Union Organizing: Campaigning for Trade Union Recognition

Citation

Wood, G. (2003), "Union Organizing: Campaigning for Trade Union Recognition", Employee Relations, Vol. 25 No. 5, pp. 519-521. https://doi.org/10.1108/01425450310490200

The overall decline of union membership in most of the advanced societies during the 1980s and 1990s highlighted not only the adverse consequences of changes in the global economy, but also the importance of institutions and strategic responses. While the decline of unions in particular nations and sectors seemed particularly pronounced, in others it seemed less severe. Even within notoriously adverse climates such as the USA, certain unions have fared much better than others. Particularly inspiring was the performance of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The latter ascribed much of its success to “organizing”, focusing not simply on servicing members in day‐to‐day disputes, but in broadening workplace contestations into community struggles over questions of social justice. Alliances with community groupings and the use of organizers drawn from the ranks of community activists enhanced the union's capacity to reach out to potential members.

The demonstrable failure of established union strategies in the face of increased state and managerial hostility, and changes in the sectoral composition of the British economy, led to the British labour movement experimenting with a range of alternative options, most notably the “organizing model” developed and refined by US unions such as the SEIU. In this edited volume, Gregor Gall has assembled a range of contributions looking at different organizing‐type initiatives in the UK, but also includes three comparative chapters, which look at the German, Canadian and US experiences.

In the opening chapter, Gall notes that the return to power of Labour in the UK resulted in the implementation of the “fairness at work” policy that has partially reversed the rolling back of employee rights under preceding Tory administrations. Meanwhile, from the 1980s onwards, union leaders and sympathetic commentators called on the unions to revitalize. In a more hospitable legislative climate, and in response to changes in union policy, the TUC and a number of its leading affiliates began to actively promote an organizing policy, characterized by both devolution and outreach. Gall then proceeds to explore contemporary trends in union membership and specific changes to legislation.

In the following chapter, Bill Knox and Alan McKinley assess attempts by unions to establish footholds in US multinationals operating in the UK. Focusing on the experiences of IBM and Caterpillar, they conclude that lay activists had a crucial role to play in promoting and sustaining unionism. In chapter 3, the editor evaluates union organizing campaigns on the offshore gas industry from the 1970s to the 1990s. He echoes Kelly's suggestion that in specific historical periods, management will be particularly hostile to organized labour. In responding to such sustained resistance, unions must, perforce, seek to build alliances and explore a range of alternative tactics that allow them to exercise their industrial leverage to the fullest. In the following chapter, a team of scholars headed by Cardiff's Ed Heery looks at union recruitment policy in Britain. A workplace industrial relations survey conducted in the early 1990s revealed that few British unions attempted to actively recruit members at non‐union establishments. A 2001 survey indicated a similar preoccupation with consolidating gains in establishments and professions where a union presence already existed. However, there seemed to be a very much stronger interest in reaching out workers in temporary and part time contracts, ethnic minorities and the young. Interestingly, a number of unions used both partnership and organizing as a recruitment mechanism, although the use of these strategies would seemingly be contradictory. The authors suggest that this may be due to different strategies being adopted towards different target audiences. However, what was clear was a close correlation between union strategies and policies and membership outcomes; those who accorded a high priority to outreach proved more successful in reversing declines in membership.

In chapter 6, Gregor Gall looks at employer anti‐union responses. Those most likely to persistently engage in anti‐union behaviour include US‐owned firms, firms owned by Thatcher era entrepreneurs and charities. Again, small and medium sized firms are more likely to be hostile to unions than larger ones. Chapter 7, by Melanie Simms provides a case study of union organizing in a charity. One of the biggest challenges facing unions in these areas is ensuring that members from the voluntary sector gain due representation therein; the organizational culture within unions may not necessarily be compatible with the outlook of non‐profit sector employees. This structural limitation notwithstanding, the voluntary sector's emphasis on values and betterment open up a number of opportunities for union recruitment campaigns. The following chapters look at organizing in the electronics, transport and travel, and call centre sectors. The latter highlights the widespread prevalence of sweated labour in Britain, and of managerial strategies closely reminiscent of early Victorian era. Again, the nature of employee responses underscores the relevance of mobilization theory, and the contradictions of attempting to initiate partnership in such contexts. In chapter 10, Brian Towers compares trends in union membership in North America and the UK. While the performance of Canadian unions has been the most robust, they have been able to do little more than maintain stability. The poor performance of US unions reflects political failures; however, the success of recent outreach initiatives, and the wave like nature of union membership trends would suggest that their revival cannot be ruled out. Again, there is some room for guarded optimism in the case of the UK, but the nature of union decline would suggest that any revival will be a “long haul”. The following chapters consist of country studies of the USA and Germany. The latter, by Otto Jacobi, provides a nuanced and optimistic alternative to the conventional wisdom of the inevitability of marketization and individualization; there are good reasons to suggest that some of the most progressive features of the German model will survive.

Gregor Gall echoes Jacobi's guarded optimism in the conclusion. In common with all the contributions, Gall stresses that, despite what are often extremely adverse circumstances, unions continue to reach out to a wide range of different categories of workers in diverse contexts, with hard‐won victories acting as an inspiration for future initiatives. This edited volume will be of great interest to both academics and union activists. While more attention could have been accorded to the role of unions in the political sphere and of broad community alliances (both of which have provided a source of union strength in large areas of the developing world), it provides an impressive consolidation of information on trends in membership and activism in Britain.