Global Capital Local Resistance? Trade Unions National Newspapers and the Symbolic Contestation of Offshoring in the UK

The purpose of this article is to analyse the symbolic response of some trade unions in the UK to the `offshoring' of call centre work. The article shows how these responses have drawn extensively upon nationalist rhetoric and that this places unions in a contradictory position with respect to their internationalist objectives. It also shows that the unions' campaigns have been well received by elements of the UK national press, not usually known for their support of union causes and that this can be explained through the unions' adoption of nationalist rhetoric