ILPC 2027

 The decline in the number of trade union members since 1979 in the UK is widely documented. Organising is seen as a vehicle through which membership can be increased but evidence has shown that the outcome of many organising campaigns is patchy and often unsustainable. One reason for this is that the majority of both continuing and new union members at the workplace are inactive. Gall and Fiorito (2012) have referred to this as the activism ‘problem’.  For unions to be effective they need an active membership. One method of renewing activism is to draw on wider social networks and recruit those people into the union movement from their communities. This strategy has long roots where communities and workplaces were geographically close and there was a collectivist attitude based on social class. Since the advance of neo-liberalism and the growth of a more individualist attitude this collectivist approach to society has declined. The UNITE strategy for union renewal through a community based approach is one way of attempting to re-connect workplaces and communities. UNITE community is a section of UNITE set up in in 2011 for people who do not work. This encompasses people who are unemployed, retired, students, carers etc. These are people who are ‘hard to reach’ and difficult to engage in forums where their voices can be heard.

This paper will discuss the findings from 26 semi structured interviews that are concerned with ‘stories of the self’ undertaken with UNITE community members.

The research investigated the reasons for joining and what membership of UNITE Community meant for its members. This illuminated the micro-processes of becoming part of a collective organisation as explained by Mobilisation Theory.

The members constitute a mix of long standing but retired trade unionists and people who are completely new to trade unionism. Many have become involved due to deteriorating personal circumstances attributable to the Coalition and Conservative government policies particularly with regard to social security payments, housing issues and concerns around service cuts.

Rather than sitting at home “shouting at the radio and television” the members got involved in mounting campaigns. They felt that the institutional permanence of a trade union meant their campaigns would have more resonance. However, there was some tension with the industrial branches of UNITE in terms of representation and funding. Their stories reveal how and why disparate people collectivise to campaign in their communities for social justice.

This strategy could provide an answer to the activism ‘problem’ in that these members join the union to become active and to campaign and do not have the reticence of workers as they have no employer and could act as a vanguard for growing the activist base through their own campaigns but also through supporting local workplace issues and strikes. The findings of the empirical data support Jarley (2005) in his ideas concerning unions as ‘social networks imbued with social capital’ thereby acting as a vehicle for renewal.