[Random-bits] Labor Unions propose .union TLD

[James Love]

The following message is from a group of 13 trade unions and labor union
organizations that are proposing .union as a new Internet top level
domain.  Jamie Love <love@cptech.org>

-------


Subject:  Expression of interest in proposing a top-level domain for
trade unions
   Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 17:27:25 +0200
   From: "Pruett, Duncan" <duncan.pruett@icftu.org>
     To:  "'tld-interest@icann.org'" <tld-interest@icann.org>
    CC: "'roberts@icann.org'" <roberts@icann.org>,
        "'ncdnhc-discuss@lyris.isoc.org'"
<ncdnhc-discuss@lyris.isoc.org>,
        "'nc-tlds@lists.essential.org'" <nc-tlds@venice.essential.org>

Expression of interest in proposing a top-level domain for trade unions

It should be noted that the policies mentioned in this paper are likely
to be features of an eventual proposal for a trade union TLD. This paper
is meant only as a guideline, however, and it is quite possible that
some or all policies mentioned could be altered considerably, following
a full discussion among the sponsoring group on the content of a
proposal.

1. Self identification

The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions is submitting this
expression of interest, on behalf of a group of international trade
union organisations and their national affiliated organisations. The
group of international organisations, referred to hereafter as "the
sponsoring group", comprises:

=B7 Education International (www.ei-ie.org)
=B7 International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (www.icftu.org)
=B7 International Federation of Building and Wood Workers (www.ifbww.org)
=B7 International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General
Workers'Union (www.icem.org)
=B7 International Federation of Journalists (www.ifj.org)
=B7 International Metalworkers' Federation (www.imfmetal.org)
=B7 International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation
(www.itglwf.org)
=B7 International Transport Workers' Federation (www.itf.org.uk)
=B7 International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant,
Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Association (www.iuf.org)
=B7 Public Services International (www.world-psi.org)
=B7 Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (www.tuac.org)
=B7 Union Network International (www.union-network.org)
=B7 Universal Alliance of Diamond Workers =20
=20
ICFTU has 216 affiliated organisations in 145 countries and territories,
and represents 123 million workers, 39 million of whom are women. The
ICFTU membership includes, for example, the AFL-CIO (USA), CLC (Canada),
DGB (Germany), TUC (UK), FNV (Holland), COSATU (South Africa), LO and
TCO (Sweden), CUT (Brazil), KCTU and FKTU (South Korea), ACTU
(Australia). In addition to the sponsoring group listed above, all of
these national trade union centres are closely associated with this
expression of interest.

2. Brief Description of the structure and purpose of the proposed TLD

The Top-Level Domain (TLD) would be chartered (or restrictive). The
preferred string for the domain would almost certainly be ".union",
although some discussion is taking place as to whether it would be
necessary, at some stage, to set up a number of "alias" TLDs to make the
TLD more accessible to other language groups (such as ".syndicat" or
".sindicato").

The TLD would be open to registrations from representatives of trade
unions which are independent of outside control and have a democratic
structure.

The purpose of the TLD would be five-fold:

a) to provide a strong and clear identity for workers' organisations on
the Internet;
b) to facilitate the efforts of employees to find and contact trade
unions in their country, sector, or enterprise;
c) to help internet users identify bona fide trade union organisations,
as distinct from bogus unions such as government-sponsored labour
fronts, and company-controlled unions;
d) to form part of the ongoing international effort to bridge the
"digital divide", by building meaning and utility into the Internet for
workers, regardless of country, or economic status.
e) to facilitate employee and public access to a wide variety of
union-sponsored services, including apprenticeship and training
programmes, health and pension benefits, family and community services,
etc.

Registrants:

It should be noted that the registrant database would most likely be
managed by the sponsoring group. The arrangement would probably involve
the creation of a review body comprising the group's 13 organisations.
The body would be empowered to accept or reject an application to become
a registrant. A review procedure would be set up, to appeal decisions
when and where necessary.

Registrant organisations would be reviewed according to two leading
criteria:

a) is the organisation internally democratic?
b) Is the organisation free from control by government, political
parties,
employers or other interests?

These are the necessary conditions for the existence of representative
workers' organisations capable of engaging in collective bargaining,
within the definitions and jurisprudence established by the United
Nations' International Labour Organisation. We intend to explore further
refinements to ensure practicality and application. Additional criteria
may also be identified and considered as well. It should be noted that
non-profit organisations, such as apprenticeship and training
organisations, affiliated to approved unions, would also qualify as
registrants.

Through the worldwide networks of the ICFTU, and its review body, a
system would be devised to screen potential registrants. Applicants not
affiliated directly or indirectly to one of the organisations in the
sponsoring group would not be excluded from consideration if their
organisation is known to be free and democratic.

