‘It’s the newsstand about taking a stand’

As The Stand turns 12, it’s time for a redesign. Tell us what you want!

SEATTLE (May 10, 2023) — On May Day, The Stand celebrated its 12th birthday.

This news service was started May 1, 2011, by the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions to provide a new source of union news and information. Too often, important stories about Washington’s labor movement and rank-and-file union members are not told in the commercial press. So the WSLC wanted to create a news hub that collected and posted “News About Working People Standing Together in Washington State.”

The first image ever posted at The Stand as we introduced the service.

Since then, The Stand has grown to become a regular part of each weekday for thousands of subscribers and users. Every morning by 9 a.m., news stories are posted at www.TheStand.org about Washington’s union movement and its progressive community allies. (All WSLC affiliates and allied organizations: Send your news to The Stand so we can share it with the rest of our community.)

In addition, The Stand’s Daily News highlights each weekday’s headlines of interest from the commercial press and other news sources. This is not accomplished through keyword searches or (shudder) AI. The Stand’s Daily News is curated by an actual person who gets up way too early and browses news sites so The Stand’s readers can start their day knowing what’s happening in the labor movement locally and nationally.

Plus, The Stand’s Calendar provides notice of union pickets, rallies, forums and other events of interest. (Let us know if you have one you’d like added to the calendar.) Then, each day’s content that’s posted at The Stand is summarized in an email to subscribers so they can see what’s new. (Subscribe here.)

Though many union locals and councils provide news and information at their websites and via social media, The award-winning Stand stands alone as the only “daily digital newspaper” produced by an AFL-CIO state federation.

“It’s the newsstand about taking a stand, hence the name,” said WSLC Communications Director David Groves, who has served as Editor and “The Entire Staff of The Stand” since its inception. “But as any student of adolescence and ’70s sitcoms knows, at the age of 12, when it’s time to change you’ve got to rearrange.”

Yes, later this year The Stand will undergo its first-ever redesign. Twelve is an eternity in Internet years so it’s a wonder that The Stand hasn’t been significantly redesigned in all that time.

That’s where you come in.

TAKE A STAND ON THE STAND — The WSLC wants to hear from The Stand’s readers and its affiliates about what you like — and dislike — about this news service, and what you’d like to see changed. Your feedback will help inform The New-and-Improved Stand.™ Please take a few minutes to fill out this Reader Survey for The Stand.

Thank you in advance for helping us make this service as useful and effective as possible.

WSLC Wednesdays is a feature of The Stand where different departments of the WSLC describe their recent activities and the services they are providing to WSLC-affiliated unions.