The tail that wags the dog: lessons from the UK's independent unions for class struggle trade unionism
ISSN: 0142-5455
Article publication date: 30 May 2023
Issue publication date: 10 July 2023
Abstract
Purpose
This article examines in what way strategies of new independent trade unions in London – that achieved pioneering, victories to end outsourcing – offer learning opportunities for more established trade unions. It proposes to (re-)encourage a culture of class struggle trade unionism. The article builds on existing research that outlined the organising practices of these independent trade unions but breaks down the binary analysis of independent versus established trade unions. The author uses the acronym CARE (Collectivising individual grievances, Action, Relations of trust and care, Escalating confrontations) as an analytical framework for exploring class struggle trade unionism, and examines in what ways these strategies have been (re)-learnt by established trade unions through the example of independent trade unions. In doing so, this article contributes to a much wider debate on trade union renewal.
Design/methodology/approach
This article offers an insider perspective of an “academic activist” (Chatterton et al., 2007). The article draws on author’s experiences and reflection as the co-founder of the trade union United Voices of the World (UVW) created in 2014, and previously involvement in the establishment of the Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) in 2012. Findings are based on author’s ethnographic engagement as well as a selection of 29 interviews from a much larger data set on independent trade unions comprising focus groups and interviews.
Findings
This article demonstrates that class struggle trade unionism has in some ways been remembered and hence pioneered by the new independent trade unions, yet they are possible in established trade unions alike.
Originality/value
This is the first time an article systematically explores the strategies that established trade unions can learn – and indeed are learning – from independent trade unions.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper forms part of a special section “Debates on social movements and trade unionism in Europe. New forms of interaction and transformative identities in work and society”, guest edited by Francisco Fernández-Trujillo Moares, Gomer Betancor Nuez and Miguel Martinez Lucio.
The author's appreciation and thanks goes two the many participants in this research on whose knowledge, experiences and wisdom this article is based. The author is also grateful for the constructive feedback of the two anonymous reviewers. The author also conveys many thanks also to her colleagues Dr Jane Lethbridge and Dr Safak Tartanoglu Bennett and some of the research participants who read earlier versions of this article and provided the author with detailed feedback, which enhanced the quality of the article. All errors are the author's.
Funding: The author received a small BA/Leverhulme grant that paid for the transcripions of the interviews and focus groups on which this article is based as well as a small voucher for the low paid workers interviewed in compensation for their working time lost while participating in this research.
Citation
Weghmann, V. (2023), "The tail that wags the dog: lessons from the UK's independent unions for class struggle trade unionism", Employee Relations, Vol. 45 No. 4, pp. 808-822. https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-01-2022-0046
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited