By: Michele Vincent
QR Code Campaign
Unions today are using social media to organize, for member outreach and to sway public opinion during labor disputes. The BCTGM workers that are locked out at American Crystal Sugar have created a quick response (QR) code campaign to educate consumers and the general public about their situation. This is the first-known union QR code campaign used during a labor dispute. Although the impact this will have remains to be seen, it is something that companies should be paying close attention to.
According to the article I read this week on the AFLCIO’s Blog titled “Locked-Out Sugar Workers Launch QR Code Campaign for a Fair Deal – The campaign was launched last week in several southern states placing fliers in retail stores including Wal-Mart, Target, Publix, Kroger and Food Lion. The scanned (QR) code brings you to a website where the video “American Crystal Sugar is Killing the American Dream” is available for viewing. At the end of the video, it mentions several of the companies that obtain sugar from American Crystal:
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RWDSU Social Media Campaign Against Mott’s 
This QR code campaign is a first of it’s kind, but this is certainly not the first social media campaign used during a labor dispute. If you’re not familiar with the RWDSU social media campaign against Mott’s /Dr Pepper Snapple Group you should check out Michael Vandervort’s article “A Look at How Social Media Can Be Used Against Your Brand“. Michael is a Social Media Community Manager at Publix and an HR Writer/Speaker at The Human Race Horses Blog.
The union at Mott’s created their awebsite called nobadapples.org where supporters could like their Facebook page and download and print out pre-made labels to place on Mott’s products in local stores . Some of the pre-made labels said:
- In 2009, MOTT’s parent company made $555,000,000 in profits, Now they propose wage cuts of $1.50/hr
- 2007-2009 Mott’s parent company’s CEO Doubled his pay, Now they propose wage cuts of $1.50/hr
According to Michael’s article, the campaign against Mott’s was cheap, achieved a level of viral spread and was credited with helping to bring the strike to an end.
Will the BCTGM QR Campaign be successful?
In order for this campaign to have an impact on the labor dispute, there needs to be someThe call to action on the website that the QR code brings you to, is to sign the BCTGM’s petition and tell the Dave Berg American Crystal Sugar’s CEO: “Don’t turn your back on the community”. As of today (09/15/11) there are 4493 people that have signed the petition.