Transforming a Trade Union? An Assessment of the Introduction of an Organizing Initiative
| Author | Allan Kerr,Jeremy Waddington |
| Published date | 01 March 2009 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.2008.00707.x |
| Date | 01 March 2009 |
Transforming a Trade Union?
An Assessment of the Introduction of
an Organizing Initiative
Jeremy Waddington and Allan Kerr
Abstract
In 1995 Unison implemented a National Recruitment Plan, and, in 1997, a
National Organizing and Recruitment Strategy, with the objective of reversing
the decline in union density in the public sector. This article traces the develop-
ment of these initiatives and assesses their results. The article shows that there
is limited involvement of lay representatives in the National Organizing and
Recruitment Plan, but that there is a positive relationship between participation
in union programmes intended to promote organizing and the performance of
individual branches.
1. Introduction
The end of the long postwar boom during the mid-1970s coupled with the
election of a Conservative government in 1979 marked the start of a pro-
tracted and almost uninterrupted decline in annual trade union membership.
The result was a loss of approaching six million members in the period of
December 1979 to April 2006. While the annual rate of membership decline
slowed from the mid-1990s, density continued to fall as employment
expanded (Certification Officer various; Grainger 2006; Waddington 1992).
In practice, unions were unable to recruit new members from expanding
sectors of the economy at the same rate as members were lost from unionized,
contracting sectors. Although there is no agreement on the relative effects of
the forces that promoted this decline, it is generally accepted that external
influences such as macroeconomic context, the changing composition of the
labour force, management resistance and workplace practices, and state
policy had adverse effects on unionization (Mason and Bain 1993; Metcalf
Jeremy Waddington teaches Industrial Relations at the University of Manchester and is the
Project Coordinator for the European Trade Union Institute, Brussels. Allan Kerr is Head of
Organizing and Recruitment, Unison.
British Journal of Industrial Relations doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8543.2008.00707.x
47:1 March 2009 0007–1080 pp. 27–54
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2009. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd,
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1991). In addition, issues internal to unionism are viewed as contributing to
the decline. Included among internal issues are inadequate recruitment pro-
grammes, whether inadequacy is measured in terms of resources allocated
or practices implemented (Kelly 1990; Voos 1984); union failure to deliver
benefits effectively for employees (Bryson and Gomez 2005; Metcalf 2005);
the commitment of senior officers to reform (Undy et al. 1981); and the
failure to reform union policy and government to ‘fit’ with the interests of
new members (Dølvik and Waddington 2005; Hyman 1999). During this
period of decline and in recognition of the impact of internal issues on
decline, some unionists gradually directed attention to the question: how
might unions adapt to new circumstances. This article examines whether
internal adaptation within Unison has contributed to union renewal.
Following initiatives taken in the United States and Australia, British
unions turned to the organizing model as a means to reverse membership
decline and to encourage the involvement and participation in union affairs
of members from hitherto under-represented groups of workers. In essence,
the organizing model is an approach to union membership and renewal that
encourages local union activity, greater local self-reliance and a collective
identity (for details, see Bronfenbrenner et al. 1998; Heery 2003; Russo and
Banks 1996). Proponents of the organizing model argue that increased
recruitment and self-sustaining workplace unionism may result from orga-
nizing around local or workplace issues with which members and potential
members are likely to identify (Clark 2000; Lopez 2004). Associated with the
organizing model is a range of techniques intended to promote union activity
among members rather than them remaining as passive recipients of service
and support. Among the techniques employed in organizing are person-
to-person recruitment based, as far as is possible, on the assumption of
like-best-recruits-like, the mapping of workplaces to locate members and
non-members, the identification of workplace grievances, and the targeting
of particular groups of potential members (Fantasia and Voss 2004; Sherman
and Voss 2000). Not all unions employ the same range of techniques (Heery
et al. 2003: 62–6; Kelly and Badigannavar 2004), with the practical conse-
quence that different variants of the organizing model are in operation.
Research conducted largely in the United States indicates that specific
organizing techniques employed in isolation by unions or locals do not have
significant effects on the win rate of certification elections and, hence, on
membership growth. Only when a wide range of such techniques is employed
in the same campaign is a significant effect recorded (Bronfenbrenner and
Hickey 2004). Further research demonstrates that a wide-ranging ‘organiza-
tional transformation’ of unions is required if innovative organizing tactics
are to be implemented at a local level on a consistent basis and to good effect
(Sherman and Voss 2000). Integral to such a transformation is a strong
commitment to organizing among senior union officers and higher levels of
member participation in organizing campaigns (Sharpe 2004; Voss and
Sherman 2000). A purpose of this article is to examine the development of the
membership strategy of Unison since 1995. In particular, the article examines
28 British Journal of Industrial Relations
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2009.
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