By Martin Smith, Senior Associate, organising and union operations, Unions21 | 4 min
If we want to build unions in new spaces, we need to be curious and get involved!
Most experienced union builders quickly work out how important it is to be up to speed with and involved in shaping government policy – which becomes only slightly more easy for frontline union builders if there is a friendly government.
Linking policymakers with workers
Policy formulation in government can look and feel like a bit of a closed shop, with a tight network of lobbyists and policy staff swapping received wisdom in private, often with people they’ve known or been colleagues with for some years.
To engage on behalf of working people, union builders need to insert themselves and become directly involved in that world while keeping their mandate fresh with those directly affected in the workplace. This is a really tough challenge for union policy staff; frontline union builders should support them by being actively engaged in connecting working people directly with opinion-formers and policymakers.
The alternative is government policy that means well but misses its target and in the employment law world the landscape is littered with such failures – from the 1999 Minimum Wage, to the Working Time Directive, Information and Consultation rights and union recognition and the right to be represented. This is often because the detail needed to make sure new employment law has a real impact is overlooked in the cut and thrust of parliamentary politics and administration. Or, put in a less constructive way, while politicians chase short-term headlines for campaign leaflets rather than real-world impacts that working people can feel in their pockets.
Employment Rights Act 2026: a new opportunity
With a new Labour government unions have a new opportunity to avoid the mistakes of the last one, especially in relation to the detailed implementation of the new Employment Rights Act in 2026 but also in relation to critical issues of tapers on in-work benefits in the context of the new low pay, short hours, insecure world of work we build our unions within.
Pay bargaining in many industries now runs in parallel with government policy on benefits tapers, as union builders avoid any negotiated pay rise being lost by members through steep benefits tapers.
With 50% of Universal Credit claimants in work, Thatcher’s political notion that “work is the best route out of poverty” is simply not the case for many in our communities and George Osborne’s famous framing of “shirkers and strivers” feels, at best, quaint. To policymakers trapped in their bubble, such truths are not as glaringly obvious as they are to union builders in workplaces. And that is our challenge.
How can unions make a difference?
Union builders can get involved in these issues in a number of ways, and have a duty to do so on behalf of the working people they represent in order to secure their confidence that the union at least knows what it’s talking about:
Be curious, informed and fully briefed on new employment and benefits policy developments as they emerge from government, whether Conservative, Labour or Coalition, and be able to explain the politics behind them and implications to working people.
Engage with policy teams within your union directly and put them in direct face to face contact with members to hear their direct experiences of, for example, zero hours working, minimum wage, TUPE etc.
Engage directly with government and party consultations, in particular to create spaces for union members to directly communicate how current employment and benefits law fails in its objectives and how its limitations can be improved.
