Holgate, J orcid.org/0000-0003-2311-6981, Alberti, G orcid.org/0000-0001-5673-6568, Byford, I et al. (1 more author) (2021) Trade union community membership: exploring what people who are not in paid employment could contribute to union activism. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research. p. 102425892110433. ISSN 1024-2589
Abstract
The industrial relations literature tends to argue that workers join trade unions primarily for instrumental reasons, for example, to obtain assistance if there is a problem at work. But this clearly does not apply to people who are not in work. It is in many ways counterintuitive to join a trade union when one is not an employee or in paid employment, looking for a job, or retired. Generally, there is little material benefit in doing so. Others have noted, however, that personal values, particularly associated with the ideological left, can cultivate a predisposition toward joining a union that is not based on a purely material calculus. Nevertheless, this analysis is usually applied to workers. The research reflected in this article aims to understand the motivation of people who are not in paid employment, such as jobseekers/unemployed, students and retirees, to join labour unions and become active within them. It does so through a case study of the United Kingdom’s largest private sector union, Unite, and considers the contribution to, or rationale for, union activism within community membership and the possibilities for rethinking trade unionism beyond its traditional workplace base.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2021. This is an author produced version of an article, published in Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Activism, community organising, motivation, retirees, trade union membership |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Business (Leeds) > Work and Employment Relation Division (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 26 Oct 2021 12:09 |
Last Modified: | 26 Oct 2021 12:09 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/10242589211043342 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:179630 |