Trade unions in the community: Building broad spaces of solidarity

Holgate, Jane

doi:10.1177/0143831x18763871

Cited by 28 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 41 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Changing labour markets also present the difficulty that some groups of workers are far more likely than others to find themselves in sectors where unions have low levels of membership (Simms, et al, 2018, Tapia andHolgate, 2018). A clear manifestation of that is that young workers are disproportionately working in the private sector in areas such as hospitality and retail which have very low rates of unionisation .…”

Section: Strategy and Tactics In A Changing Labour Marketmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In 'Union Voices: tactics and tensions in union organising' (Simms, Holgate and Heery, 2013) two of the authors of this article published a book that aimed to step back from the detailed analysis of individual campaigns that had dominated the literature on union organising to that point and evaluate more broadly what effect this 'turn to organising' (Holgate, 2018) had achieved across the UK labour movement as a whole. First, we showed how successful the Organising Academy had been as a training programme.…”

Section: New Ideasmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The Trades Union Congress 150 years on

Simms

Holgate

Roper

2019

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to reflect on how the UK’s Trade Union Congress, in the 150th year of its formation, has been responding to the significant changes in the labour market, working practices and union decline. The paper considers Trades Union Congress (TUC) initiatives to recruit and organise new groups of workers as it struggles to adapt to the new world of work many workers are experiencing. Although the paper reviews progress in this regard it also considers current and future challenges all of which are becoming increasingly urgent as the current cohort of union membership is aging and presents a demographic time bomb unless new strategies and tactics are adopted to bring in new groups of workers – particularly younger workers. Design/methodology/approach This is a review paper so it mainly draws on writings (both academic and practitioner) on trade union strategy and tactics in relations to organising approaches and in particularly the TUC’s initiatives from the period of “New Unionism” onwards. Findings The authors note that while unions have managed to retain a presence in workplaces and industries where they membership and recognition, there has, despite a “turn to organising” been less success than was perhaps hoped for when new organising initiatives were introduced in 1998. In order to expand the bases of organisation into new workplaces and in new constituencies there needs to be a move away from the “institutional sclerosis” that has prevented unions adapting to the changing nature of employment and the labour market restructuring. The paper concludes that in order to effect transformative change requires leaders to develop strategic capacity and innovation among staff and the wider union membership. This may require unions to rethink the way that they operate and be open to doing thing radically different. Originality/value The paper’s value is that it provides a comprehensive overview of the TUC’s role in attempting to inject an organising culture with the UK union movement by drawing out some of the key debates on this topic from both scholarly and practitioner writings over the last few decades.

show abstract

Section: Strategy and Tactics In A Changing Labour Marketmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: New Ideasmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Trades Union Congress 150 years on

Simms

Holgate

Roper

2019

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The efforts of labour unions to recruit and organise those “outsiders”—mainly migrants, women, young, and precarious workers—has been a serious challenge for trade unions (Murray 2017). In some cases, the lack of effectiveness or willingness of unions to deal with these sectors of workers has favoured the rise of non‐traditional forms of labour activism that have tended to be studied under the category of community unionism (Cordero‐Guzman 2015; Holgate 2018; Milkman 2013; Roca and Martin‐Díaz 2017). As Wills and Simms (2004) have suggested, the limits of the two main renewal strategies of the labour movement, partnership with employers and organising, have led unions to adopt the strategy of “reciprocal community unionism”, which consists of working in and with communities pursuing mutual benefits.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socio‐Spatial Strategies of Worker Centres: An Ethnography of Alt‐Labour in NYC

Martínez

2020

Antipode

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article examines the typology of worker centres from a socio-spatial perspective. Drawing on ethnographic and qualitative fieldwork and applying the multidimensional TPSN (Territory, Place, Scale and Network) framework, it analyses three worker centres: Make the Road New York (MRNY), Retail Action Project (RAP) and Laundry Workers Center (LWC). Each model is the result of the predominance of certain logics of action, political strategies, and spatialities. The multidimensional socio-spatial approach allows us to identify the advantages and problems of each strategy. MRNY shows a territory-based strategy that combines membership participation with effective advocacy on different scales. RAP, despite focusing on services, has been able to overcome the fragmentation of the retail industry and escalate to regulating labour relations at the industry level. LWC prioritises workplace organising and shows a high level of experimentalism and grassroots base, although the results of their irradiation strategy are very modest. Resumen: Este art ıculo examina la tipolog ıa de centros de trabajadores desde una perspectiva socio-espacial. Bas andose en trabajo de campo etnogr afico y cualitativo, y aplicando el marco multidimensional Territorio, Lugar, Escala y Red (TPSN en ingl es), analiza tres centros de trabajadores: Make the Road New York (MRNY), Retail Action Project (RAP) y Laundry Workers Center (LWC). Cada modelo es el resultado del predominio de ciertas l ogicas de acci on, estrategias pol ıticas y espacialidades. La aproximaci on socio-espacial multidimensional permite identificar las ventajas y problemas de cada estrategia. MRNY muestra una estrategia basada en el territorio, que combina la participaci on de las bases con un trabajo efectivo de incidencia pol ıtica en diferentes escalas. RAP, a pesar de estar centrada en la provisi on de servicios, ha sido capaz de superar la fragmentaci on de la industria del comercio al por menor y escalar hacia la regulaci on de las relaciones laborales a nivel de industria. LWC prioriza la organizaci on en los centros de trabajo y muestra un alto grado de experimentalidad y car acter de base, aunque los resultados de su estrategia de irradiaci on son por el momento bastante modestos.

show abstract

“…There have been attempts to explain how and why unions can participate in economic development (Fairbrother, Walker and Phillips, 2017) but few explanation as to why they do not and it is here that the concept of "lock-in" (Grabher, 1993) is useful to explore the unions' difficulty in inserting themselves into economic regeneration. Deindustrialisation opens up the potential for unions to shift their purpose and orient themselves away from a narrow economistic focus on terms and conditions of employment and towards organisations and people outside the workplace (Holgate, 2018) and assist those affected by economic restructuring (Hyman, 2007). While many unions have experimented with different ways of working and new political alliances (Milkman, 2013), other have remained wedded to their historic practices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trade unions and industrial regeneration in North West Tasmania: Moving beyond lock-in?

Barton

2020

Environ Plan A

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

As the North West coast of Tasmania, Australia, has deindustrialised, the region’s unions have lost membership, power and relevance. This process of deindustrialisation opens up possibilities for the unions to become involved in regeneration as regional development actors and, by moving outside the workplace and engaging with the community, renew and revitalise themselves. But many unions have found it difficult to move beyond their traditional forms of action and relationships. This article uses the concept of lock-in, and draws on semi-structured interviews, two forums and a workshop, to detail the way the North West coast unions attempted to break from the confines of the workplace and out into the community. Their attempts to do this were uneven and contested. They were, to varying degrees, locked-in and constrained by their traditional relationships with politicians and their own members. At another level they were locked-out from participating in regeneration decisions by long standing relationships between governments and business and their antagonism towards the unions. Although the unions attempted to reimagine themselves, there remained a pattern of regional lock-in where long-standing relationships continued and limited and hindered the unions’ ability to participate in regeneration debates and activities.

show abstract

Trade unions in the community: Building broad spaces of solidarity

Cited by 28 publications

References 41 publications

The Trades Union Congress 150 years on

The Trades Union Congress 150 years on

Socio‐Spatial Strategies of Worker Centres: An Ethnography of Alt‐Labour in NYC

Trade unions and industrial regeneration in North West Tasmania: Moving beyond lock-in?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About