Community and Unions

Guest Editorial Community and Unions Donna M. Buttigieg Sandra Cockfield Marjorie Jerrard Labor Studies Journal Volume 34 Number 4 December 2009 437-440 © 2009 UALE 10.1177/0160449X08322774 http://lsj.sagepub.com hosted at http://online.sagepub.com Monash University, Victoria, Australia Al Rainnie University of Leicester, United Kingdom T his special issue contains a number of articles from a conference held in Prato, Italy, July 1–4, 2006, on the theme of “Socially Responsive, Socially Responsible Approaches to Employment and Work.” The editors of this special issue were co-organizers of this conference, along with several people from Monash University and Kings College London, University of London. The articles are from the stream on unionism, which explored the possibilities for union renewal through community unionism and social movement unionism. A number of writers (e.g., Brecher and Costello 1990; Nissen 2004; Fairbrother 2000) have argued that community union coalitions or community unionism is a mechanism for union renewal. The incentive for entering into these new relationships is partly found in the pressures of globalization (Turner 2006) and in changes such as organizational decentralization and the decline of the welfare state (Upchurch, Mathers, and Taylor 2004). These changes have had an impact on some unions, moving them away from industrial, sectional concerns to more participatory unionism involving a broader range of social, political, and economic issues (Clawson 2003). Community union coalitions and community unionism are contested terms. However, a broad definition that encompasses many of the core concepts is offered by Frege, Heery, and Turner (2004, 138). They described union coalitions as “involving discrete, intermittent, or continuous joint activity in pursuit of shared or common goals between trade unions and other non-labour institutions in civil society, including community, faith, identity, advocacy, welfare, and campaigning organizations.” Lipsig-Mumme (2003) has argued that the contestability relates to a range of issues including the difficulties defining the notion of community and the variance in the type of relationships that unions and community might have. Wills and Simms (2004, 61, quoting Crow and Allen 1994, 1) have argued that community is the “broad realm of local social arrangements beyond the sphere of home and Authors’ Note: Address correspondence to Donna Buttigieg, Department of Management, Monash University, Gippsland Campus, Churchill, 3842, Victoria, Australia. Telephone: +6 13 5122 6614; fax: +6 13 5122 6524; e-mail: donna.buttigieg@buseco.monash.edu.au. 437 438 Labor Studies Journal family but more familiar than the impersonal institutions of the wider society.” They state that community is a constructed term, which may be based on common geography, interests, or common feeling. Aside from the notion of what community is, a second complicating factor in defining community unionism is the large variety of relationships that community has with trade unions. Frege, Heery, and Turner (2004) argued that there are several types of coalitions that can exist. Vanguard coalitions are where partners accept a subordinate role and the primary objectives are determined by union interests. Common-cause coalitions involve the coalition and the union coming together with separate and distinct interests that are complimentary. Bargained coalitions occur where partners bargain the parameters of coalition in advance, and integrative coalitions are where the union “takes over the objectives of non labour organizations and accepts them as its own” (Frege, Heery, and Turner 2004, 143). While there are a range of benefits for unions entering into these coalitions, unions predominantly enter these relationships to access resources of the coalition partner. These include financial and physical resources, access to new groups, expertise, legitimacy, and the facilitation of mobilization of support more broadly than the union movement (Frege, Heery, and Turner 2004). Importantly, Ellem (2003) and Wills (2001) argued that one motivating factor for trade unions is the fact that community supplements the traditional vertical structures of trade unions with a horizontal structure of core constituents. Wills (2001) regarded community unionism as critical for the renewal of the union movement, particularly in targeting groups that the union movement has traditionally found difficult to organize. The reasons are fourfold. First, by increasing the scale of activity, community-union alliances have the capacity to influence changes beyond the scope of the workplace, such as policy and legislative change. Second, alliances with groups that are representative of the community (i.e. women, ethnic minorities, etc.) mean that unions can target groups that have traditionally been ignored by unions. Third, community organizations obtain better access to hard-to-organize groups, such as homeworkers. Finally, community groups can bring an external pressure to employers who may not recognize the legitimacy of union concerns. The articles in this special issue contribute to the debate on community unionism and advance our