Lessons from the DC 33 Strike in Philadelphia

There are important advocacy and communications lessons that we can learn from the recent DC33 strike in Philadelphia. The union always faced an uphill fight, but a small tactical mistake might have made their fight much harder. I shared some of my thoughts on the tactics and errors in Real Clear Pennsylvania.

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Every campaign and every advocacy push has a call to action associated with it. And for many, that's a donation. 

We've all been inundated with emails and text messages asking for money. (Today's the deadline! Donate now! We'll match your donation! If you don't donate, the world will end!) 

They're annoying, but the reality is advocacy efforts and campaigns need money to communicate, they need money to organize, and they need money to support their work. 

In DC 33's case, their members needed money to support themselves while they struck for better wages and working conditions. 

With public sentiment on their side, especially on social media, it took the union until July 6th to put up content acknowledging that the public was asking how they could help, including making monetary donations, saying, "We are in the process of setting up a website for monetary donations to support our existing strike fund, which will be available in the coming days."  

It wasn't until July 7th that the union posted a QR code with a way for supporters to donate to the strike fund. 

A donation page and a call to action should have gone live before the strike began. 

By failing to provide the public with a means to channel their support and supplement the critical strike fund, the union made it more difficult for itself to sustain the strike. 

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The union seemingly failed to capitalize on public support for their members by not having the plan to turn engagement into dollars, and it made their negotiations and campaign more difficult.