Understanding caring, organizing women: how framing a problem shapes union strategy

Yates, Charlotte

doi:10.1177/1024258910373870

Cited by 25 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 4 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Women increasingly account for the majority of union members in many developed countries. The feminisation of the labour market has prompted new waves of union recruitment, often centred on the public sector (Kaminski and Yakura, ; Yates, ). However, a large proportion of women appear to be excluded from union leadership (Healy and Kirton, ; Ledwith, ).…”

Section: Women and Union Leadershipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empowerment and union workplace delegates: a gendered analysis

Capitaine¹,

Murray

Lévesque³

2013

Industrial Relations Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article examines the empowerment of female and male workplace union delegates in the education sector in Quebec (Canada). Key power resources and strategic capabilities are significant variables for both sexes, highlighting commonalities in delegate empowerment. Other differences point to the gendered construction of delegate empowerment, with important consequences for union renewal strategies.

show abstract

Section: Women and Union Leadershipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empowerment and union workplace delegates: a gendered analysis

Capitaine¹,

Murray

Lévesque³

2013

Industrial Relations Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Other potential bases for such a nexus arguably exist, notably a comprehensive 'service appeal' based on treating members as individual labour market actors and/or more general 'market consumers' (Bassett and Cave, 1993) or a wider 'social and community rationale' for membership (see, for example, Yates, 2010). However, not only is there only limited evidence to support their viability, but neither of these alternatives can be seen to have been strongly embedded in the union activity identified, at least when it is borne in mind that much of it was focused on meeting the immediate -and potentially transitory -needs of Polish migrants.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unions and migrant workers: strategic challenges in Britain

James

Karmowska

2012

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article is based on a recent study of attempts by a range of British trade unions to access and engage with Polish migrant workers at the community or labour market level, rather than workplace level. The findings suggest that migrant workers can indeed be recruited at this level. Doubts are expressed, however, about the sustainability of new membership gained in this way. These doubts are linked to a marked absence of clear union strategies to create a longer-term nexus of interest with those who are recruited, of the type advocated in, for example, the North American ‘new labor movement’ literature. This absence – it is argued – may be less a reflection of a lack of strategic leadership than a product of the difficulties unions face in identifying viable strategies relating to the representation and organization of workers above the workplace level.

show abstract

“…These organizational imperatives conflict with changing labor markets and workers' needs. Yet, emerging forms of community-based union representation still offer some hope, as seen in work by the United Food and Commercial Workers with migrant agricultural workers (Cranford & Ladd 2003;Basok 2007), and British Columbia unions with day care workers (Yates 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Workers on the move: can unions keep up to changes in community?

Leach

Yates

2015

Labour & Industry: a journal of the social and economic rel

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The radical restructuring of contemporary labor markets, combined with the weakening of welfare states, has extended and deepened the commodification of labor and the experience of risk and insecurity at work. In the face of increasingly uncertain hours of work, or confronted with layoff or unemployment, people become more mobile. This can take the form of searching for work further afield, or moving house to reduce costs. Mobility therefore becomes a strategy for mitigating risk, albeit shaped by class, race, and gender. We argue that such mobility shifts how workers imagine and live in their communities, stressing and stretching their key social relationships across space, while at the same time diminishing peoples' capacity for solidarity. We go on to argue that as workers respond to labor market pressures with increased mobility, the correspondence between community and workplace, workplace and residence is further eroded. This poses new challenges for the constitution of community, and solidarity, amongst workers, and ultimately for the capacity of unions to represent workers. Based on interviews with workers, we develop three themes from these interviews: the strains introduced to workers' sense of place and community by different forms of mobility; the gendered nature of mobility; and race, immigrant status, and mobility. In the final section of the essay, we discuss how some workers resist the isolating and demobilizing effects of workplace and work reorganization by constituting or reconstituting a sense of community. We then conclude with some reflections on how increased mobility and declining community cohesion impact union strategic capacities.

show abstract

Understanding caring, organizing women: how framing a problem shapes union strategy

Cited by 25 publications

References 4 publications

Empowerment and union workplace delegates: a gendered analysis

Empowerment and union workplace delegates: a gendered analysis

Unions and migrant workers: strategic challenges in Britain

Workers on the move: can unions keep up to changes in community?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About