Workers' Collective Voice on Mobile Social Media: The Key Objectives of Autonomy, Commitment, and Recognition

• In Event: Voices, Voicing, and Organizing

Abstract

This study explores how workers created and expressed their collective voice during three recent successive unionization efforts in Israel. It reveals how union activists leveraged the Visibility and Portability affordances of social media and mobile devices, to achieve and maintain three key objectives: Autonomy in communication; Commitment of workers; and Recognition by management. An intertwined analysis of unionization-related Facebook pages and in-depth interviews with union activists unpacks the tensions, challenges, and ironies emerging from utilizing these neoliberal technologies in the organizational setting.

Authors

• Tamar Lazar, U of Haifa

• Rivka Ribak, U of Haifa

• Roei Davidson, University of Haifa