Unexpected Consequences

Before I forget, check out this important update.

As some of you may have noticed, I've laid off commenting much on what's been happening at school. I've posted pictures and made some general observations, but otherwise have kept my head down. At some point, though, I realized that pretty much all of the rules that we thought we were playing by, at least in regard to dealing with the rest of the community, have gone out the window.

As much as the initial direction was to avoid mentioning the strike on social networking sites, talking to students and parents, etc., I think the people who gave that direction were unaware of how inexorable the flow of information can be if you have a motivated group of seekers and disseminators.

I think unions and management types should consider that this will probably become the norm in future labor relations. In our particular case, it seems to have been favorable to the union, and I tend to think that will usually be the case. In past labor battles, management has had a huge advantage in its ability to communicate to the interested public, because they had the big money and the communications departments. I can't help think that this has helped create the anti-union sentiment that has been prevalent in recent years. Now, however, a few individuals on the union side can take advantage of a wide variety of tools to get their side of the story out to the people who most care about it. It's similar to the trend toward citizen journalism.