AFFILIATE – THE CWU APP
No: 172/21
23rd April 2021
TO: ALL BRANCHES
Dear Colleague
AFFILIATE – THE CWU APP
We are very pleased to advise you that the CWU Affiliate App will be launching over the next two weeks.
Initially, this will be a soft launch, where we will test and share the product with our regional and Branch Secretaries, before extending the launch to our wider representative base and membership.
The CWU Affiliate App is the next step as part of our commitment to keep opening up the union by continually improving communications and engagement with our representatives and members. The App will also support the work we are doing to raise the profile of the CWU within the overall Labour movement and wider society.
This innovation is an example of the investment that we promised as part of the Redesign Project and the App will be introduced in different phases. The first Phase will see all of our communications channels consolidated into one place. We will host video, podcasts and written articles within the app, as well as having the ability to directly engage members – e.g. polling the membership on big issues.
Crucially, the union will also have the ability to send notifications to all members via the App. This will be an excellent tool for us when advertising major events or industrial action ballots.
CWU events will be detailed on the App via software, which will enable you to link directly to your smartphone calendar.
In addition to our CWU content, we will also have a public facing element of the App. This ‘Affiliate’ section will enable us to promote disputes which are taking place across the movement, show solidarity with all workers and promote key campaigns such as New Deal for Workers.
In a further phase, the App has also been specifically designed to support and develop our recruitment and organising strategy and hopefully build a platform to grow the union.
CWU Regions will be able to upload regional events, news and communications via the App and the ambition will ultimately be to extend this access to Branches in a future phase. We know representatives and members will welcome this important development and we look forward to both the launch and the growth of the App.
Further practical details on how to download, access and create an account on the App, will be issued in the coming days.
For now, we would ask Branches to bring the content of this LTB to the attention of members and encourage everyone to download it as soon as we launch.
Any enquiries on the general content of this LTB should be addressed to the
General Secretary’s office – jdunn@cwu.org.
Any specific enquiries on the technical aspects of the App should be addressed to the Communications Department – commsdept@cwu.org.
Yours sincerely
Dave Ward
General Secretary