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InArise, Jane Holgate argues that unions must revisit their understanding of power in order to regain influence and confront capital. Drawing on two decades of research and organising experience, Holgate examines the structural inertia of todays unions from a range of perspectives: from strategic choice, leadership and union democracy to politics, tactics and the agency afforded to rank-and-file members.In the midst of a neoliberal era of economic crisis and political upheaval, the labour movement stands at a crossroads. Union membership is on the rise, but the turn to organising has largely failed to translate into meaningful gains for workers. There is considerable discussion about the lack of collectivism among workers due to casualisation, gig work and precarity, yet these conditions were standard in the UK when workers built the foundations of the 19th-century trade union movement.Drawing on history and case studies of unions developing and using power effectively, this book offers strategies for moving beyond the pessimism that prevails in much of todays union movement. By placing power analysis back at the heart of workers' struggle, Holgate shows us that transformational change is not only possible, but within reach.
List of contents
1. Looking to the past to understand the present2. Lets talk about social power3. Harnessing power in the late 19th century / early 20th century gig economy4. Understanding and using levers of power in the latter half of the 20th century5. Structural change and the weakening of the power of workers6. Union responses to decline and loss of power7. Organising in theory: recruitment in practice?8. Leadership, strategic choice, and union power in the turn to organising9. Winning power is possible
About the author
Jane Holgate is Professor of Employment Relations at the University of Leeds. She is the co-editor of Union Voices: Developing Organizing in the UK (Ithaca 2012) and has held a number of positions in the trade union movement as an NGA 'mother of chapel', Unison branch chair and regional council delegate, UCU caseworker and secretary of Hackney Trades Union Council. She has worked closely on research projects with trade unions, including the GMB, TGWU, CWU, Bectu, Usdaw and the Trades Union Congress.
Summary
An authoritative overview of the question of power in trade union strategy
