"Key points :
• Social media such as Facebook forces unions to increase communication with members and makes rank-and-file dissent highly visible.
• Challenges can arise as a result of different emphases on collective and connective logics between online networks and established unions.
• Union success on social media requires a careful balancing act, maintaining the autonomy and agency of online networks without jeopardising traditional organisation.
• When harnessed by the labour movement, online networks can increase worker mobilisation and union democracy through increased membership engagement.
• Collective action logic refers to traditional organisational hierarchy and implies strong leadership and shared identity and ideology. Connective action logic is characteristic of non hierarchical, de-centred networks with multiple identifications and looser ideological commitments, which are common online.
• Both logics must be combined to reap the benefits of both, but such a ‘social media unionism' strategy requires great trust and implies some risk for unions if they are to support networks without maintaining control."

Support: Digital