Union renewal: what can we learn from three decades of research?

Abstract

Drawing on three decades of research on union renewal, this article asks what we can learn from these studies. It covers successively the modernisation of union strategy, the re-engineering of union structures and organising techniques, the renewal of collective action repertoires, and the search to bridge the gap between labour market insiders and outsiders. While the research on these four themes yields few easy answers, it does highlight a continuing search for trade union renewal from which real understanding emerges. The overarching argument is that this long process of democratic experimentalism in union purpose and practice needs to be understood in exactly those terms. It also highlights the critical role of strategic capabilities and the need to develop these capabilities in order to experiment with innovations likely to reveal new sources of vigour for worker organisations.

Union Renewal and Workplace Greening — Three Case Studies

“…First, forging collective identities capable of reflecting members’ emergent needs is a key element of renewal (Hickey et al . ; Murray : 20–2). These identities may coalesce around concerns specific to employment and work but can also embrace wider sociopolitical concerns (Fairbrother ), helping to construct an expansive narrative regarding trade union praxis.…”

The Power Resources Approach: Developments and Challenges

“…This new branch of research on trade union renewal has challenged the discourse of a general decline of organised labour, focusing instead on innovative organising strategies, new forms of participation and campaigning in both the Global North and the Global South (Turner, Katz and Hurd, 2001;Clawson, 2003;Milkman, 2006;Agarwala, 2013;Murray, 2017). The focus of these studies has not been the institutional setting of labour relations or the overall impact of major trends like globalisation on labour, but rather the strategic choice in responding to new challenges and changing contexts.…”

Introduction: self-employed professionals in a comparative perspective

“…We call this phenomenon the expansion scenario. They have implemented new strategic and organizational actions in order to satisfy the protection needs of 'non-organized' workers (Benassi and Dorigatti 2015;Gumbrell-McCormick and Hyman 2013;Murray 2017). A critical question here is whether self-employed professionals should be absorbed within existing organizational structures or whether a specific structure should be devoted to them (Kornelakis and Voskeritsian 2016;Wynn 2015).…”

“…During the last two decades, innovative experiences have been supported by new forms of association, such as 'quasi-unions' (Heckscher and Carré 2006;Sullivan 2010), and labour market intermediaries (LMIs) (Autor 2008;Bonet et al 2013;Lorquet et al 2018;Vinodrai 2015). Consideration of these new scenarios in socio-economic research has been scarce, the focus being mainly on union revitalization strategies (Benassi and Dorigatti 2015;Gumbrell-McCormick and Hyman 2013;Murray 2017). This scarcity is probably also a reaction to the decline of unionization rates and to the loss of centrality of traditional industrial relations models and collective bargaining (Burawoy 2008;Tattersall 2010) that reflects also the sectoral change of the economy.…”