In the summer of 2022, the little-known leader of a small union became a ‘working-class hero’. Facing down media pundits who thought they could walk all over him, he offered a robust critique of the government and provided workers with an authentic voice. At a time when the Labour Party was unable to articulate a credible alternative to the Tories, Mick Lynch spoke for the working class. Where did Lynch come from? How did he develop the skills and traits that make him such an effective spokesperson and leader? This book, the first biography of Lynch, explores his family and social background and his rise to the top of the RMT union, which culminated in election as General Secretary in 2021. Considering his persona and politics, this book asks what quality singles out Lynch as a working-class hero compared to other union leaders and, more broadly, what leadership means for working people and for the left. If we want better leaders at every level, the case of Mick Lynch holds the key. -- .

This book describes and analyses the impact of the 2007-2008 financial crisis upon the working conditions of employees in the financial services sector in Britain. It tells the story of workers being made to pay the price for a crisis that was not of their own making, but nevertheless caused a deleterious impact on their employment security, remuneration and working conditions. Evidence of fighting back against this has been sparse so that the response of employees is best characterised as 'fright' (grudgingly working harder and longer), 'flight' (leaving the sector through redundancy), and 'falling in line' (accepting the diktat of performance managements systems). Through this book we learn the reasons behind this acquiescence, with its detailed attention to topics such as the stunted development of labour unionism, the prevalence of union-management partnerships, and the occurrence of employment insecurity and labour shedding. Providing a valuable insight into the effects of the financial crash, Employment Relations in Financial Services will be useful to academics, students and also trade unionists.

Inequality and unfairness still stalk Scotland after more than twenty years of devolution. Having done little to shield against austerity, Brexit and an increasingly right-wing Westminster agenda, calls for further constitutional reform to solve pressing political, economic and social problems grow ever louder. The debate over further devolution or independence continues to split the population. In A New Scotland, leading activists and academics lay out the blueprints for radical reform, showing how society can be transformed by embedding values of democracy, social justice and environmental sustainability into a coherent set of policy ideas. Structured in two parts, the book takes to task the challenges to affect radical change, before exploring new approaches to key questions such as healthcare, education, public ownership, race, gender and human rights.

Sex Worker Union Organising is the first study of the emerging phenomenon of sex workers - prostitutes, exotic dancers such as lap dancers, porn models and actresses, and sex chatline workers - asserting that their economic activities are work and as such, they are entitled to workers' rights. The most developed instances of this struggle, in Australia, Britain, Canada, Germany The Netherlands, New Zealand and the US, have taken the form of unionisation. Sex Worker Union Organising analyses the basis and contexts for this struggle and assesses the opportunities and challenges facing these unionisation projects. It concludes that the most significant obstacles to the advance of these unionisation projects are the sparsity of sex worker union activists and the paucity of understanding of the sex worker discourse by sex workers and non-sex workers alike.

In recent years, there has been an acute crisis of worker representation in the finance sector in Britain. Labour union and staff association membership and density has fallen, collective organisation has experienced dislocation and disorganisation and worker self-confidence has been sapped. Prior to this, there was a sense of an identifiable trajectory towards greater 'unionateness' by labour unions and staff associations, with the sector moving towards growing self-identification of employees as 'workers' and the use of traditional tools of collective bargaining such as threats of strikes and strikes themselves. This study documents and explains these changes in wider historical terms, providing invaluable reading for those interested in the future of both the labour movement and the finance sector.

With economies and organizations undergoing change, understanding the nature of work and its significance to people presents a critical intellectual challenge with strong implications for policy and practice. Debates surrounding meanings and relevance of work in its contemporary setting have been hampered by a shortage of solid research findings. By drawing on a substantial body of evidence, this book challenges recent assumptions about work and raises the issues of work and employment onto broader policy and management agendas.

