Author: Chelsea Bland
Each year, the ways we communicate with one another expand and become more digital. As union activists and leaders, it is critical that we stay in touch with one another and keep pace with changing trends as we prepare for collective actions and share resources and information.
As union leaders in the government sector, we are all too familiar with how our access to our members and activists can be severely limited, or cut off all together. From government shutdowns to hostile management and an anti-union administration to even a global pandemic – we know how challenging it is to lose contact with our members because we solely rely on employer-based communication systems.
With our increased organizing efforts via our AFGE NOW program, it is the perfect time to refresh your communications outreach efforts and ensure you are building strong email lists at the local level. A critical piece of this effort is making sure you have the personal email addresses of your members. Going beyond using government-issued email addresses ensures that you can contact your members when employer-based channels are unavailable and helping keep our union’s activist strategies and communications away from agencies’ prying eyes.
We hope this list sparks other ideas for building a strong email activist list at your worksite. Private communication, outside of the employer’s systems, is an important part of representing, organizing, and mobilizing our coworkers.
At times you may encounter colleagues who are hesitant to share their non-government email address.
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