Social media and industrial relations

Abstract

What impact the social media instruments are having on industrial relationships and, in particular, on collective bargaining? This subject, despite the widespread use of such instruments, is only partially investigated.

The theme is here observed from the point of view of an Industrial Relations’ operator, by trying to grasp some trends from the experience, in discontinuity with respect to the traditional schemes of the bargaining, which seem to be linked to the pervasive confirmation of new mass communication tools. The most evident aspects are the simplification of language, the focus of trade union negotiations on immediately perceptible issues as responding to the needs of workers, and the progressive disappearance of the "liturgical" aspects of the negotiations.

In addition, a substantial lack of regulation about the use of social media in the framework of the industrial relationships is highlighted.