Globalisation and the Logic of Participation: Unions and the Politics of Coalition Building

By Lowell Turner

Economic pressures drive managers to innovate across a range of possibilities, from outsourcing and union busting to work reorganization and labour-management partnerships. These same forces lead unions to innovate - from concession bargaining and co-operation to coalition building and international solidarity.

Because employers are increasingly seeking to marginalize or wipe out unions, sustained participation for unions arguably requires a new period of activist mobilization.

This article explores one part of coalition building, based on a study of coalition efforts between the United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club in the USA between 1999-2004.

Revitalisation of unions and others can help towards a more democratic globalism via innovative campaigning. Campaigns that slow transnational free trade agreements whilst at the same time building support for sustainable development that is labour and environmentally friendly, as an alternative to standard growth paths, may work to transform the unions, the other partners and the broader institutions.

(Journal of Industrial Relations; vol. 48, no. 1, February 2006)