Autonomy, diversity, and integration

Class Capacity and Cross-Gender Solidarity: Women’s Organizing in an Egyptian Textile Company

“…Separate organizing, to some scholars, "implies that women identify their gender status as significant, recognize their links with other women, and act, as part of a collectivity, on their own behalf." 113 All-women spaces did indeed facilitate the development of women's organizing in Mahalla, but the women were empowered because they gained the organizational leverage to fight for class-based demands. Women were aware of wage discrimination because even men who worked in clothing received higher pay.…”

Union Equality Structures and the Challenge of Democratic Legitimacy: The Case of the Fire Brigades Union

“…Existing scholarship tends to concur that both participatory and representative democratic measures are needed for an effective balance between autonomy and integration (Briskin, 1999), and that without functioning self-organisation to formulate the perspectives of marginalised groups, additional representation cannot be legitimate (Colgan and Ledwith, 2002). However, the jury is still out on the longer-term effect of the loss of reserved seats in the FBU, and whether self-organisation without top-level representation can effectively mainstream the concerns of minority members in the bargaining process, raising significant questions about confining their representation to 'non-industrial' matters.…”

“…Thus, one measure of their effectiveness is the extent to which the concerns of self-organised group members shape mainstream union agendas. Separate organising, therefore, does not constitute a strategy of separatism, but a means to an end of achieving integration into union mainstream structures and concerns (Briskin, 1999). Self-organisation has become accepted as an established union strategy, with 49% of unions having formal bodies for women and for BME members (Trades Union Congress (TUC), 2018).…”

“…Self-organisation has become accepted as an established union strategy, with 49% of unions having formal bodies for women and for BME members (Trades Union Congress (TUC), 2018). Yet it has been periodically challenged (Colgan and Ledwith, 2000: 245) and Briskin (1999) noted that separate organising is sometimes mischaracterised as separatism, perceived to undermine the common interests and unity that form the very basis of trade unionism (McBride, 2001). Forms of semi-autonomous organising have thus been considered ‘divisive and counter-productive’ (Virdee and Grint, 1994: 208).…”

“…Similarly, it has been argued that for self-organisation to succeed it must be accompanied by mainstreaming strategies to ensure that group concerns influence union policy-making. Briskin (1999: 549) maintains that success requires ‘a strategic balance between autonomy from the structures and practices of the labor movement and integration (or mainstreaming) into those structures’. Thus, the mechanisms whereby the demands generated by these groups contribute to union decision-making processes at local, regional, national or industrial level are crucial.…”