IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecoind/v43y2022i1p388-409.html

Trade unions and the 2016 UK European Union Referendum

Author

Listed:
  • Ian Fitzgerald
  • Ron Beadle

    (Northumbria University, UK)

  • Kevin Rowan

    (Trades Union Congress, UK)

Abstract

This article reports on pre and post interviews with trade union leaders and senior Trades Union Congress (TUC) and union officials who held campaign responsibilities for the 2016 UK European Union (EU) Referendum. The article considers the development of union policy towards the EU, the determination of unions’ final positions, campaign resources and media, the arguments made and the drivers of and constraints upon active campaigning. Campaign intensity, resourcing and strategic decision-making varied widely across unions and was frustrated by resource constraints, fear of alienating members and in some cases lack of priority. The article concludes that unions must be better prepared to commit material resources and national officers’ time so that campaign issues are effectively framed in terms of member concerns.

Suggested Citation

  • Ian Fitzgerald & Ron Beadle & Kevin Rowan, 2022. "Trade unions and the 2016 UK European Union Referendum," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 43(1), pages 388-409, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:43:y:2022:i:1:p:388-409
    DOI: 10.1177/0143831X19899483
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0143831X19899483
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0143831X19899483?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard Freeman & Jeffrey Pelletier, 1990. "The Impact of Industrial Relations Legislation on British Union Density," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 28(2), pages 141-164, July.
    2. Marginson, Paul & Keune, Maarten, 2012. "European social dialogue as multi-level governance: Towards more autonomy and new dependencies," European Integration online Papers (EIoP), European Community Studies Association Austria (ECSA-A), vol. 16, February.
    3. Giuntella, Osea & Nicodemo, Catia & Vargas-Silva, Carlos, 2018. "The effects of immigration on NHS waiting times," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 123-143.
    4. Willman, Paul & Bryson, Alex & Forth, John, 2016. "UK Trades Unions and the Problems of Collective Action," IZA Discussion Papers 10043, IZA Network @ LISER.
    5. Élodie Béthoux & Roland Erne & Darragh Golden, 2018. "A Primordial Attachment to the Nation? French and Irish Workers and Trade Unions in Past EU Referendum Debates," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 56(3), pages 656-678, September.
    6. Katy Fox-Hodess, 2017. "(Re-)Locating the Local and National in the Global: Multi-Scalar Political Alignment in Transnational European Dockworker Union Campaigns," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 55(3), pages 626-647, September.
    7. Richard Hyman, 2010. "Trade Unions and ‘Europe’: Are the Members out of Step?," LEQS – LSE 'Europe in Question' Discussion Paper Series 14, European Institute, LSE.
    8. Guglielmo Meardi, 2012. "Union Immobility? Trade Unions and the Freedoms of Movement in the Enlarged EU," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 50(1), pages 99-120, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gabriella Alberti & Jo Cutter, 2022. "Labour migration policy post‐Brexit: The contested meaning of regulation by old and new actors," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(5), pages 430-445, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Élodie Béthoux & Roland Erne & Darragh Golden, 2018. "A Primordial Attachment to the Nation? French and Irish Workers and Trade Unions in Past EU Referendum Debates," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 56(3), pages 656-678, September.
    2. Melanie Simms, 2015. "Accounting for Greenfield Union Organizing Outcomes," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 53(3), pages 397-422, September.
    3. Shobhit Kulshreshtha & Martin Salm & Ansgar Wübker, 2025. "Health drain: the effect of internal migration on regional disparities in healthcare costs," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 38(3), pages 1-28, September.
    4. Osea Giuntella & Fabrizio Mazzonna & Catia Nicodemo & Carlos Vargas-Silva, 2019. "Immigration and the reallocation of work health risks," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(3), pages 1009-1042, July.
    5. Sascha O. Becker & Thiemo Fetzer, 2018. "Has Eastern European Migration Impacted UK-born Workers?," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 376, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    6. Di Giacomo, Marina & Perucca, Giovanni & Piacenza, Massimiliano & Turati, Gilberto, 2024. "Immigrants' clusters and unequal access to healthcare treatments," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    7. John H. Pencavel, 2004. "The Surprising Retreat of Union Britain," NBER Chapters, in: Seeking a Premier Economy: The Economic Effects of British Economic Reforms, 1980–2000, pages 181-232, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Nicodemo, Catia & Raya, Josep M., 2018. "Does Juan Carlos or Nelson Obtain a Larger Price Cut in the Spanish Housing Market?," IZA Discussion Papers 11811, IZA Network @ LISER.
    9. Jahn, Elke J. & Wagner, Thomas, 2001. "Labour's law?," Discussion Papers 6, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
    10. Papageorgiou, Athanasios, 2018. "The Effect of Immigration on the Well-Being of Native Populations: Evidence from the United Kingdom," MPRA Paper 93045, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. David Metcalf, 1993. "Transformation of British Industrial Relations? Institutions, Conduct and Outcomes 1980-1990," CEP Discussion Papers dp0151, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    12. Stephen Drinkwater & Peter Ingram, 2005. "Have Industrial Relations in the UK Really Improved?," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 19(2), pages 373-398, June.
    13. Metcalf, David, 1993. "Transformation of British industrial relations? Institutions, conduct and outcomes 1980-1990," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 20981, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    14. Guidetti, Bruna & Pereda, Paula & Severnini, Edson, 2020. "Health Shocks under Hospital Capacity Constraint: Evidence from Air Pollution in Sao Paulo, Brazil," IZA Discussion Papers 13211, IZA Network @ LISER.
    15. Lemos, Sara, 2025. "Peekaboo! Uncovering the Impact of the Eastern European Immigration Shock on Wages Employment and Unemployment in the UK," IZA Discussion Papers 18000, IZA Network @ LISER.
    16. Bettin, Giulia & Sacchi, Agnese, 2020. "Health spending in Italy: The impact of immigrants," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    17. Adam Rogalewski, 2022. "Trade unions challenges in organising Polish workers: A comparative case study of British and Swiss trade union strategies," European Journal of Industrial Relations, , vol. 28(4), pages 385-404, December.
    18. Westermark, A., 1999. "A Model of Union Formation," Papers 1999:8, Uppsala - Working Paper Series.
    19. Cyprien Batut & Ulysse Lojkine & Paolo Santini, 2021. "Which side are you on? A historical perspective on union membership composition in four European countries," Working Papers halshs-03364022, HAL.
    20. Stewart, Kitty & Cooper, Kerris & Shutes, Isabel, 2019. "What does Brexit mean for social policy in the UK? An exploration of the potential consequences of the 2016 referendum for public services, inequalities and social rights," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121548, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:43:y:2022:i:1:p:388-409. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ekhist.uu.se/english.htm .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.