Relational union organising in a healthcare setting: a qualitative study

Challenges and pitfalls for workplace unionism in a restructured public service

“…Evidence suggests that strong workplace unionism can be prevalent in workplaces displaying or combining different characteristics: strong occupational community, key (left-wing) stewards and a committed activist milieu (Darlington, 1997, 2009), and participatory union leadership (Greene et al, 2000). Moreover, specific case studies on emotional labour and care work, mostly carried out by female workers, have shown that union legitimacy is linked to its capacity to represent workers’ sense of their interests both as workers and as advocates of customer service and to build on the informal collectivism that stems from the experience of work (Saundry and McKeown, 2013; Taylor and Moore, 2014).…”

Women's Participation in a Radical Trade Union Movement That Claims to be Feminist

“…Most interviewees, especially those new to the union movement, also mentioned the importance of convivial relations between members and activists in the local union, echoing ‘relational union organizing’ approaches (Saundry and McKeown ). Their experience of open debates, where everybody can participate equally irrespective of their union positions, and of operating within a consensual mode of decision making was often mentioned as critical to the strengthening of women's commitment to the union.…”

“…Research on women's union representation has argued for contextually/historically grounded analysis (Kirton ; Milkman ) as a means of understanding the structure and dynamics of unions’ ‘inequality regimes’, defined as the ‘interlocked practices and processes that result in continuing inequalities in all work organizations’ (Acker ). Various factors should be taken into account, it is argued; they include size (Kirton ) and the period of foundation (Milkman ), a union's capacity to foster collectivism rooted in occupational community (Saundry and McKeown ; Sayce et al . ) and professional identity (Guillaume and Pochic ), the presence and type of gender equality strategies, whether liberal or radical (Jewson and Mason ) and women's agency (Briskin ).…”

“…Research on women's union representation has argued for contextually/historically grounded analysis (Kirton 2018;Milkman 2016) as a means of understanding the structure and dynamics of unions' 'inequality regimes', defined as the 'interlocked practices and processes that result in continuing inequalities in all work organizations' (Acker 2006). Various factors should be taken into account, it is argued; they include size (Kirton 2018) and the period of foundation (Milkman 2016), a union's capacity to foster collectivism rooted in occupational community (Saundry and McKeown 2013;Sayce et al 2006) and professional identity (Guillaume and Pochic 2011), the presence and type of gender equality strategies, whether liberal or radical (Jewson and Mason 1986) and women's agency (Briskin 2006). Although feminist historical research has criticized the union movement's tendency to thrive on exclusionary solidarity (Milkman 1990) and to subordinate gender to class concerns (Cockburn 1983), the role of class ideology in women's under-representation by/in contemporary unions has, with a few exceptions, been neglected, (Dean 2015).…”

Blocked and New Frontiers for Trade Unions: Contesting ‘the Meaning of Work’ in the Creative and Caring Sectors

“…British healthcare unions tend to be comparatively partnership‐oriented with relatively rare instances of industrial action (Eurofound ). The emphasis on partnership and service provision has limited their mobilizing capacity (Saundry and McKeown ; Tailby et al . ), and it appears that grassroots membership is frequently less inclined to mobilize against managerial initiatives than representatives and officials are (Givan and Bach ).…”