Living Wages around the World, by Richard Anker and Martha Anker. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2017, 392 pp., ISBN: 978‐1786431479, £29.95, paperback.
| Author | Calum Carson |
| Published date | 01 December 2017 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12261 |
| Date | 01 December 2017 |
Book Reviews 889
national ocers and leading layreps such as national executive members, sections reps,
AGMdelegates, local reps, activists and members (apart fromjust 12 individual figures
who are only briefly quoted). Plus, there are no interviews with managers or other
key external figures such as previous London mayor Ken Livingstone. Instead, there
is an overwhelming reliance on material from mainstream newspaper articles (via an
exhaustive list of statements/quotes) thathas its own potential limitations of accuracy
and bias.
As a consequence, notwithstanding the explicit attempt to locateCrow’s leadership
of the RMT within a wider context of a layer of left-wing union ocers, reps and
activists within the union nationally, the book is not really able, from this reader’spoint
of view, to adequately convey the way in which their activism, militancy and politics
directly influenced Crow’s own leadership style, as well as being reciprocally shaped
by it, in a way that could put flesh on the bones of Upchurchet al.’s (2012) notion of
‘political congruence’ that Gall briefly mentions. So, while Gall draws out the way in
which Crow provided inspiration and encouragement to members to take action, and
skilfully frontedstrike ballots/action to win concessions, he does not explore the central
role of other union ocers and lay reps/activists themselves in framing grievances,
pushing for strikes,winning ballots and mobilizing members to take action to defend
jobs and conditions.
RALPH DARLINGTON
University of Salford
Refe renc e
Upchurch, M., Croucher, R. and Flynn, M. (2012). ‘Political congruence and trade
union renewal’. Work, Employment and Society, 26 (5): 857–68.
Living Wages aroundthe World, by Richard Anker and Martha Anker. Edward Elgar,
Cheltenham, 2017, 392 pp., ISBN: 978-1786431479, £29.95, paperback.
The promotion and encouragement of a living wage for low-paid workers in a
particular city, state, region or nation is a socioeconomic phenomenon that has
emerged in a number of countries since the early 1990s, when the modern living wage
movement first emerged from grassroots campaign groups with the initial passing of
living wage ordinances in a number of American cities. Since then, a diverse range of
living wage campaigns have established themselves acrossthe world, focusing first and
foremost on securing the support of public policymakersto enact legislation providing
low-paid workers with a legal right to a living wage, as well as persuading private
sector employers to voluntarily agree to pay their workers such wages in the face of
such legislation not being feasible. Within this movement, those campaigns that have
been the most successful have been those thathelp advance their arguments for higher
wages bydemonstrating a clear and consistent methodology for the calculation of what
exactly these rates should be.For example, the Centre for Research in Social Policy at
Loughborough University have been key in determining the national and London-
specific wage rates forthe UK-based campaign for the living wage.
Nonetheless, to date, there has been no full-scale attempt to provide a generally
accepted international methodology for calculatingand deter mining livingwage rates
C
2017 John Wiley& Sons Ltd.
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