Hi guys,
PMFJI, but union message boards are always a touchy subject. They do A LOT of good...getting information out, answering guys questions, providing a community and so forth.
The bad side is that for every poster, there are 10-15 lurkers, so after a bit, only the really obnoxious people post, and they all have an agenda of some sort. Ususally the regular people give up trying to separate the wheat from the chaff and leave.
Plus there is the whole uninformed rampant rumor issue and the resulting rabid fingerpointing. If I was an elected rep, I would steer clear and stick to an email list.
Problem is, no union website is ever secure. There is always at least one company man that passes the info over to the company. With this in mind, it is VERY tempting just to bag the whole idea.
OTOH, as meanstreak said, you can set up a new forum in a snap. Problem is, now you're airing your laundry in public, and administering a "private" forum without current employee lists is a nightmare, and so unsecure it might as well be public.
With this in mind, most people thing its better for the union to run their own sites...usually when the union honchos get mad and threaten to pull the plug, the idea of a "public" union form makes them reconsider.
Nu
