By Becky Wright, Executive Director, Unions 21 | 2 min
As the UK begins to think about implementing the Employment Relations Bill and Ireland the EU directive, we wanted to explore what it would take to encourage workers to look to unions. What do they think of us? What would make them join?
To help us answer these questions, we worked with Stonehaven to survey over 1,500 non-union workers within the private sector across the UK and Ireland.
Headline good news is that a clear majority said unions are useful. Nearly half said we're effective. However, when we asked if unions were relevant to their sector, their company or people like them, the numbers split almost evenly.
So now we come to a real challenge when it comes to new legislative developments - workers believe unions work in theory but struggle to see how they work in practice for their own lives.
The "not for people like me" barrier: the reactive reputation problem
When asked about union advantages, the top answers were all high-stakes moments: support when treated unfairly, help in disputes, legal protection.
Many of us would argue that these are critical functions and a key part of what we do. However, the challenge with being positioned as the emergency service you call when things have gone wrong is what do you do when workers (as the research also suggests) don't see that happening or has happened to them?
One response stood out to us:
"Unions tend to only help certain types of workers"
If we are to encourage workers to join unions to strengthen their collective voice, we need to find ways to talk about ourselves that move us past the crisis and to the everyday.
Want to hear more?
On Thursday 13th November, we are joining forces with Thompsons Solicitors to host a one-day conference on Strengthening Collective Voice. To regsiter, or for more information and the day’s full agenda, visit our event page.