Knowledge Workers in the Information Society addresses the changing nature of work, workers, and their organizations in the media, information, and knowledge industries. These knowledge workers include journalists, broadcasters, librarians, filmmakers and animators, government workers, and employees in the telecommunications and high tech sectors. Technological change has become relentless. Corporate concentration has created new pressures to rationalize work and eliminate stages in the labor process. Globalization and advances in telecommunications have made real the prospect that knowledge work will follow manufacturing labor to parts of the world with low wages, poor working conditions, and little unionization. McKercher and Mosco bring together scholars from numerous disciplines to examine knowledge workers from a genuinely global perspective.

This title was first published in 2003.This book explores many of the major issues of concern to researchers studying trade unionism. It offers: a definition, elaboration and contextualisation of militancy (industrial, union and worker); an examination of the relationship between workplace unionism and the wider body of the union; a study of factionalism and industrial and political consciousness: and an analysis of the construction and mobilisation of conflict and cooperation (social partnership). These themes are considered through examining the relatively militant response of British postal workers to increased commercialisation of their industry. By comparing this response to that of postal workers in nine other major industrial countries, the study provides an explanation of why UK postal workers have been relatively successful in resisting new management techniques and privatisation through militancy and oppositionalism. One aspect given particular attention is the uneasy relationship within the postal workers' union between shop floor militancy and the social partnership approach followed by the union's leadership.

After many years of indifferent decline, trade union membership is now being revitalised. Strategies known as union organizing are being used to recruit and re-energize unions around the globe. This book considers exactly how trade unions are working to do this and provides a much needed evaluation of these rebuilding strategies.
By comparing historical and contemporary case-studies to assess the impact of various organizing campaigns, Union Organizing assess the progress of unions across Europe and America. It raises key debates about the organizing culture and considers the impact of recent union recognition laws on employers and the government's Fairness at Work policy.

In recent years, there has been an acute crisis of worker representation in the finance sector in Britain. Labour union and staff association membership and density has fallen, collective organisation has experienced dislocation and disorganisation and worker self-confidence has been sapped. Prior to this, there was a sense of an identifiable trajectory towards greater 'unionateness' by labour unions and staff associations, with the sector moving towards growing self-identification of employees as 'workers' and the use of traditional tools of collective bargaining such as threats of strikes and strikes themselves. This study documents and explains these changes in wider historical terms, providing invaluable reading for those interested in the future of both the labour movement and the finance sector.

This title was first published in 2003.This book explores many of the major issues of concern to researchers studying trade unionism. It offers: a definition, elaboration and contextualisation of militancy (industrial, union and worker); an examination of the relationship between workplace unionism and the wider body of the union; a study of factionalism and industrial and political consciousness: and an analysis of the construction and mobilisation of conflict and cooperation (social partnership). These themes are considered through examining the relatively militant response of British postal workers to increased commercialisation of their industry. By comparing this response to that of postal workers in nine other major industrial countries, the study provides an explanation of why UK postal workers have been relatively successful in resisting new management techniques and privatisation through militancy and oppositionalism. One aspect given particular attention is the uneasy relationship within the postal workers' union between shop floor militancy and the social partnership approach followed by the union's leadership.

Bob Crow was the most high-profile and militant union leader of his generation. This biography focuses on his leadership of the RMT union, examining and exposing a number of popular myths created about him by political opponents. Using the schema of his personal characteristics (including his public persona), his politics and the power of his members, it explains how and why he was able to punch above his weight in industrial relations and on the political stage, helping the small RMT union become as influential as many of its much larger counterparts. As RMT leader, Crow oversaw a rise in membership and promoted a more assertive and successful bargaining approach. While he failed to unite all socialists into one new party, he established himself as the leading popular critic of neo-liberalism, 'New' Labour and the age of austerity. -- .

