Transforming a Trade Union? An Assessment of the Introduction of an Organizing Initiative

Abstract

In 1995 Unison implemented a National Recruitment Plan, and, in 1997, a National Organizing and Recruitment Strategy, with the objective of reversing the decline in union density in the public sector. This article traces the development of these initiatives and assesses their results. The article shows that there is limited involvement of lay representatives in the National Organizing and Recruitment Plan, but that there is a positive relationship between participation in union programmes intended to promote organizing and the performance of individual branches. Copyright (c) Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2009.

Varieties of new public management? The reform of public service employment relations in the UK and USA

“…The main civil service trade union, the PCS, has established a dedicated national organising department with over 20 national organisers, agreed a national organising strategy which tracks membership levels by civil service department, identifies priority areas for action and sets targets for density or membership growth (PCS 2008). These developments indicate that public service unions have strengthened their management processes to direct union efforts at critical organisational goals (Heery 2006;Waddington and Kerr 2009). …”

What are the consequences of a managerial approach to union renewal for union behaviour? A case study of USDAW

“…Simms, 2007;Heery and Kelly, 1994) intended to address the tensions that exist between the democratic structure of unions and a more centralised, leadership-oriented approach (Thomas, 2013). Second, the notion of performance management has been increasingly introduced in unions (Heery, 2003;Heery, 2005;Bach and Kolins Givan, 2008;Waddington and Kerr, 2009;Thursfield and Grayley, 2016). Such performance management systems are argued to take place within a unitarist framework (Mather and Siefret, 2011), seeking to improve performance through the measurement of achievement (Decramer, Smolders, Vanderstraeten and Christiaens, 2012).…”

“…The term 'managerialism' suffers from definitional incongruity in the employee relations literature with a range of terms utilised to depict the concept, including: managerialisation (Thomas, 2013); managerial-led renewal (Heery and Kelly, 1994;Bach and Kolins Givan, 2008;Waddington and Kerr, 2009); managed activism (Heery, 2003;Simms, 2007;; and leadership-oriented renewal (Charlwood, 2004). The managerialism concept has also tended to focus independently, on three key themes: leadership-led or centralised renewal strategies (topdown) (Charlwood, 2004); the use of private sector performance management techniques in unions (Bach and Kolins Givan, 2008); or, the managerialisation of union roles (Thursfield, 2012;Thomas, 2013).…”

“…Heery and Kelly, 1994;Willman, 2001;Back Bach and Kolins Givan, 2008;Waddington and Kerr, 2009;Thomas, 2013) and internal drivers for change (e.g. Heery, 2005;Levesque and Murray, 2010;Murray et al, 2010).…”

The state of workplace union reps’ organization in Britain today

“…The seeming paralysis of the shop stewards network within the car industry -where representation is firmly based in companies such as Vauxhall, Land Rover, Jaguar, Toyota, Nissan and Honda -to resist wage freezes, lay offs and redundancies during the current economic recession has underlined the atrophy of organisation. Meanwhile one of the weaknesses of union organising campaigns in recent years, given the characteristic lack of integration with bargaining agendas, has been the limited extent to which some lay union reps have been involved, with the most bureaucratised reps effectively operating as a barrier to union recruitment and renewal initiatives in some contexts (Waddington, 2009). …”