Local 25 Launches New Streaming Video Era for Teamsters
Aug 23, 2007 12:00 PM
Sean O’Brien, Teamsters Local 25 president, sees the launch of its new turnkey streaming TeamsterTV as forever revolutionizing the ways unions communicate with its members. Local 25, the first Teamster local to stream live monthly meetings over its TeamsterTV network to members, will also include an online instant survey poll feature and an archival rebroadcast capability.
“We are expanding the ways that we build and communicate our vision to our union. This vision includes the Internet and all that it brings. Though we are a local union, what we communicate has to reflect the interests of our members within the context of a global economy. The role of a local union today is more important than ever and with the economic stakes being much higher. The use of TeamsterTV and the electronic member survey give Teamsters Local 25 results in minutes and hours, not days and weeks. The survey and TeamsterTV together hold great potential to empower and grow our membership,” says O’Brien.
TeamsterTV is a turnkey webcasting system called the Fireside Chat, provided by Fireside Communications. Fireside Chat was developed in partnership with VBrick Systems and Powerstream. TeamsterTV gives participants the ability to interact live with guests and leaders during live broadcast while viewing slide presentations over the Internet. Recently, TeamsterTV broadcast an “Evening with Lt. Governor Tim Murray and Teamster President Sean O’Brien”.
“The launch of TeamsterTV is a historic event that I believe will be adopted by every union at the local and national level. What unites us—our values and beliefs—will never change; but the ways we communicate must in order for us to effectively reach and mobilize our 10,000 members whenever and wherever the situation demands. Unions started by helping working people work, and that will never change for the present or future generations of Teamsters,” says O’Brien.
“These are exciting times for unions. They can now reach, mobilize, and recruit using tools that didn’t exist a decade ago. Streaming video is one of the most powerful tools that will carry the voice of the Teamsters directly to the policy makers, businesses, on a local and national level. We are very pleased that VBrick and its partners are able to deliver a powerful, portable and a very cost-effective solution at a fraction of the price of other systems,” says Rich Mavrogeanes, VBrick founder and CTO.
