This book has ambitious objectives. Author Amanda Tattersall examines three coalitions in three English-speaking countries to discover what factors make for strong coalitions between labour unions and community organizations. More boldly, she also uses what she learns to make a series of judgments concerning the centrality of such coalitions for progressive social change, and how the very strategy, purpose and theory of unions can and must change because of lessons learned from coalitional practice.Implicitly using concepts from social movement theory, such as resource mobilization, political opportunity structures and framing processes, Tattersall identifies three key elements of coalitions between unions and community organizations: 'common concern' (the issue and the organizational and membership commitment to it), organizational relationships and structure (capacity, decision making, culture and bridge builders and coalition structure) and 'scale' (level of political opportunities, scale or scales of decision makers and 'local broker organizations' for coalitions operating at higher levels).The author uses these three elements to systematically analyse a public education coalition dominated by the teacher's union in New South Wales, Australia; a Chicago-based coalition of multiple community organizations and unions fighting for a 'living-wage' ordinance and living-wage requirements for 'big box' retailers such as Wal-Mart; and a Canadian coalition of several unions and community partners (primarily senior groups) in Ontario to preserve the public health system. Tattersall argues persuasively that analyses and comparisons of these three cases across national boundaries is legitimate despite the different national contexts as long as one is careful to incorporate those national differences into the analysis. She uses the Australian case to analyse and illustrates issues concerning common concern, and the US and Canadian cases to do likewise with the issues of organizational relationships and scale. In each instance, the cases chosen lend themselves to the analysis carried out.Power in Coalition systematically analyses the relationships between each of the primary factors (common concern, organizational relationships and scale) with four different desirable outcomes or results: (a) winning on the issue, (b) augmenting or creating a supportive political climate, (c) sustaining relationships, and (d) building the capacity of coalition organizations. Primary factors are further subdivided: 'common concern' is signified by organizational commitment, member commitment and public commitment; 'organizational relationships' are measured by organizational capacity, British Journal of Industrial Relations

Post-apartheid South Africa has embarked on an ambitious programme of labour market reform in pursuit of 'dynamic efficiency' and 'redistributive justice'. It involves both legislation to promote equality among races and an institutional framework inspired by the European Social Model. We examine how this framework has fared over the past decade, in particular pinpointing the tension between adversarial traditions and the new social partnership, and between market-oriented economic policy and corporatist institutions. Our conclusion is that the system has performed reasonably well, but tackling the mass unemployment at the root of continued inequality is a far longer-term project. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2006.

This research note examines the pattern of union membership growth in USDAW during 1980 to 1990. The union's recruitment strategies, campaigns at local and national level, and the effect of changes in the labour market such as recent equal value judgements are examined with respect to changes in membership levels.

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