Ready for electronic balloting
One of the pledges from Labour in this year’s election is that they’ll repeal the Trade Union Act brought in by the Conservatives in 2016. This would generate some significant change for working people, it means that trade unions wouldn’t require a minimum 50% response to ballots in order to go on strike, it would mean they won’t need to give 14 days notice to employers, and maybe most significantly it would mean employers can’t draft in agency workers when their full-time employees do go on strike. Agency workers who themselves are often paid very little for their gig work. But what it will also crucially mean is the opportunity for online, electronic balloting.
Why electronic balloting is important
So far, trade union balloting for any picketing, strike action or any action short of a strike, such as refusing overtime in the UK must be done on physical paper, usually via the post. This creates a number of problems be it the delay in getting the ballot out to people, collecting the ballots or having to count the votes, often by hand. A slow and labour intensive task.
The knock on effect of this process is that many don’t end up voting, many votes are lost and it slows down the attempts of industrial action, usually at a cost to the individual employee. This is where electronic balloting is so important. This allows for the clean, instant send out of ballots, straight to employee inboxes, it means that employees can vote within a few minutes of the send out and these votes can automatically be captured and aggregated inside a day. When everything else in the world is electronic, it feels as though the postal method is set up as a hindrance to working people and trade unions. We need electronic balloting.
Movement is electronic ballot ready
Already the nexus for trade union comms, we’ve empowered some of the biggest unions in the country to mobilise using SMS, phones, email, and WhatsApp. With Movement, trade unions can ballot directly through the platform and collect the data in our secure, easy-to-use analytics platform.
With the teachers strikes of last year we helped the NEU organise for better pay for teachers who were already overworked after Covid and struggling with a lack of funding for their classrooms. We’ve helped Prospect update their tech stack and we’ve helped UNISON win with our peer-to-peer messaging via SMS. Our tech is ready for the dawn of electronic balloting, and so too should trade unions.
The post-election landscape
While the election is a busy time for us at Movement, with numerous groups campaigning and mobilising, we still keep the post-election landscape firmly in focus. Once this election is run, trade unions and NGOs will have to work with whichever government comes to power and that will mean sense-checking with members and vocalising their needs.
We’re already ensuring clients have the right tech in place to stay on top of members' needs as the landscape changes. Whether that’s with a renewed Tory party who defy the bookies and continue with the Trade Union Act, or with the more likely looking Labour party who’re open to more engaged discourse with trade unions - trade unions and anyone else pushing for change will need to stay mobile and keep discussions with members going.
Get ready for electronic balloting
In all likelihood electronic balloting is going to happen, and as a campaigning organisation it's important you’re ready for it. In this instance it’s not so much about modernising as being ready for something long overdue. If you want to discuss setting up for electronic balloting, or any other mobilisation tech, then feel free to book a chat with us bellow:
Book a call and see how we can help you mobilise across email, phones, SMS and WhatsApp:
