Community Unionism: A Strategy for Organizing in the New Economy

In a Different Way: Social Unionism in the Nonprofit Social Services-An Australian/Canadian Comparison

“…Rather than focusing energies primarily on electing the NDP and waiting for prolabor legislation, a significant number of Canadian unionists engage in both workplace struggles and extraparliamentary strategies (Black 2005;Ross 2007;Baines 2010). In Australia, it is reasonable to assume state support, at least at the federal level, in rebuilding unions.…”

Urban labour, voice and legitimacy: economic development and the emergence of community unionism

“…For some, union renewal will therefore have to take place (if it is to at all) outside of the traditional workplace/industrial setting. To this end, community unionism shifts the attention of union activity and mobilisation from the industrial to the spatial labour force (see Black, 2005; Herod et al ., 2007). Projects of urban regeneration thus appear to offer a fertile ground for union activity (and renewal) where the focus is on organising and mobilising such a spatial/geographic ‘community’, rather than industrial labour force.…”

“…When defining community unionism, the prominent contributing scholars are careful not to be too reductionist, specific or romantic. First, Black (2005), writing from a North American perspective, provides a useful summary of the origins of community unionism and explains how it can be better understood if we make a distinction between community unionism as a process and as a model of organisation . In considering the process of community unionism, one might include unions forging alliances with community groups around issues of common interest; for instance the closure of a factory or the provision of social housing or other public services.…”

“…However, central to her explanation is the mutual gains scenario whereby the union will use its capacity‐building and organisational resources to help communities; in return, the union gets influence, legitimacy and increased membership and income. Tattersall's mention of class is intriguing; she tacitly—and Black (2005) more specifically—espouses the desirability of the achievement of an organic and normative quasi‐class consciousness as an antecedent to effective community union activity.…”

Coalitions and community unionism

“…Rather than debating the relative merits of alliances, place or concern as the "correct" meaning of community unionism (Black, 2005), the term community unionism is categorised as building upon each of these three components. The paper proposes that community unionism refers to three different types of organising strategies, each representing a connection between unions and the three definitions of community.…”