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August 13, 2007BELTWAY BLOGROLL
Labor Advocates Back Union For Bloggers
Reprinted from the Aug. 6 PM Edition of Technology Daily
Some labor advocates say the blogosphere deserves entry into organized labor, as e-writers increasingly face the same workforce issues as freelance writers in the print world.
Jonathan Tasini, executive director of the Labor Research Association and a former president of the National Writers Union, said on Monday that bloggers "could in fact" join the writers union."
Organizing writers is really no different than organizing bloggers," said Tasini, who was invited to speak about a union for bloggers at the YearlyKos Convention late last week. "It should be easy to organize this group at one level because you can reach people in a relatively low-cost way; you can design a survey and post it on a variety of Web sites."
He suggested that bloggers from every genre get together -- "and I mean that metaphorically" -- and create an online survey containing the points raised at the YearlyKos Convention and circulate it through the blogosphere. The topics broached at the panel ranged from professional support -- such as obtaining credentials to cover Congress -- to economic concerns, like getting paid, and legal issues surrounding digital rights.
In Tasini v. The New York Times, the writers' union successfully sued The New York Times Company, Newsday, Time, Lexis/Nexis, and University Microfilms, for copyright violation regarding the electronic re-use of work produced and sold on a freelance basis. "That's an example of something that a collection of people might face that they couldn't confront alone," Tasini said.
"My personal opinion is that any blogger should be part of this union," Tasini added. With access to health insurance and getting paid, "there is no difference between someone who blogs on gardening versus someone who blogs on the presidential election."
Tasini noted a lot of enthusiasm among the 25 or so attendees of last Thursday's session at the YearlyKos Convention. "Now, the question is, is that core going to follow through?"
Panel speaker John Erhardt, managing editor of the Colorado political blog Squarestate.net, said in an interview that when a class of workers has "no benefits and gets paid nothing or slightly more than that for work they so obviously excel at ... how can we not form an organization to change the standards of living for the very vital work?"
Thursday's session was meant to figure out the best structure for organizing bloggers nationally and locally, he said, adding, "I don't know which would work better, directly joining the NWU, setting up something similar but specialized, or forming an organization that is not affiliated with a traditional labor union."
Erhardt likened unionizing to the practice of blogging. "[It] must be done in a manner that's productive," he said. "If we just keep talking, we've done nothing. That's the point about blogging. It's just one tool in an activist's arsenal for political change. It works well, but only when combined with traditional organizing, block-walking, fundraising and other general community efforts."
However, Erhardt would prefer the organization not set blogger standards, as "there's no place for me to say how a blogger should write his piece."
Posted by Danny | 12:07 PM
