October 01, 2009
UK Union Adopts the Obama Model
Britain's biggest union is using online communication tactics developed by Barack Obama's presidential election campaign to go after 50 Labour seats.
The TimesOnline reports that Unite, the union which represents around two million members and was formed out of the merger of Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' Union two years ago, has "identified around 50 marginal seats that in many cases have more Unite members within the key constituencies than the size of the swing needed for the seat to be seized by the Tories."
During the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Unite paid for four of its own full-time staff to work on the Obama campaign in the hopes of adopting methods devised by the Democrats to identify union members, such as those of the United Steel Workers, who were considering voting for John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate.
Unite will shell out £2 million to fund the election profiling and on Monday launched a website aimed at boosting Labour's chances of winning the next general election and aide in campaigning for a fourth term Labour Government.
Posted by Buzz Webster at October 1, 2009 05:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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