Since Sliced Bread - the reaction

This entry actually got me to look at the Sliced Bread site which, up to now, I've had no interest in. I'm actually glad I did look because I found both the posts and the linked articles very interesting.

Why our International does-what-it-does is often a mystery to those of us toiling at the local level. Just the other day, a member and staffer from outside my local asked if I was casting a vote at Sliced Bread because they were alarmed at the ideas making it into the finals. I didn't vote because I had more important things to do. For me, there was something not right about the whole presentation of award money. Even the name play on "the greatest thing since sliced bread," put me off the whole idea.

I think SEIU is kinda schizoid about what kind of organization they want to be. Every time I think I've figured it out they throw a curve ball. Around technology issues, SEIU has been pretty innovative compared to other unions as you pointed out. But these nifty ideas have all been generated at the top and they feel quite distant from my pressing needs at the bottom. For example, there is still no cross-local network of technology people or administrators to share best practices. There is an "informal" one, but it is really catch-as-catch can and not officially encouraged.

I've personally been involved in a couple of abortive attempts by SEIU local and International tech people to network. One such attempt was organized out of the international's technology department and brought a group of about 20 local innovators with database, web, communication and administration experience all together in D.C.

We met for an entire day sharing our ideas and frustrations while trying to hammer out a viable working group. The synergy was really great, given how isolated we all felt. At the end of the day we were abruptly informed that the experiment was over. No reason given. End of story. All of that good energy was gone and replaced by resigned cynicism.

It's not that I don't value Purple Ocean or Andy's blogging or even the sliced bread campaign. I just feel what we desperately need, and what would genuinely matter to the labor movement and workers, are sophisticated technological applications at the local level, constructed on a firm foundation of adequate support and training. Anything less than this is building on sand. I can't even use what tools the International provides because I too busy holding together a patchwork infrastructure. What's happening now isn't even top down because that implies, at the very least, receiving orders rather than being ignored.

I may not know everything that goes on in our Locals around the country. Perhaps there are great strides being made by locals who are kicking out the jams on new organizational and technological apps. However, I do know what's going on in New England, and let me tell you, it's scary.

I wonder how long this cart-before-the-horse situation can continue? How long can we wait before shaping up? How many more elections can we lose before the point of no return. This is becoming a real faith based initiative.

Back in October, I listened in on conference call, open to the public, where Stern was going to make a "major announcement." That major announcement turned out to be the "Since Sliced Bread" web site. I remember being less than overwhelmed. It never even occurred to me that I should blog about it here on Communicate or Die. It was nothing more than an essay contest with an American Idol twist allowing the audience to participate.

I did pass the site along to a friend who does have a truly innovative policy idea and was looking for financial backing for it. Then he discovered that the idea becomes the intellectual property of SEIU. He certainly wasn't going to do that.

I think the real problem with SSB is that it smacks of gimmickry and so therefore came across as less than sincere. Who really thinks a hot new policy idea that no one ever thought of before is going to bubble to the top, get implemented, and change the world? Sure, the site might attract a lot of people in need of $100K, but it certainly isn't going to give birth to any kind of sustainable community. The lesson to be learned here is that applying 20th century PR techniques over 21st century media doesn't work.

What will change the world and the labor movement is the development and shaping of ideas through real, ad hoc debate on the Internet, not through some contrived contest. See this post as one good example.

I read through some of the comments on the SSB site here and it appears that chief complaint unfair selection of the finalists. Basically, commenters are claiming that Person B posted the same or very similar idea as Person A but after Person A. They argue that Person A should be the finalist, not Person B. And from reading the entries, I would say they have a legitimate complaint. No doubt it's a nightmarish mess for SEIU to be called out in public about the fairness of their contest on their own site.

It's pretty clear that those running the Since Sliced Bread contest obviosuly didn't think through the process of picking the winners very well. And they also ignored that a contest run on the Internet with participation from users had to be an extremely transparent process (especially when you're putting $200,000 in cash prizes on the line!). Now they appear to be suffering the fallout.

As Wayne hinted at above, there are three broad options for unions:

1) Ignore the Interent and become basically extinct.
2) Use the Internet but missapply it and become basically powerless.
3) Adopt and change themselves to fit the new social environment the Internet is creating.

Unions will eventually come to figure out #3. The question is how long will it take? And the other question I want to answer is what can we do to hasten change? I'll add more on the latter in due time.