cover image: Experimenting for union renewal: challenges, illustrations and lessons

Experimenting for union renewal: challenges, illustrations and lessons

10 Oct 2024

Trade unions across the globe face a range of disruptions that are destabilising traditional structures, practices and strategies. This book sets out a novel approach centred on experimentation in response to these disruptions. Drawing on in-depth analysis of cases of union innovation in a broad selection of countries and industries, a stellar cast of researchers report on and draw lessons from these renewal initiatives. Aggregating these experiments enables us to identify a number of rich, cross-disciplinary findings to support such initiatives.Initial chapters set out the approach and provide an overview of the eighteen case studies. Subsequent sections group the cases thematically: contending with neoliberalism, the fissured gig economy, value chain initiatives between South and North, an expanding trade union agenda, pursuing innovations in union repertoires and methods, and developing new forms of inclusion and solidarity. The case studies cover a wide geographical spread, from emerging economies in Africa, Asia and Latin America, to cases in Europe, North America and Australia. To ensure accessibility for both trade unionists and researchers, and to facilitate cross-case comparisons, the case studies use a common template.The final chapter draws out practical lessons in relation to the strategic capabilities required to engage in experimentation, the diversification and enlargement of union strategic repertoires, and the conditions of success for such experimentation. These cases of experimentation indicate that the fundamentals of union purpose and the promotion of better work remain as important as ever, but they are under challenge. The lens of experimentation offers a practical approach, exploring multiple dimensions of worker and union creativity and resilience with a view to stimulating, monitoring and further developing the processes of renewal under way.
trade union renewal

Authors

Bart Vanhercke, Mélanie Laroche, Gregor Murray, Armel Brice Adanhounme, Heather Connolly, Gerry Looker, Leon Gooberman, Marco Hauptmeier, Raoul Gebert, Kurt Vandaele, David Peetz, Jack Boutros, Huw Thomas, Jean Jenkins, Helen Blakely, Rhys Davies, Katy Huxley, Mohamad Alsadi, Hector de la Cueva, Angelo DiCaro, Lana Payne, Luis Bueno Rodriguez, Fred Wilson, John Peters, Mathew Johnson, Robert Hickey, Vincent Pasquier, Mélanie Dufour-Poirier, Francine D’Ortun, Xiaoming Bao, María C. González Menéndez, Aroa Tejero, Patrice Jalette, Blandine Emilien, Adelheid Hege, Christian Dufour

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Australian National University
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Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana
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CITE THIS PAGE
https://www.etui.org/cite-page/34936
ISBN
978-2-87452-717-3
ISBN PDF
978-2-87452-718-0
Pages
246
Published in
Belgium

Files

Foreword_Experimenting for union renewal-challenges, illustrations and lessons_2024.pdf

List of contributors_Experimenting for union renewal-challenges, illustrations and lessons_2024.pdf

Chapter2_Case studies in union experimentation.pdf

Chapter21_What does experimentation teach us about union renewal.pdf

Experimenting for union renewal-challenges, illustrations and lessons_2024_0.pdf

Chapter19_Recentring equity at work the Quebec steelworkers' fight to bring the outsiders ‘back in’.pdf

Chapter4_Union renewal in the reregulation of local government in the United Kingdom.pdf

Chapter18_Experimenting with dual vocational education and training in Asturias, Spain.pdf

Chapter15_The ‘Fight for 15’ movement.pdf

Chapter9_Worker power in the Sri Lankan tea sector.pdf

Chapter10_The quest for cleaner clothes.pdf

Chapter14_Mainstreaming workplace mental health in the union repertoire.pdf

Chapter12_Climate Jobs New York a labour-led climate coalition.pdf

Chapter6_Return to sender – how a Canadian postal union renewed its strategic repertoire to reach out to platform workers.pdf

Chapter3_Challenging neoliberal labour law reforms with moral agency.pdf

Chapter16_The network of social delegates of the Fédération des travailleurs et des travailleuses du Québec.pdf

Chapter11_Promoting independent, democratic trade unionism in Mexico.pdf

Chapter7_When ‘micro-syndicalism’ meets ‘macro-syndicalism’.pdf

Chapter8_Regulating and organising ‘gig workers’ since the 1970s the case of owner-drivers in New South Wales, Australia.pdf

Chapter1_Experimentation and union renewal.pdf

Chapter17_Reinforcing employee union identification in a Chinese workplace trade union.pdf

Chapter20_Strategic disruption and the quest for permanent union renewal through continuous experimentation.pdf

Chapter5_Building bridges forming a union coalition to improve working conditions for agricultural workers in Wales.pdf

Chapter13_Social value procurement and labour standards in the United Kingdom.pdf

Table of Contents