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IN THIS ISSUE the European Review investigates the efforts of British trade unions to get themselves on the Internet. We took a small, random sample of unions which had world wide web pages and tasted their wares. PCS, the Public and Commercial Services Union, have a fairly standard looking home page which carries news articles on union issues, announcements and press releases. This seems to be regularly updated as the most recent posting was the day before we accessed it. At the bottom of the page are buttons to view previous months' archived news items as well as a suggestions button. Several links on the left hand side of the page remain as the user moves around the web site. These include 'About', 'Join PCS', 'News', 'Newsbriefs', 'Services for Members', 'Education', 'Information', 'Associate Members' and 'Contact PCS'. 'News' includes reports from the National Executive Committee of the union. Clicking on 'Services for Members' leads to links to 'Help at work', 'Legal Services', 'Education and Training' and 'Pensions'. Take your mouse to 'Education' for details of PCS training courses and links to education officers.
TSSA is a union that represents workers in the transport sector. Their web site has a very tasteful home page in cream and purple with a short description of the organisation. Buttons on the left of the page include 'About Us', 'Advice', 'Campaigns', 'Join us', 'News', and 'Search'. The 'About Us' page includes links to 'Contact us' and a 'Mission Statement', the first that the European Review has seen from a trades union. 'Advice' has a legal disclaimer and links for 'lay members' and 'staff reps'. The 'Campaigns' page bemoans its own emptiness which it promises to fill soon and 'Join us' has details of benefits and costs of membership. 'News' has details of TSSA publications and 'Search' has an apology because it doesn't work yet. In general this site seems to be well designed but a bit short on content at the moment. If the two sites mentioned above are fairly traditional then the EQUITY web pages are certainly different. On an, appropriately for the performers' union, all-singing, all-dancing index page there are the changing masks of comedy and tragedy, a furiously revolving 'Home' button, a movie of an opening mailbox, a credit card image to sign up to the EQUITY mastercard and links with such 'net-head' names as 'Cool Sites' and 'Free Stuff'. Also a short description of the union and its areas of organisation.
The somewhat baroque style continues on the 'How to join' and 'How to join continued' pages with spiralling masks, revolving smiley faces and moving pencils to the fore among the details of how to join, how to e-mail and how to contact the web designer. Finally, on the 'Cool Sites' page there is a movie of a gangster and machine-gun for no apparent reason with links to such external sites as the Edinburgh Festival. UNISON, being the largest trades union in the U.K., has a large web site. Its purple and green home page automatically changes to the usual links such as 'About us', 'News', 'Resources' and 'UNISON Online'. We can only mention in the space available that they offer free internet connection and web space to members as part of a deal with Poptel, the union-friendly Internet Service Provider.
Web pages mentioned in the above article include the following:
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Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) : | |
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Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) : | |
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British Actors Equity Association (EQUITY) : | |
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How to join page | |
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UNISON |
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