Organising migrant workers: the living wage campaign at the University of East London

Abstract

This critical case study looks at the campaign led by Citizens UK and Unison to get the University of East London (UEL) to sign up to the London living wage (LLW). UEL agreed to pay the LLW after a brief campaign in November 2010 and it was subsequently implemented in August 2011. The study charts the course of the campaign and draws on mobilisation theory and new primary research to account for its success. What our findings suggest is that community organisers and union activists were able to organise and mobilise a largely apolitical group of migrant workers. This, we suggest, can be explained by the successful mobilisation of the community and augurs well for future broad‐based campaigns.

Implementing the living wage in UK local government

“…Claims by the three main local government unions (UNISON, Unite and GMB) for the living wage to be adopted through the National Joint Council (NJC) collective agreement have so far proved unsuccessful. UNISON is the largest trade union in the UK local government sector, and was instrumental in the early east London campaigns, but given their strong representation among lower paid workers (including those working for private sector contractors) both Unite and the GMB have arguably taken a lead on local living wage campaigns (Lopes and Hall, 2015;Prowse and Fells, 2016a). In this context, living wages have spread across the sector in a somewhat piecemeal fashion.…”

“…Reviewing the early evidence from living wage ordinances in the USA, Luce (2004) suggests that for every 100 workers who see a direct increase in wages, another 40 receive increases as a result of ripple and spill-over effects. Another important second-order effect is the scope for living wage campaigns to invigorate union recruitment, and to mobilise low paid workers in pursuit of "social justice" (Holgate, 2009;Lopes and Hall, 2015;Wills, 2004).…”

“…Furthermore, although the living wage is often seen as an important "proxy" for collective bargaining in low paid and non-unionised sectors, concerns have been expressed within the trade unions about the threat to "traditional" collective bargaining from living wages, leading to a more reactive than strategic approach to tackling the issue of low pay (Holgate, 2009). While living wages may create a short-term focus for union recruitment drives (Lopes and Hall, 2015), the experience of the GMB campaign in UK local government also suggests that recruitment and organising efforts among low paid workers provide the basis for strong negotiations and lobbying of employers rather than the other way around (Prowse and Fells, 2016a).…”

“…Second, the outsourcing of those services most affected by the living wage such as cleaning and catering partly undermined the perceived "gains", and the fragmentation of services and staff across the private sector meant that targeted recruitment on the back of the living wage would be difficult. Third, UNISON branches in particular appeared to be wary of strongly endorsing local living wage deals, which meant their role was not as prominent as observed in other Unite and GMB campaigns (Lopes and Hall, 2015;Prowse and Fells, 2016a). This in part was a product of the perceived adverse tradeoffs associated with living wage negotiations at other local authorities, but there also appeared to be a more fundamental reluctance to allow living wages to become the central plank of the union's strategy.…”

Creating a multilayered representational ‘package’ for subcontracted workers: the case of cleaners at Ben‐Gurion University

“…The value of appealing to the wider community has been noted in other cases, such as living wage campaigns (e.g. Hannan et al ., ; Lopes and Hall, ). Wright (: 289) notes that the living wage campaign in the UK, ‘entailed protest action against banks, universities, hospitals, museums, hotels and government authorities’, effectively widening the circle of responsibility beyond the immediate employer.…”