornwaite et al., 2018). However, despite this increased interest, there is still relatively little

known as to how unions actually use social media platforms in terms of the content they post and

extent to which the platforms are utilised to engage with other users. This is important as more

unions are increasingly realising the potential of using such technologies to communicate with

both existing and potential members (Simms et al., 2019; Upchurch & Grassman, 2016; Wood,

2020). This paper makes an important contribution to the growing literature in this area by pro-

viding the first systematic comparison of union use of social media, in terms of scope and content

across two platforms, Facebook and Twitter, through a case study of the Public and Commercial

Services union (PCS). We contribute to existing research in this debate by examining the ways

in which PCS interact with users through their social media posts and reflect on the content of

union communication on these platforms in relation to union identity (Hyman, 1994; Martinez

Lucio, 2003; Martinez Lucio & Walker, 2005) and the language of mobilisation theory (Kelly,

1998, 2005, 2018). Our findings show that the PCS utilise the ‘linguistic framing’ of mobilisation

in their messages and thus use the language of mobilisation to communicate (Hyman, 2007: 207;

Kelly, 2018). This use of language enables the union to reflect their identity online; however, due

to the nature of social media platforms and the ways in which the union uses the technology to

communicate with their audiences, only a crude version of a union's identity can be reflected. To

fully understand a union's identity still requires a more nuanced approach (Hodder & Edwards,

2015; Hyman, 1994). The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. The next section out-

lines the extant literature on union use of the Internet and social media. The background for the

study is then provided, before presentation of the methods, findings, discussion and conclusion.

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT UNIONS, THE INTERNET

AND SOCIAL MEDIA?

Against the backdrop of union decline, strategies for union growth have been grounded in the

academic debate on revitalization (Simms et al., 2019). Evaluations of union revitalisation in the

UK and beyond suggest that unions have been limited in the extent to which they have been able

to stem membership decline and attract new workers to the union movement (Ibsen & Tapia,

2017). As a consequence of this, there has been increased emphasis placed on the importance of

the Internet and social media to assist with trade union revitalisation (Wood, 2020). Part of this

agenda has been to understand the ways in which unions communicate with their members and