ILPC 2026

Unions have had to cope with massive changes in the world of work in recent times. This is as true for the Global South and transition countries as it is for the Global North. The changing economic world has included the shift from rural to urban, from agriculture to manufacturing, from manufacturing to services, from public services to privatised services and a huge increase in new forms of work including, for example, the digitalisation of work and precarious work. Ensuring that unions remain relevant and representative in this changing world of work has been a challenge for the labour movement everywhere and many have adopted new methods and approaches in response.

In this context this paper draws on ongoing qualitative research, which identifies and analyses how trade unions are responding to this changing world of work. The research questions include:

·         How are unions responding to changes in the sectoral/industrial make-up of the economy?

·         How are unions responding to changes in the type of employment contract?

·         How are unions responding to changes in the type of worker employed?

·         How are unions changing the way they organise among traditional and established areas of operation?

With these research questions in mind we discuss several case studies, which stand as exemplars of different ‘types’ of union responses to the changing world of work.  The case studies reflect a spectrum of trade union activity, from forms of social movement, community based unionism, with no immediate ‘pay off’ in terms of securing collective bargaining coverage or membership fees for unions (in the form of ‘alt unions’), to activity which has secured collective bargaining agreements and transformative increases in membership. Moreover through these examples we see the challenge to, and hence the necessary response from, unions is multi-scalar – at workplace, company, national and international level.

Our research demonstrates the ways in which trade unions are increasingly working ‘beyond the comfort zone’. We suggest the ways in which trade unions are able to use their collective strength to campaign for and achieve progressive change are shifting, with far reaching implications for the development of sustainable models of union organising. This examination of some of the new ways in which unions are influencing and shaping the world of work, demands we re-visit our conceptualisations of the key characteristics of trade unions. Specifically here we consider the extent to which trade unions’ responses to the changing world of work adds to our understanding of their attempts to act as both ‘vested interest’; and ‘sword of justice’ (Flanders 1961) within society.