Social media, democracy, and the labor movement: How battles for control on Facebook affect unions

Abstract

This article explores the transformative power of social media communication in the labor movement, with a specific focus on how online grassroots activism influences union democracy. We argue that communicative challenges online from the unions’ own grassroots result in unions revitalizing their on- and offline member communication, which strengthens union democracy. Through a mixed-methods approach including quantitative analysis of Facebook interactions and qualitative interviews with union representatives and grassroots activists, we examine the evolving dynamics between unions and their grassroots members across Danish collective bargaining rounds in 2017 and 2020. We find that while unions and their grassroots share internal connections, they exhibit divergent objectives and strategies in their social media use. Our analysis reveals that grassroots activists initially held a significant advantage in online communication, but unions have gradually bridged this gap. Crucially, when grassroots activism posed threats to their power base, unions responded with innovative communication strategies both online and offline, which served to bolster internal union democracy. Our findings show the profound influence of social media on labor organizations and the democratic process, shedding new light on contemporary evolutions of union democracy.