The New Solidarity? Trade Union Coalition-Building in Five Countries

Abstract

Abstract[Excerpt] The purpose of this chapter is to present a framework for the analysis of union coalition-building and demonstrate its utility using comparative empirical material mainly from the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom though we also comment on union action in Italy and Spain. In what follows, we seek to define union-coalitions and specify their functions, identify a variety of types of coalition and the variety of factors that encourage unions to forge coalitions. We then set out and seek to explain the variable patterns of coalition use across our five countries. The chapter concludes in speculative vein, by considering the role that coalition building should and could play in the revitalization of national labour movements.

Civil society organizations and trade unions: cooperation, conflict, indifference

“…The attraction of coalition is that it can bring unions alternative power resources to compensate for this growing deficit. Thus, it has been suggested that coalition partners can confer legitimacy at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on May 25, 2015 wes.sagepub.com Downloaded from on union action, bring expertise and mobilizing capacity to their campaigns and act as a channel through which unions can contact hitherto unorganized workers (Frege et al, 2005;Tattersall, 2005). It has also been suggested that CSOs can contribute to the internal renewal of unions through the infusion of new activists and the transfer of methods of campaigning and mobilization used in other social movements (Voss and Sherman, 2000).…”

German unions: a review of recent research

“…Frege et al 2004;Brinkmann et al 2008, S. 98-101). Beispiele hierfür finden sich u. a. im Bereich des Umweltschutzes, des Kampfes gegen den Rechtsextremismus, bei der Verbesserung der Lebens-und Arbeitsbedingungen sowie bei der Beratung und Unterstützung von Arbeitslosen und sozial Benachteiligten (vgl.…”

“…Hier kann ein Blick über die nationalen Grenzen hinweg wertvolle Anregungen liefern, da sich Gewerkschaften in anderen industrialisierten Ländern mit ähnlich fundamentalen Problemen konfrontiert sehen (vgl. Funk 2005, S. 70 f.;Waldman 2004;Frege et al 2004;Holst 2008). Im Rahmen eines systematischen Vergleichs von Erneuerungsstrategien, im Sinne etwa von Benchmarking-Studien, wäre auch ein Ansatzpunkt gegeben, die Beiträge zum dritten Themenschwerpunkt stärker mit empirischer Forschung zu unterlegen, als dies in der Vergangenheit der Fall war (vgl.…”

Emergent Cultures of Activism: Young People and the Building of Alliances Between Unions and Other Social Movements

“…Firstly, most young people will become workers at some point and, as such, they are potential union members--new recruits that the labor movement badly needs if it is to stem the last few decades of drastic decline (Connolly, 2012;Hodder & Kretsos eds., 2015;Simms, Holgate, & Heery, 2013;Turner, Katz, & Hurd, 2001;Upchurch, Taylor, & Mathers, 2009;Vandaele, 2012Vandaele, , 2013Vandaele, , 2015. Secondly, paying attention to emergent cultures of activism helps understand how new forms of collective action can help reframe traditional labor issues and allow for a rethinking of the way unions organize (Frege, Heery, & Turner, 2004;Hodder & Kretsos eds., 2015). Yet these trends are often not a priority for labor unions where the concern is mainly with defending the current terms and conditions of existing members--few of whom are young workers.…”