Industrial action is one of the critical tools available to unions to advance member interests and build organisational capacity. But how do unions make strategic choices about industrial action?
Unions 21 has partnered with trade unions across the UK and Europe to understand how the choices unions make affect their capacity to successfully use strikes and other collective actions.
A central theme of the case studies has been the interplay between member engagement and the level where bargaining takes place. Our research suggests that while national and sectoral bargaining may give wider coverage, bargaining at the enterprise level gives members a higher level of engagement and a better sense of ownership over the bargaining processes.
Engagement is key to successfully preparing members for industrial action and building the union’s leverage in negotiations, while the connectedness that members feel to the bargaining process is crucial in helping them understand the link between their membership and activism and the union’s strength and its achievements. Reconciling this tension between collective bargaining coverage and quality of member engagement is a key challenge in the paper.
Equally crucial is the robustness of union infrastructure, including data integrity, technological systems, and human capital. Deficiencies in any of these can undermine disputes even where member support is high.
Strategic investment in dispute readiness is essential and unions must candidly assess their capabilities, deficiencies, and what is necessary to be in a state of preparedness.
To explore the complete findings, access the full report. A union maturity assessment tool is also available to identify areas for development.
