We have a proud history of working with national, provincial, regional and local unions.
We help organize, build memberships, develop public advocacy campaigns around election or bargaining issues, and engage and mobilize members and the general public.
Union Solutions: Our consultants have decades of combined experience in the labour movement and have handled multiple projects, ranging from qualitative and quantitative research to member engagement activities, strategic planning and high-profile job-action campaigns.
CASE STUDY
UNIFOR
Communications Strategy
Creation and launch of new brand for merged unions including comprehensive member engagement strategy.
all of you.
CAW
CASE STUDY
Elementary Teachers of Toronto, ‘Help Us Help Your Kids’, ‘Vote for Fair Funding’
POLITICAL ACTION CAMPAIGN
A political action campaign that effectively engaged parents and teachers utilizing a wide spectrum of communications tools to ensure that education was a key election issue.
Member Engagement: Engaging with members is one of the most pressing challenges for unions. Connecting with them, gaining their support and leveraging their collective power at critical times can bring significant changes and achieve results. Stratcom has a number of services available including Telephone Town Halls that can help you connect with more of your members than ever before. Our consultants can help you develop your engagement strategy and build on your data foundation with a variety of services, including:
- Telephone Directory Look-Up
- Interactive Broadcast Voice Messages
- Telephone Town Hall Polling
- Direct Mail
- Live Calling
CASE STUDY
Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals (MAHCP)
STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS PLANNING
The development of a strategic communications plan to address multiple complex issues within a membership and bargaining environment.
Some of our union clients include:
- Canadian Labour Congress
- CAW
- CEP
- BC Government Employees Union
- United Steelworkers
- Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals (MAHCP)
- Ontario Public Service Union
- United Food and Commercial Workers Union
- Air Line Pilots Association, International
- COPE 378
- NBU
- PSAC
CASE STUDY
CEP – ‘Fairpay for Women at Bell’
MEMBERSHIP MOBILIZATION CAMPAIGN
A campaign strategy that included image, messaging, media engagement and grassroots member mobilization.
Bargaining is one of the core functions of a union, and the one in which members place the most importance. Whether it’s preparing for getting a good understanding of your members views, enhancing your lists to enable better communication or planning a public relations strategy, Stratcom’s consultants can help you get ready before you get to the table. Our relevant services include:
- Member Communications Strategy Development
- Public Relations Strategy Development
- Focus Groups
- Online Surveys
- Telephone Opinion Polls
- Interactive Broadcast Voice Messages
Active Bargaining: Stratcom can help you be more effective at the table in making gains for your members through our Communications and Research capabilities. We can develop and implement Rapid Response Member Research, assist with Member Communications activities, like Telephone Town Halls, Broadcast Voice Messages or Online Communications. Stratcom can also develop and implement rapid response public opinion surveys and public relations activities.
Ratification: Once you reach a deal, Stratcom can help you get the message out to your members with our Telephone Town Halls or Broadcast Voice Messages, as well as conduct a ratification vote through our secure Rapid Vote telephone system.
CASE STUDY
United Steelworkers of Canada – Off the Podium
POLITICAL ACTION CAMPAIGN
A campaign that effectively connected Rio Tinto’s employee lockout in Quebec to the 2012 London Olympic games and garnered international support for the removal of Rio Tinto as an Olympic sponsor.
Strikes/Lockouts: While the vast majority of contract bargaining ends in agreement, there are times when an impasse is inevitable. Stratcom will ensure your members are informed and engaged from prior to a strike vote or lockout to a ratification vote. If you think a strike or lockout is looming, we can help you survey, communicate with or reach out to all affected members. If you are in a strike or lockout now, we can help you reach your members rapidly and cost effectively, as well as develop and implement strategies to address external stakeholder concerns, such as the media, public or government to help you navigate to a successful outcome. When your strike or lockout is coming to an end, we can help you overcome geographic barriers and efficiently communicate the new agreement to your members and facilitate a secure telephone ratification with Rapid Vote.
Campaigns: Whether you’re looking to organize a new workplace, lobby for changes to government policy, or prepare for a tough round of bargaining, Stratcom’s expert consultants can help you achieve your goals. Many of our consultants have decades of experience with researching and developing successful campaign strategies.Great campaigns start with great research – a thorough understanding of your environment is critical to setting you down the right path. Stratcom offers many different methods to achieving a thorough contextual understanding, including:
- Environmental Scans
- Key Informant Interviews
- Focus Groups
- Surveys and Opinion Polls
Stratcom will help you create a winning campaign strategy building on the research to ensure proper campaign positioning, message development and selection of tactics, which may include:
- Microtargeting
- Member or Public List Data Enhancement
- Telephone Town Halls
- Broadcast Voice Messages
- Public Relations
- Advertising
On completion of the campaign, we will help you measure the impact you have made through public opinion and member research.
Union Renewal: Today, unions are working an adversarial environement where government policy, aggressive employers and public perception are creating a perfect storm. Still, members’ expectations of what unions need to deliver for them continue to increase. Stratcom has helped unions better understand their context and what the union can specifically do to better engage with members, increase the value members experience and set the entire organization on a path to better results. Our Union Renewal services is based on a rigorous research methodology and contextual analysis, followed by facilitated working sessions with executive leaders and staff to focus organization attention and direction. Building on our other services, Stratcom can help unions implement the changes necessary to make the Renewal a success.
Our union conducted voter contact during municipal and provincial election campaigns with our membership and other voters in our community. In fact, our local, which has approximately 5,500 members, decided to use Strategic Communications to contact our membership during past municipal election campaigns. As a result, the participation of our members during election campaigns has grown over the years, which is partly due to solid voter contact.
Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 15
We found the Telephone Town Hall to be a very effective and economical way to reach thousands of our members during difficult contract negotiations recently. As technology changes the way unions do business, we consider this tool something we will be using regularly to keep people in touch with what their union is trying to accomplish on their behalf.
Manitoba Government Employees Unions (MGEU)