understanding of why and how unions engage with the community, offering a range of coalitions formed for purposes other than the industrial agenda traditionally pursued by trade unions. The articles also offer studies of coalitions in several countries, showing the extent of the move toward this new form of unionism. The special issue begins with an article by Upchurch, Taylor, and Mathers, which provides an institutional analysis of neoliberal restructuring and trade union strategic orientation in three countries: the United Kingdom, Germany, and France. Upchurch et al. argue that the neoliberalism renders postwar forms of unionism, based on accommodation with social democratic political parties, unviable. In this new climate, they argue that unions are moving, albeit slowly, toward political and social strategies that engage more directly in civil society. Buttigieg et al / Community and Unions 439 While Upchurch et al. examine the macro pressures driving unions to engage with community, Tattersall’s article focuses on the micro level, examining the factors contributing to coalition unionism formation. In doing this, Tattersall provides some clarity to the definition of community and how different definitions of community are useful in understanding the form that union and community coalitions may take. The article discusses two case studies in Australia and Canada that explore how opportunities and union choices influenced the nature of these coalitions. The article by Cockfield, Rainnie, Buttigieg, and Jerrard examines the relationship between community and a number of unions in the state of Victoria in Australia. The authors find that unions are accepting of the need to build links with the community, and there are numerous examples of union engagement with the community. However, there is significant variation in the form this engagement takes, and not all union and community alliances represent a new strategy reflective of a political and social agenda that could generate renewal. The last two articles provide cases studies on community unionism in action. Wills’s article examines subcontracted labor and the living-wage campaigns at Homerton Hospital and Queen Mary, University of London. She argues that campaigns such as these are an effective mechanism for unions to work with other community groups to improve the working conditions of subcontracted labor, where the target of the campaign is not necessarily the employer of that labor. Importantly, Wills’s article highlights the significance of nonworker organizations in gaining improved conditions for these workers. The final article, by Wray, tells the somewhat unique and interesting story of the Durham Miners Association and its continued survival and growth despite the closure of the mines in the region. Wray’s article highlights how a union, with a long tradition of community-based unionism, has continued to provide support and advocacy for members and their family beyond the workplace. Each of the articles contributes to the debate on community unionism by offering clarification of the concept through analysing drivers of this new form of unionism and case studies of various forms of community-union alliances. These articles indicate that unions in mature economies recognize the need for new strategies if the unions are to remain relevant. References Brecher, Jeremy, and Tim Costello. 1990. Building bridges: The emerging grassroots coalitions between labor and community. New York: Monthly Review Press. Clawson, Dan. 2003. The next upsurge: Labor and the new social movements. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Crow, G., and G. Allen. 1994. Community life: An introduction to local social relations. Hemel Hempstead, UK: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Ellem, Bradon. 2003. New unionism in the old economy: Community and collectivism in the Pilbara’s mining towns. Journal of Industrial Relations 45 (4): 423–41. 440 Labor Studies Journal Fairbrother, Peter. 2000. Trade unions at the crossroads. London: Mansell. Frege, Carola, Edmund Heery, and Lowell Turner. 2004. The new solidarity? Trade union coalition-building in five countries. In Varieties of unionism: Strategies for union revitalization in a globalizing economy, edited by Carola Frege and John Kelly, 137–58. Oxford: Open University Press. Lipsig-Mumme, Carla. 2003. Forms of solidarity: Trade unions and community unionism. ACTU Organising Centre. http://www.actu.asn.au/organising/news/1053579943_13456.html (accessed July 21, 2005). Nissen, Bruce. 2004. The effectiveness and limits of labor-community coalitions: Evidence from South Florida. Labor Studies Journal 29 (1): 67–89. Turner, Lowell. 2006. Globalization and the logic of participation: Unions and the politics of coalition building. Journal of Industrial Relations 48 (1): 83–97. Upchurch, Martin, Andy Mathers, and Graham Taylor. 2004. New strategies of UK unions. Mimeo, University of West of England. Wills, Jane. 2001. Community unionism and trade union renewal in the UK. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 26:465–83. Wills, Jane, and Melanie Simms. 2004. Building reciprocal community unionism in the UK. Capital and Class 82:59–84.