Print Communications Guide

Flyers and handouts

Use Flyer Maker for picket lines, rallies, membership meetings, and walkabouts, then export a PDF for letter, half-letter, or tabloid printing. The tool carries your Brand Kit colours and local number so the stack looks like you.

Best practices

• Glance Test. Can a member understand the main point in three seconds, from arm's length? If not, enlarge the headline or cut copy until they can.
• Keep the word count low. Aim for a short headline, a few lines of body, and the facts (what, when, where). If you need a paragraph, the flyer is doing a newsletter's job. Cut it.
• One clear call to action. Ask for one next step: show up, scan the code, talk to a steward, or share with a coworker. Two asks on one flyer means neither gets done.
• QR codes bridge print and digital. Point the code at your local website, a membership form, or an Officer Hub RSVP link. Paper gives the facts; the scan gives the live page if details change.
• Large, high-contrast type. Hallways, parking lots, and picket lines are not desks. Keep the text large and dark on a light field (or the reverse) so it still reads outdoors.

Board notices

Use Board Notice Maker for workplace corks. Tabloid (11×17) reads from farther away. Letter (8.5×11) fits most standard boards. Pair this page with the Union Boards Guide for layout, zones, and what to keep up year-round.

Workplace realities

• Put boards where members already stop. Break rooms, time clocks, and the entrance people actually use beat a quiet corridor. If you have more than one site, give each site a board you can keep current.
• Take down expired notices. A meeting flyer still up a week later makes the union look asleep. Pull it the day after, and keep standing pieces (contacts, health and safety, how to find you) current.
• Check your collective agreement. Employer rules for union boards live in your collective agreement and any posting policy. Some workplaces only allow union materials on designated boards.

Printing logistics and tips

Most locals print on a tight budget, often on a workplace copier. Design for the machine you actually have, then spend colour money only when the run is official.

• Design for black and white. Colour ink is expensive, and many shop copiers only do greyscale. If the flyer still reads without colour, it will also read in colour — and it will survive a cheap copy.
• Keep text contrast high. Pale grey on white fails on a tired copier and in a dim hallway. Dark text on a light field (or the reverse) is the difference between a notice people read and one they walk past.
• Use a unionized print shop when the run is big. Home and copy-shop letter printing is fine for a meeting stack. For bulk runs or official campaign printing, prefer a unionized print shop when one is available.
• Print one proof first. Letter (8.5×11) is the cheapest stack; tabloid (11×17) is worth it for boards that must read from across a room. Read the proof at arm's length in hallway light before you copy fifty.

Print plus digital

Print and digital are not competing channels. The same facts should appear on the board, the flyer, social, and the website: one message, four channels.

• Lock the facts once. Date, time, place, and who to contact must match everywhere. If one channel is wrong, members will trust none of them.
• Post paper first when you can. Hand the flyer or pin the notice, then share a photo of the printed piece on social (with photo consent for anyone visible). Members who only see the feed still see the union on the wall.
• Let print send people digital. A QR code on the flyer or board can open the live page, the RSVP, or the membership form when details change after you print.