TY  - JOUR
AU  - Freeman,Richard B.
TI  - From the Webbs to the Web: The Contribution of the Internet to Reviving Union Fortunes
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 11298
PY  - 2005
Y2  - May 2005
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11298
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11298.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Richard B. Freeman
NBER
1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA  02138
Tel: 617/868-3900
Fax: 617/868-2742
E-Mail: freeman@nber.org
AB  - This paper shows that in the 2000s unions in the UK and US made innovative use of the Internet to deliver union services and move toward open source unions better suited for the modern world than traditional union structures. In contrast to analysts who see unions as being on an inexorable path of decline, I argue that these innovations are changing unions from institutions of the Webbs to institutions of the Web, which will improve their effectiveness and revive their role as the key worker organization in capitalism.
ER  -