Powerful Community Relationships and Union Renewal in Australia

Abstract

<jats:p>Terms such as labour-community coalitions, community unionism and social movement unionism are important features of current strategies for union renewal. This article develops a three-part framework of union-community relationships, from ad hoc to deeply engaged relationships. Criteria such as common interest, coalition structure, scale and union participation are identified as important variables for relationship variation and campaign success. The article explores the framework by analyzing three case studies from Sydney, Australia, involving the central labour council—Unions NSW. The paper argues that union-community relationships vary significantly; ad hoc relationships are useful to react to a crisis while deeper relationships are most useful to build a long-term agenda. Deeper relationships are supported when they are built alongside a process of internal union renewal. Deeper relationships are more successful if unions develop workplace leaders, support political union education and provide space for workplace stewards to connect to community campaigns.</jats:p>

The Engaged Academic: Academic Intellectuals and the Psychiatric Survivor Movement

“…We argue that Crossley demonstrates minimal engagement with these movements, whereas Church, by contrast, demonstrates a commitment which we regard as 'deeply engaged' (Tattersall, 2006). Hence, the paper differentiates amongst academic intellectuals researching psychiatric survivors according to the depth of their engagement with the 'lived contradictions' such relationships entail.…”

“…Rather, our interest is driven by what we have referred to elsewhere as a 'politicoethical stance' (Cresswell and Spandler, 2009, p. 143) -a stance typified by 'deep engagement' with SMOs in this field (see Tattersall, 2006). Updating Sedgwick's (1982) seminal work, we argue for the transformation of psychiatry and its simultaneous democratisation via the formation of political alliances within and across the psychopolitical field (see Cresswell and Spandler, 2009).…”

Workplace representatives: strategic actors of union renewal?

“…Some researchers favour a return to the former modes of commitment on the part of workplace representatives in order to preserve their resilience in the context of relative union decline (Darlington, ; McBride, ). Others see the fact of these same workplace representatives opening up to new relations as an opportunity for them to become part of a renewed mode of social movement embedded in the community (Tattersall, ; Williams et al ., ; Wills, ). Yet others highlight how these strategies put new onus on workplace representatives to develop new narrative capabilities that enable them to locate the issues of their particular worksite in a larger set of references (Lévesque and Murray, ).…”

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

“… Ad hoc: where relationships occur around events, activity can be on any scale and the actors participate instrumentally. Simple coalition: where relationships occur around any issue, more formal decision‐making structures are designed and the actors participate instrumentally. Deeply engaged: where relationships occur around a mutual ‘broad social vision’ with high levels of rank and file consciousness and engagement (Tattersall, 2006b: 595). …”

“…Deeply engaged: where relationships occur around a mutual ‘broad social vision’ with high levels of rank and file consciousness and engagement (Tattersall, 2006b: 595).…”