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Trade unions in the community: Building broad spaces of solidarity

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  • Jane Holgate

Abstract

This article approaches the subject of trade union community-based organising from the perspective of one union’s attempt to broaden its remit by recruiting ‘non-workers’. In 2011, Unite, the largest private sector union in the UK, announced it was to recruit retirees, students and people who were unemployed into a new section of the union. This could be a radical and potentially ground-breaking development for a UK union where the organising approach stems from an understanding that the purpose of trade unionism is to advance the interests of the working class as a whole – whether or not individuals are, indeed, working – broadening the ideology of trade unionism from its narrow economistic focus. The article reports on a six-year study of this initiative and analyses whether this can be understood as a reorientation of union purpose as a consequence of loss of power in the workplace. It further considers the potential this has for rebuilding wider spaces of solidarity.

Suggested Citation

  • Jane Holgate, 2021. "Trade unions in the community: Building broad spaces of solidarity," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 42(2), pages 226-247, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:42:y:2021:i:2:p:226-247
    DOI: 10.1177/0143831X18763871
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Richard Hyman, 2007. "How can trade unions act strategically?," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 13(2), pages 193-210, May.
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    3. Paul Osterman, 2006. "Community Organizing and Employee Representation," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 44(4), pages 629-649, December.
    4. Willman, Paul & Bryson, Alex, 2006. "Accounting for collective action: resource acquisition and mobilization in British unions," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 19772, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Christian Lévesque & Gregor Murray, 2010. "Understanding union power: resources and capabilities for renewing union capacity," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 16(3), pages 333-350, August.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Paul Griffin & Jane Holgate, 2025. "Trade unions and labour market inactivity: a continuing sense of solidarity and belonging," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 31(4), pages 451-466, November.
    3. Can Çavin Ötkan & Tekin Çolakoğlu, 2025. "Violation of Employee Rights and Unionization From the Perspective of Non-Unionized Basketball Players," SAGE Open, , vol. 15(1), pages 21582440251, February.
    4. Lorenzo Frangi & Anthony C Masi & Bénédicte Poirier, 2023. "From Unwoven Societal Relationships to a Broad-Based Movement? Union Power in Societal Networks in Quebec (Canada)," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 37(5), pages 1377-1394, October.
    5. Sarah F. Small, 2025. "Union Coverage and Men’s Participation in Unpaid Social Reproduction in the United States," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 57(4), pages 850-874, December.

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