Introducing organizational union identity

This chapter explores the niche identities projected by unions that organise within membership territories defined by a single, or closely linked group of employers. What distinguishes them from all other unions is that their membership territories are determined not by industry, occupation or geography, but primarily by those of their members’ employers. The 12 organizational unions observed in the 2018 website survey had an average membership of 6,876, representing only 1.2 per cent of the membership of unions observed. Nonetheless, it is argued here that organizational unions project a distinct source of niche union identity that is not generally recognized in existing categorizations or frameworks.

While organizational unions were often formed with employer encouragement as part of a trade union avoidance strategy, they have frequently progressed to become certified trade unions, and sometimes to merge with more broadly based unions. This suggests a ‘direction of travel’ in which unions progress to a point where they need to show independence from the employer, achieve certification and are finally absorbed into mainstream trade unionism. In such cases the formation of organizational unions as a trade union avoidance strategy can be seen ultimately to have failed. Perhaps because of this, many employers now turn to more sophisticated internal communication strategies, as represented ‘in-house’ manifestations of employee voice (Boxall and Purcell, 2008; Marchington and Wilkinson, 2012). However, it may be that there are still in-house staff associations with the potential to achieve certification and bring their members into the mainstream of trade unionism.

Organizational unions fall into three categories, namely organizational, sub-organizational and multi-organizational (see Table 5.1). Whereas some organizational unions such as the NGSU operate at group level, Advance and PPSA (Palm Paper Staff Association) organize a single employer, while BPA and CSCSA (Currys Supply Chain Staff Association) are focused upon an occupational subgroup within an organization. Where sub-organizational unions such as BPA, or Skyshare represent an occupational group, they are seen to project a professional/occupational/sub-organizational niche union identity. However, even where a union seeks to organize a whole institution, representation may be shared where mergers and takeovers extend their membership territories, as in the case of Advance which represents staff in Santander Bank UK, while some former Alliance and Leicester Building Society staff are represented by CWU.