Joining UNISON: does the reform of a union organising strategy change how members perceive their recruitment?

Abstract

Drawing on survey evidence collected between 2001 and 2012, this article examines whether changes in the organising approach of UNISON were reflected in changes in the routes of entry of new members into the union. The article shows that shifts in UNISON policy were marginal to the pattern of entry into the union. The implications of these findings for the concept and implementation of organising are subsequently reviewed.

The crisis of public sector trade unionism: Evidence from the Mid Staffordshire hospital crisis

“…One of the objectives was to use branch development and organising plans to require the implementation of policies directed towards increasing the number of lay representatives (UNISON 1998) and to bring about a ratio of 1 lay representative for every 50 members. However, the proportion of members with a lay representative present at their workplace fell from 72.3% in 1999 to 70.2% in 2000, dropping steeply to 52.3% in 2009 (Waddington & Kerr 2015: 9).…”

“…The fortunes of UNISON, the largest public sector union with 1,254,000 members, are crucial for public sector unionism as a whole. Since its formation in 1993, it has lost 250,000 members despite a number of strategies to raise the figure back to 1.5 million (Waddington & Kerr 2015). One of the objectives was to use branch development and organising plans to require the implementation of policies directed towards increasing the number of lay representatives (UNISON 1998) and to bring about a ratio of 1 lay representative for every 50 members.…”

“…The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) brings apparent prestige and is focused solely on nurses. Where nurses are present in UNISON, they are more likely to be represented by non-nurses 'with the consequence that many health professionals may view UNISON as a union for grades other than their own' (Waddington & Kerr 2015).…”

Contemporary employer victimisation of lay union representatives in Britain: Issues, dynamics and extent

“…For human resources and personnel practitioners of a pluralist mind-set, victimisation is likely to be regarded as an unwelcome form of employer deviancy, which besmirches the ethical endeavours of an entire profession. And for unions, facing the continuing challenge of generating workplace union activists (see Waddington & Kerr 2015), victimisation represents the destruction and dislocation of a vital human resource. Here, most ideational, rather than actual, versions of union organising locate grassroots activists as the primary resource to create and sustain workplace unionism.…”

A study of young workers' union behaviors

“…But in the past decades, with the decline of union density and power, the legitimacy of trade unions has come under criticism. It has been pointed out by some labor scholars (Hodder et al , 2018; Waddington and Kerr, 2015; Hyman, 2002; Gomez et al , 2002; Lowe and Rustin, 2000) that unions are perceived as old-fashioned today. By old-fashioned, they mean that unions are out of touch with the new generation of young workers.…”