Registrations of second-level domain names:

A contractor would most likely be responsible for "registry operation".
Its responsibility would include the technical management and
registration of second-level domain names as well as the billing of
approved registrants for those registrations.

We understand, however, from our contacts with ICANN, that this
contractor would need to be identified as an integral part of any
proposal made, in order to facilitate the rapid introduction of a
"test-bed TLD".

It should be noted that a contractor has not yet been identified, and
that we feel that our choice of contractor, whose role would be
technical, should be evaluated separately from our proposal on the
policy for a trade union TLD.

A decision coming from ICANN (or from whatever process ICANN sets up to
evaluate proposals), rejecting a contractor mentioned in a proposal from
us, should not prejudice any future proposals for a trade union TLD, and
indeed, should not prevent a decision being taken, in principle, to
support a trade union TLD, subject to the identification of a suitable
contractor.

In cases where it is alleged that the names or acronyms of existing
trade union organisations have been registered in bad faith, we expect
that we will find the machinery of the Uniform Domain-Name
Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) adequate to handle disputes. The
sponsoring group would most likely also reserve the right to identify
and resolve possible conflicts prior to completion of domain
registrations, in order to prevent disputes arising at a later stage.

We are seriously thinking about a range of options for segmenting the
TLD space, which would be addressed, should a proposal be forthcoming.

For example, we would consider devising a system for allocating second
and third level names for the purpose of avoiding confusion about which
unions are involved in a particular second-level domain, and for
directing employees to the union branch or local they may be
particularly interested in.

Examples: iam.boeing.union, seui.boeing.union, iamlocalxxx.union,
seiulocalyyy.union

Segmentation by function is another option we might explore. For
example, training.carpenters.union might direct people to carpentry
apprenticeships and training links.

Expected size of domain:

It is hard to estimate the number of potential registrations likely to
take place in a trade union TLD. The ICFTU's database, for example,
contains approximately 2000 trade union organisations. This purpose of
this database, however, is primarily to maintain information on
international and national trade union organisations, and not union
locals or branches, many of which already have their own web site. We
expect the overall number of union organisations in the world to be
considerably higher - for example, there are about 5,000 registered
unions in India and Bangladesh alone. A recent estimate put the figure
at 100,000 trade union organisations world-wide.

We would also expect that many union organisations would wish to
register several domains in a trade union TLD. For example, the
Communications Workers of America already has at least one thousand
second- or third-level domain names.

We would also expect that, at least in the early days, trade union
organisations from the wealthier industrialised countries would make up
a large proportion of the registrations, since the majority of workers
with access to the Internet is currently based in these parts of the
world. We foresee a strategy to bridge the "digital divide" and promote
greater use of the web by unions from developing countries, by making
the cost of domain registrations considerably lower for registrants from
poorer nations.

Expected use of TLD:

Organisation names: Most union organisations are either registered in
ccTLDs (country-level TLDs such as ".uk" or ".za") or in the
undifferentiated ".org" domain. Although unions would be free to stick
with their existing domain registrations, some union organisations might
choose to switch their registrations to a trade union TLD. Others might
choose to keep an existing registration, while adding a second.

Examples: cosatu.union, afl-cio.union, cwa.union, icftu.union

Geographic or trade descriptions: Reflecting the way unions have
traditionally been structured, it is likely that some registrations
might come in the form of descriptions of trades or places:

Examples: bricklayers.union, telecoms.union, seattle.union,
ontario.union, merseyside.union, southafricanminers.union,
american-painters.union

We would also support the use of a service, product or company name in
connection with a trade union TLD.

Unions sponsored services: Union-sponsored services to their members
such as training, education and apprenticeship, family and community
services, communication, etc.

Example: bricklayers-training.union

3. Indication of the likelihood of submitting a formal application for
the proposed TLD

In order to make a decision which is fully backed by the unions we
represent around the world, and in order to fulfil our constitutional
obligations, we are bound to consult widely (The ICFTU constitution can
be found at this URL:
http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=3D990916420). Among the
international trade union bodies, and the affiliates of those bodies, we
are currently holding an internal discussion on whether or not we
proceed in making a proposal to ICANN. There are many issues which need
to be examined before we proceed, and we may very well decide either not
to proceed, or to defer an application for a TLD to a later date (that
is, we may decide that it is too early for us to decide to apply to be
one of the first "test bed" TLDs).




=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
James Love, Consumer Project on Technology   =20
P.O. Box 19367        | http://www.cptech.org=20
Washington, DC 20036  | love@cptech.org      =20
Voice 202/387-8030    | Fax 202/234-5176    =20
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D