Join Together

Updates from Join Together

People are turning to unions again.

“Join a union” is a phrase you hear a lot more of than you would have done five years ago. It’s coming from every corner of society, in every part of the country - a recognition that for several decades capital has had it too easy, while labour has had it too tough. That the balance is wrong and needs correcting. That the cost of living is too high, and the wages to pay for it are too low. It’s a feeling that’s bubbling up. It’s happening.

But there’s still a way to go to having a union movement that’s growing quickly, and becoming powerful enough to press for - and get - the wide-ranging change workers need.

We started Join Together as a co-operative with a focus on helping unions address technology challenges because we’ve worked with unions for years, and though we’re not ‘organisers’ (well, one of us is!) in the traditional sense, we’ve come to see ourselves playing a similar role.

Our mission is to make it easier to join - and stay a member of - a union. We’ve created software that gives people a better online joining experience (the way most members want to join), so we can help unions recruit more members, get bigger - and win.

We can also make things easier for unions themselves. It should be simple to sign a member up, process their application, work out which branch they should be in, sort out their subs and show them how to play an active role. Again, Join Together helps with this.

As we discover things that improve the experience for people joining one union, we can share it with all unions. As we make it quicker or cheaper for unions to get new members, we can share those improvements with the whole movement. And as every incremental advance compounds over weeks, months and years, Join Together becomes something that’s driven onwards by its own momentum.

Just like a union.

All our updates

Checklist: Getting more visits to your union’s online join form

Posted: 03 January 2023

Join Together builds high-converting union join forms that get you more members. If a prospective member arrives at a Join Together form, they’re more likely to end up a member. Over time, this results in many more members, and much more money for the union. If the form is bad, it’ll leak potential members, resulting in a union that’s smaller - and poorer - than it might have been. So… start with the form.

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Is check-off checking out?

Posted: 25 October 2022

The deduction of member subscriptions directly from wages is great for union members and their unions. When you have it agreed with an employer, check-off makes signing up new members easy, collecting their subs automatic, means members never need to worry about renewals or failing payment methods ensures subscription fees reflect the member’s increasing wages, so they’re always paying their fair share. It also means unions can collect subs with minimal bureaucracy and cost (such as banking fees), as they get all their subs in a lump sum.

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The power of compounding incrementals

Posted: 10 June 2022

If you break down everything you can think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improve it by 1 percent, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.

— Dave Brailsford, the coach who turned British cycling into a world-beating force.

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People are turning to unions again

Posted: 17 May 2022

“Join a union” is a phrase you hear a lot more of than you would have done five years ago. It’s coming from every corner of society, in every part of the country - a recognition that for several decades capital has had it too easy, while labour has had it too tough. That the balance is wrong and needs correcting. That the cost of living is too high, and the wages to pay for it are too low. It’s a feeling that’s bubbling up. It’s happening.

Continue reading this post