The Discursive Power of Trade Union Leadership
Framing Identity Fields for Public Persuasion
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2374833 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kathryn A Boyle (0000-0003-2244-4334, Glasgow Caledonian University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 39 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 681-702 |
| Publication date | 2025-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Work Employment and Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0950-0170 • E-ISSN: 1469-8722 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/09500170241279778 |
| OpenAlex | W4402925344 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 30 |
This article explores the role of subjective agency and politicised union leadership in exercising societal (discursive) power through a frame and rhetorical analysis of the writings, speeches and media interviews of Mick Lynch, General Secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (UK). Findings demonstrate Lynch engaged in a dynamic process of framing identity fields to support a collective action frame around the redistribution of wealth in society, developing a complex network of protagonist, antagonist and audience characteristics under three main categorisations: value, power and action identity fields. He did so in dialogic response to opponents' counter-identity frames, utilising rhetorical techniques to present opposing arguments ( dissoi logoi and logoi versus anti-logoi ), other argumentation ( inventio ) and figures of speech ( elocutio ) for public persuasion. These findings extend literature on union power resources by illuminating how discursive power is generated through identity field framing as a dialogical and rhetorical process
Aesthetics · Art · Business · Civil engineering · Framing (construction · Identity (music · International trade · Media studies · Persuasion · Political science · Power (physics · Public relations · Sociology · Trade union · Engineering · Labor Movements and Unions · Management and Organizational Studies · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies · Psychology · Social Psychology
The strategy of social protest
Rethinking Industrial Relations
Strategic Maneuvering in Argumentative Discourse
Understanding European Trade Unionism
A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms
The Power Resources Approach
Clothes Make the Person? The Tailoring of Legitimating Accounts and the Social Construction of Identity
Los nuevos movimientos sociales
‘Ideational power’ as a resource in union struggle
Frame Extension, Trade Union Identities, and Wage Politics
Seizing an opportunity? Union organizing campaigns in Britain, 1998–2004
Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student
A True American System of Finance
The Emergence, Development, and Future of the Framing Perspective
Power through, over and in ideas
Advancing Workers' Rights in the Gig Economy through Discursive Power
Union Coalitions and Strategic Framing
McStrike! Framing, (Political) Opportunity and the Development of a Collective Identity
Framing Processes and Social Movements
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 5 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |