Professor Pujol, main author of report. PHOTO: Manuel Castells

With 50.1% of the mentions posted on Twitter, CC.OO. has become the reference letter union on social networks since the announcement of the call for a general strike on March 9. It is followed by UGT (35.2%), CNT (3.4%), ELA (3%), LAB (1.9%) and CGT (1.8%). This is reflected in the study carried out by the group of Media, Reputation and Intangibles of the University of Navarra on the follow up of the 29M strike.

instructions "These data suggest that the CC. OO. unions have made more active use than UGT of the new opportunities for political communication provided by social networks," says Professor Francesc Pujol, lead author of report. In his opinion, Twitter is acquiring an increasingly relevant role in disseminating ideas: "Social mobilization and the final impact of the strike will be influenced by the trends of opinion on labor reform that have been generated on this platform". In that sense, "Twitter turns users not only into consumers of information but also into active protagonists in the creation of social opinion".

On the other hand, the study shows that the call for the strike has aroused a strong social discussion , but of short duration. The news generated 22,000 tweets on March 9 and 7,000 on March 10. From that moment on, the number decreased, since the following two weeks the daily flow oscillated between 2,000 and 4,000 messages. "Logically, in the days leading up to the strike, interest shot up again; on Tuesday, March 27, more than 10,000 tweets were registered," explains Francesc Pujol, professor at School of Economics.

The discussion: from labor reform to the role of unions

The analysis of Twitter content sample also shows that the unions have been the main protagonists in the discussion on the strike in the social networks. As detailed by the author of report, "if a value of 100 is given to the mentions received by the unions, direct quotes to the Government reach 30 points; those of the Ministry of Public Works, 8; and those of the CEOE, 9".

As for the content of the messages, during the week of advertisement of the call, 10.1% of the tweets explicitly referred to the role of the labor reform, while in the last week this proportion has dropped to 5.2%. For the professor at the University of Navarra, this trend "suggests that the unions may have encountered communication problems in conveying the reasons and objectives that led them to call the strike: the discussion has partly shifted from the labor reform to the role of the unions themselves".