This book analyzes the multiple levels of meaning which people attach to work today, and the role of work in people's lives. By looking at call centres and software development, the book evaluates some of the claims made for the knowledge economy and argues that defining the work-life boundary is a constant problem for many workers

This is the first study of the emerging phenomenon of sex workers, asserting that they are entitled to workers' rights. Drawing on examples from Australia, Britain, Canada, Germany, The Netherlands, New Zealand and the USA the book analyzes the contexts for this struggle and the opportunities and challenges facing these unionization projects.

Published in collaboration with BUIRA, this book provides a critical review of the field of industrial relations (IR) and evaluates its future in the rapidly evolving world of work. Written by key names in IR, the book captures the significant transformations that have taken place within the field over the past decade. It traces the historical development of IR, exploring its ongoing impact on our lives. The chapters delve into various aspects, including union organization and mobilization, the influence of new technology, and the examination of intersectionality in the context of work and employment. This is an invaluable resource for academics and students of employment and industrial relations, as well as HR professionals, trade union organizations and representatives.

Inequality and unfairness still stalk Scotland after more than twenty years of devolution. Having done little to shield against austerity, Brexit and an increasingly right-wing Westminster agenda, calls for further constitutional reform to solve pressing political, economic and social problems grow ever louder. The debate over further devolution or independence continues to split the population. In A New Scotland, leading activists and academics lay out the blueprints for radical reform, showing how society can be transformed by embedding values of democracy, social justice and environmental sustainability into a coherent set of policy ideas. Structured in two parts, the book takes to task the challenges to affect radical change, before exploring new approaches to key questions such as healthcare, education, public ownership, race, gender and human rights.

Published in collaboration with BUIRA, this book provides a critical review of the field of industrial relations (IR) and evaluates its future in the rapidly evolving world of work. Written by key names in IR, the book captures the significant transformations that have taken place within the field over the past decade. It traces the historical development of IR, exploring its ongoing impact on our lives. The chapters delve into various aspects, including union organization and mobilization, the influence of new technology, and the examination of intersectionality in the context of work and employment. This is an invaluable resource for academics and students of employment and industrial relations, as well as HR professionals, trade union organizations and representatives.

Knowledge Workers in the Information Society addresses the changing nature of work, workers, and their organizations in the media, information, and knowledge industries. These knowledge workers include journalists, broadcasters, librarians, filmmakers and animators, government workers, and employees in the telecommunications and high tech sectors. Technological change has become relentless. Corporate concentration has created new pressures to rationalize work and eliminate stages in the labor process. Globalization and advances in telecommunications have made real the prospect that knowledge work will follow manufacturing labor to parts of the world with low wages, poor working conditions, and little unionization. McKercher and Mosco bring together scholars from numerous disciplines to examine knowledge workers from a genuinely global perspective.

After many years of indifferent decline, trade union membership is now being revitalised. Strategies known as union organizing are being used to recruit and re-energize unions around the globe. This book considers exactly how trade unions are working to do this and provides a much needed evaluation of these rebuilding strategies.
By comparing historical and contemporary case-studies to assess the impact of various organizing campaigns, Union Organizing assesses the progress of unions across Europe and America. It raises key debates about the organizing culture and considers the impact of recent union recognition laws on employers and the government's Fairness at Work policy.

Several thousand new trade union recognition agreements have been signed since 1997, representing a major development within industrial relations in Britain. This has resulted from the interaction of union organizing efforts and the statutory union recognition provisions of the Employment Relations Act 1999. However for trade unions recognition alone is not enough, a vital issue is whether, having gained union recognition, trade unions are now effectively delivering upon the promises and prospects of union recognition.
The essays in "Union Recognition" examine the substantive outcomes of the new agreements in regard to union representation and collective bargaining. In particular, the impact on terms and conditions of employment, employers' behavior and strategy, the nature of the union-management bargaining relationship, and the building of workplace unionism are explored. While the collection focuses primarily on Britain, the germane issues are also looked at in the context of Australia, Canada and the US. Conceptually and theoretically, "Union Recognition" offers contributions which develop our understanding of the relationship between workplace and national unionisms and of mobilization theory.