The New Solidarity? Trade Union Coalition-Building in Five Countries

[Excerpt] The purpose of this chapter is to present a framework for the analysis of union coalition-building and demonstrate its utility using comparative empirical material mainly from the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom though we also comment on union action in Italy and Spain. In what follows, we seek to define union-coalitions and specify their functions, identify a variety of types of coalition and the variety of factors that encourage unions to forge coalitions. We then set out and seek to explain the variable patterns of coalition use across our five countries. The chapter concludes in speculative vein, by considering the role that coalition building should and could play in the revitalization of national labour movements

Union Voices: Tactics and Tensions in UK Organizing

[Excerpt] This book tells the story of what is, in our view, probably the most significant development in British trade unionism of recent years: the increasing focus on organizing activity. We do this by reflecting on the impact of the UK\u27s Trades Union Congress (TUC) Organising Academy (OA), the participants in the training program, and the organizing campaigns that union organizers have run. We explicitly want to give voice to these union activists who have worked so hard to recruit and organize new union members. Much has already been written in the United Kingdom (often by us) about these developments but what is often lost in short articles or surveys are the stories that organizers have to tell. In an effort to build a base of knowledge from which to start to analyze changes, we have so far tended to focus on publishing the studies that demonstrate general trends and developments. This book seeks to do something slightly different. We draw on those previously published papers where necessary, but here we want to engage with the politics and tensions behind those trends; both on a macro and a micro level. We want to tell the stories of what organizing is like on the front line, what organizers do, and how they do it. The workplace struggles of workers and their unions are at the heart of these stories. But we also want to draw attention to the wider reasons why union organizing is important. As we will argue, one of the things that happened as ideas about organizing migrated from other countries— notably the United States and Australia—to the United Kingdom is that the political conceptualization of why unions are organizing has been underexamined. We want to understand and examine organizing as a political process, and we want to look at the politics within the union but also the wider purpose of organizing, which often varies from context to context

Workplace conflict resolution in Wales: the unexpected prevalence of alternative dispute resolution

Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) practices are increasingly being viewed as an improved way of resolving workplace conflict. Much of the empirical literature focuses on the spread of ADR amongst US organizations with little evidence of such approaches having crossed the Atlantic. This article presents new survey evidence that examines the extent to which ADR has been adopted as a strategy to resolve different forms of conflict by Welsh firms in the UK. The factors that impact upon the diffusion of ADR are also analysed. The article finds that in contrast to earlier research, ADR is widespread amongst Welsh firms, irrespective of how broadly ADR is defined. The presence of institutional actors such as specialist HR managers and recognized trade unions are found to be positively associated with more private forms of ADR

Contemporary employer interest representation in the United Kingdom

Focussing on employers’ organisations in the United Kingdom, this article contributes to the literature on employer interest representation by advancing three interrelated arguments, which reflect how the methods, structure and interests of employer representation have evolved. First, the primary method of collective interest representation has shifted from collective bargaining, nowadays only pursued by a minority of employers’ organisations, to political representation, now the most frequent form of collective interest representation. Second, the structure of employer interest representation has evolved and is fragmented between a small number of large, general employers’ organisations, a large majority of sectoral employers’ organisations, regional interest representation in the devolved nations, which has become more important, and a new type of employer body, the employer forum, which focusses on corporate social responsibility. Third, the shift in collective interest representation is complemented by a broadening of individual interest representation, with employers’ organisations having developed a wide range of services

The decline of Employers' Associations in the UK, 1976 to 2014

This article examines the collective, member-based employers’ associations in the UK that regulate the employment relationship by participating in collective bargaining. The main empirical contribution is to provide, for the first time, a longitudinal dataset of employers’ associations in the UK. We use archival data from the UK Government’s Certification Office to build a new dataset, identifying a decline of 81% in the number of employers’ associations between 1976 and 2013–2014. We also find that political agency and reducing levels of collective bargaining undermined employers’ associations by reducing employers’ incentives to associate, although changes within the UK’s system of employment relations enabled other types of collective employer organisation to survive

A typology of employers' organisations in the United Kingdom

This article examines employers' organisations in the United Kingdom, drawing upon 70 interviews and a new dataset encompassing 447 employers’ organisations. The article's contribution is to develop a new typology of employers’ organisations capturing their organisational change in the wake of the decline of collective bargaining. It does this by drawing on a conceptualisation of employers’ organisations as intermediary organisations before identifying four organisational types: lobbying; service; negotiating, and; standard-setting employers’ organizations. The article also identifies and discusses factors that underlie this pattern of differentiation

Fusion or replacement? Labour and the 'new' social movements

A neglected element of Rethinking Industrial Relations is its critique of postmodernism. This article argues that this is regrettable on three grounds. First, core claims that characterized the postmodern account of employment relations at the time that Kelly was writing continue to be made today; particularly with regard to the characteristics of ‘new’ social movements and their capacity to replace labour as the main dynamic force advancing employee interests. Second, Kelly’s critique of postmodernism remains relevant and his observations with regard to the multiple forms and modes of action of new social movements continue to have force. Third, Kelly suggested that rather than replacing labour, new social movements were natural allies of trade unions. His argument here anticipated much later work on union–community coalitions and the final purpose of the article is to update Kelly’s ‘fusion thesis’ by identifying the ways in which labour and new social movements work together

The Living Wage campaign in the UK

PurposeThis paper presents an account of the UK campaign for the voluntary Living Wage, an example of civil regulation. The purpose of this paper is to identify and characterize the actors involved in the campaign, describe methods used and examine direct and indirect consequences of the campaign.Design/methodology/approachA mixed-method design is employed, reflecting the broadly framed purpose of the research. The research used semi-structured interviews with campaigners, union representatives and employers, observation of campaign activities and the creation of a database of Living Wage employers.FindingsThe campaign originated in the community organizing movement, but has involved a broad range of labor market actors, both “new” and “old.” A continuum of campaigning methods has been used, stretching from community mobilization to appeals to employer self-interest and corporate social responsibility. The campaign has recruited 3,000 employers, led to wage increases for thousands of workers and registered indirect effects by shaping the policies of governments, employers and unions.Originality/valueThe research presents a novel account of the UK’s distinctive Living Wage campaign, a notable example of the civil regulation of the labor market.</jats:sec

Ideas at work

The purpose of this article is to highlight the role of ideas in shaping the form, dynamics and products of the employment relationship. This article differentiates between various types of ideas, emphasizes the various types of agency that are involved in the creation, maintenance and defence of ideas and identifies a number of mechanisms that help to understand how actors promote ideas, how ideas gain broader prominence and how ideas change. Finally, we discuss the importance of context and resources in shaping ideational processes

The evolution of employers' organisations in the United Kingdom: extending countervailing power

The concept of countervailing power has been used to suggest that the power of unions explains the origins and development of employers’ organisations (EOs). However, unions have declined since the 1970s but EOs continue to play an important role in employment relations. If pressure from unions is not sufficient to explain continuing employer organisation, what does account for it? This article pursues this question by examining the evolution and activity of UK EOs between the 1960s and 2016. Our countervailing power argument goes beyond a sole focus on unions to include changing pressures and demands on EOs caused by the state such as individual rights legislation, and campaigns by civil society organisations. The changing force exerted by these societal pressures helps to explain the shift of EOs’ focus from collective bargaining, nowadays only pursued by a minority of EOs, to lobbying, provision of services, legal support and training