Labour market or labour movement? The union density bias as barrier to labour renewal

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2373369
AutoresRichard Sullivan (0000-0001-7176-1673)
Ano2010
Volume24
Fascículo1
Páginas145-156
Data de publicação2010-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoWork Employment and Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0950-0170 • E-ISSN: 1469-8722
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0950017009353660
OpenAlexW2154464621
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas15
Referências citadas39

Most labour scholars view the unionised share of the labour market, union density, as the movement's primary source of power. Conversely, social movement scholars usually consider power embedded in disruption, organisational networks, resources, or political opportunities. Although many labour scholars promote 'social movement unionism' to reverse labour's decline, they have largely failed to adopt a thoroughgoing social movement perspective. A sign of this is that union density remains the sacrosanct indicator of organised labour's success and power. I argue that this density bias has significant analytical implications, leading observers to overlook non-market sources of movement power, to reduce a heterogeneous movement to a single organisational form, and to oversimplify the complex processes of movement organizing. I contend that treating labour explicitly as a social movement rather than implicitly as an agent in a market will open new lines of inquiry that may strengthen analyses of labour's prospects for renewal

Collective bargaining · Economic system · Economics · Labour economics · Market economy · Movement (music · Perspective (graphical · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sign (mathematics · Social movement · Sociology · Trade union · Union density · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Employment and Welfare Studies · Labor Movements and Unions · Law