Trade unions and labour market inactivity: a continuing sense of solidarity and belonging

Abstract

This article considers the relationship between trade unions and labour market inactivity by exploring the experiences of trade union activists beyond the workplace. The article considers the perspective of retired trade unionists as well as those who find themselves unemployed. The article is particularly interested in the enduring and evolving nature of trade unionism, as well as considering a sense of belonging whereby union members feel they have much to contribute in terms of the social good of trade unionism in their local communities through their skills and experiences gained throughout their time in unions. Drawing upon interviews and secondary data in England, we reflect on how trade union strategies that go ‘beyond the workplace’ provide a space for community politics, offering the familiarity of trade union membership. We consider how these crossovers reflect a potential for community unions to foster social justice campaigns and to provide a range of benefits to members and activists.

Introduction

The unemployed couldn’t really improve their conditions without the support of organised labour and [. . .] organised labour needed the support of the unemployed and the community in anything that they did. So, Unite Community to me is the really positive thing that’s happened over the last 4 or 5 years, we’ve been waiting for this moment to happen where we can put in to action the philosophy that we’ve actually always been fighting towards. (Colin Hampton, Unite Community activist)

This quote from our research articulates the view that a broadening of the traditional role of trade unionism is important in presenting the union movement as something wider than a narrow focus on the employee/employer relationship. This relationship between trade unions and communities beyond the workplace has long been considered by industrial relations scholars (for example Black, 2018; Fine, 2005; Holgate, 2013, 2015; Perrett and Martinez Lucio, 2009; Sanchis, 2016), who have stressed the potential for reciprocity as shaped through a wider range of community-based activities. Such claims are not new, and the now well-established concept of ‘community unionism’ is a familiar reference point for labour studies scholars (McBride and Greenwood, 2009). However, much of this work has focused upon case studies of particular campaigns.

We take a different approach by considering the lived experience of union activists who have bridged crossovers between community and workplace (see also Stephenson and Wray, 2009). The opening quotation is pertinent in this regard as it introduces an individual’s experience of over 40 years working at this intersection. Colin’s comments reflect an enthusiasm for the emergence of Unite Community – a community-based membership introduced in 2011 by Unite the union in the UK. It is this connection between past and present activism, as well as life stories, which suggests a potential for unions to engage members in activities beyond the workplace. Our research reveals how these engagements foster an important sense of belonging for those involved, as well as a wide-ranging set of activisms emerging from their organising, something which the trade union movement might further recognise.

Our research focused on a community union (Unite Community) initiative by the trade union Unite (Griffin, 2021; Holgate, 2021; Holgate et al., 2021; Unite, n.d.). Through a mixture of interviews, oral histories, participant observation and archival research we consider the longer-term experience of activists working at the crossover between community and workplace struggles. We explore the motivations, skills and experiences of activists who extend their trade unionism into the community sphere. For many, including Colin from the introductory quote, this engagement had a much longer history that stretched beyond the relatively recent initiative by Unite. It is for this reason that our interviews balanced oral history and more typical semi-structured interview styles, as we were interested in both the longer-term engagements of trade union activists as well as their involvement with the more recent initiative.

The union recognised there was potential for trade unionism to be extended beyond the workplace by engaging those members, particularly those considered ‘inactive’ within the labour market, who are committed to wider social justice goals beyond workplace struggles. We considered this through the actions of members and how stretching the boundary of trade unionism could draw upon a trade union sensibility and skill set, as applied through a form of community unionism. As noted below, we draw across more contemporary and longer lasting, historical reflections from our participants. Our conclusions highlight the opportunities and challenges faced by trade unions in engaging with community organising.

Researching the lived experiences of community unionism: two related case studies

Our research draws together qualitative data from two connected research projects conducted over several years, both of which centred on Unite the union’s community organising initiative (Unite Community). Unite’s membership was opened up in 2011 to include people who were not in employment (students, unemployed, retired, carers) with the view that they could form community branches to campaign on issues that they decided upon and to support the union’s industrial campaigns. Contemporary data were gathered from 50 in-depth interviews with Unite Community members and 18 employed officials as well as through observation and participation to witness what was actually taking place first hand. Semi-biographical interviews allowed for in-depth accounts of how members developed a sense of injustice, and from where decisions to collectivise originated. An aim was to understand why people would choose to join a union at a time when they were not in paid employment, but also, what participants contributed to Unite Community as a result of joining.

For many, their involvement with Unite was simply a new organisation to frame their longer-term ideological commitment to social justice struggles beyond the workplace. As such, our historical work conducted oral histories with activists, asking about trade union and community pasts and memories and influences over their activism. These interviews looked to explore individual lives, their histories of collective organising within and beyond the workplace, as well as the small acts of resistance through the provision of advice and welfare support. The oral histories were complemented by extensive archival research that looked to trace the emergence of trade union and community activisms in 1980s Britain. These records included those held at the Modern Records Centre, TUC Library, and the Labour History Archive and Study Centre.

Whilst the nature of some interviews changed, with some reflecting on some very recent engagements with Unite community and others reflecting on community union actions (as well as more recent engagements with Unite) since the 1980s, there were clear commonalities in their commitment to using trade union skills and principles beyond the workplace. We argue that there is value in viewing the data together and analysing them thematically for reflections on the experience of the individual through activist lives. From this we were able to reflect on how the nature of trade union interventions for the employed and unemployed, was something that was both enduring, emergent and evolving. It was evident that participation in trade union-related community initiatives from interviewees had created a sense of belonging whereby union members felt their skills and experiences gained throughout their time in unions could still be utilised. For our participants, they articulated how it was important that they were able to contribute in their own terms to the social good of trade unionism in their local communities despite being outside paid employment.

In terms of data analysis, a coding system was developed from the research questions whilst also attending to emergent themes and patterns from the interview transcripts. From the analysis, it became clear that a commitment to social justice was key for people, reflecting a strong belief in the social good of trade unionism. Our reflections also included a range of individual benefits that provided people with a sense of purpose. It was the commonality of these three experiences that arose in the coding of data that led us to explore these issues in more detail in this article. In what follows, we frame our study in relation to literature around community unions and activist perspectives, before our empirical reflections are offered thematically.

Trade union activism and community unionism

The potential breadth of trade union activity, within and beyond the workplace, has been well recognised by industrial relations scholars (Fairbrother, 2008). Keyes et al. (2022), for example, discuss a wide range of efforts by trade unions to engage with social matters. In particular, they point towards the possibilities for ‘social movement unionism’ as ‘a common theme in which unions advance desired change for both union members and local communities’ (p. 5). This position, which can also be described as pro-social unionism, has been a crucial factor for labour movement building and identifies how labour organising might cut across differing activist identities (Budd, 2021). Whilst social unionism might be considered as a set of underlying principles, the body of literature associated with ‘community unions’ can be much more closely connected with contemporary efforts to organise in these areas and apply these principles (Lee and Yoo, 2022). In this regard, trade unions, like Unite, that have fostered such connections are noteworthy in dedicating resource and time towards specific initiatives aimed at a prosocial unionism.

There is, however, no singular definition of community unionism, in part caused by the challenges of defining ‘community’, which is a term with many contested connotations (Delanty, 2003). Stewart et al. (2009) recognise this and unpack community to include different formations, such as community as organisation, community as a group holding a common interest, community as identity, and also through the role of place, locality and geography in defining particular communities. Whilst acknowledging these challenges in defining the concept, Black (2018: 120) offers an understanding that provides a useful basis for unpacking the ideas and principles that are considered further through our research below:

I understand the community in community unionism as a community-based organization [. . .] (this could be a tenants’ rights group; a faith-based, environmental, or antipoverty organization; or a workers’ centre) [. . .] I therefore understand community unionism as the coalitions and cooperative partnerships labour unions forge with community actors in the pursuit of the goals and interests of either or both.

This definition is helpful as it reflects how community unions might emerge and operate as a collaboration between trade unions and communities. In our examples below, there are some parallels with this framing, for example in how organising might operate around a centre model (see also Roca, 2020), anti-poverty campaigning and the provision of a wider form of societal advice. In similarly broad terms, Wills (2001) has stressed how wider initiatives within a context of declining trade union membership can be useful as a means to address weakening power and influence (Peetz and Bailey, 2012). She points towards the potential for community unions to shape a broader understanding of ‘economic justice that stretches beyond any particular workplace’ as well as extending the reach of trade unionism whilst continuing to defend more traditional forms of workplace unionism (Wills, 2001: 466). This is clearly the approach adopted in Unite’s formation of its community membership which will be discussed later.

Since the late 1990s, there has been a body of scholarship that has critically engaged with such interventions (Holgate, 2013; Tufts, 1998; Wills, 2001). It is notable that this body of work emerged at a point where trade unions, particularly in the UK, were increasingly experimenting with community union initiatives, including our own research on the trade union Unite that emerged in 2011 (see Griffin, 2021; Holgate et al., 2021). This scholarship is insightful for our analysis and understandings of current examples of trade union community engagement, but it is also notable that union/community research and interest has perhaps slowed in recent times (for exceptions see Black, 2018; Holgate et al., 2021; Keyes et al., 2022).These past works were often characterised by a case study led approach that looked to engage with the immediacy of trade union and community crossovers, notably in response to economic policy in the wake of state responses to the financial crisis of 2008/2009. Industrial relations scholars and labour geographers, amongst others, have shown how this potential for reciprocity might be developed and maintained to reverse trends in membership density and reposition trade unions within society, but that relationship between the parties has often been fraught due to issues of power and control in coalitions (Griffin, 2021; Holgate, 2015; Holgate et al., 2021). Our own work looks to narrow the focus towards the individual activist, so central to the daily work of these community engagements, and considers how these are often sustained through long-term activist engagement.

Many have recognised the historical relations between community and workplace, as similarly present in trade union organising from the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Stephenson and Wray, 2009), but also as something that has been lost over time. Wills and Simms (2004) point to this as an earlier form of ‘community-based trade unionism’ where the workplace acted as a centring point for work, social and community activity (Crossan et al., 2016), and while this has arguably been lost in parts of the UK with the changing role of trades union councils, there has been refocusing on these relations as trade unions seek to rebuild their influence. As such, the authors note there are examples of a contemporary form of reciprocal community/union organising with an emphasis upon labour organisations working with, rather than for, communities. Close engagement by scholars has shown, though, that this dynamic is a complex one, playing out differently in diverging contexts. Tufts (1998: 232), for example, is suggestive of the possibilities for reciprocal arrangements between trade unions and community, but also acknowledges more uneven power relations between these organising models. He encourages a closer and more critical engagement with such relationships, something that we similarly support through our own work. In doing so, we argue here that there is potential for a wider engagement with the temporality of community union sentiment and activist lives.

Activist lives beyond the workplace

To build upon this literature, and through our research, we suggest that a closer engagement with activist lives, considering connections between past and present, would benefit thinking around the role of community union principles. As others have noted, there is a longer history of community unionism that might be reflected in individual lives who have committed themselves to this intersection (Stephenson and Wray, 2009). With this in mind, we briefly return here to the words of Wal Hannington (1938) and his description of the unemployed struggles of the 1920s and 1930s to foreground the value of connecting past and present. His words capture the sentiment encountered through our research:

Many Socialists and ex-shop stewards saw the importance of becoming active amongst the unemployed for two main reasons. First, the need for giving proper political direction to the movement in such a way to compel the Government to face its responsibilities, and, secondly, to organise and educate politically the unemployed so that the employing class could not use them to undermine trade union standards or to break strike action of the workers. (Hannington, 1938: 25)

It is this sentiment that was often captured in many of our interviews. Whilst our work centres upon activists’ lives and living memory, we also acknowledge Hannington here to recognise a much longer history of unemployed organising in Britain (Perry and Reiss, 2011). Similarly, we recognise a longer history of trade union and community orientated solidarities as were evident in Britain through early 20th century histories like Red Clydeside (Griffin, 2018b), and more recently the 1984/85 Miners’ Strike (Kelliher, 2017). This approach might also connect with the work of oral historians who have aimed to engage much more closely with the lived experience of struggle (Clark, 2023). Gibbs (2016) has shown, for example, how activists might connect past and present disputes through imaginaries and memories – the temporalities we have mentioned. His work takes seriously the ‘cultural circuit’ that might inform political action and there are parallels with our research, whereby activists position their interventions within a longer lineage of employed and unemployed solidarities.

Often, these historically informed works are notable for their attempts to engage with workers’ struggles in a broader framework, generally one which can relate to a much wider societal commitment to change. Madhumita Dutta (Dutta, 2016) calls for this in her works stressing the potential for life stories to connect much more closely with the ‘social being’ of labour, and similarly for the ‘social being’ of organising practices. Her work looks to ‘pay attention to women’s lives and spaces that they inhabit as workers, whether it is domestic or outside, to understand the different processes, often uneven, that engender women’s decisions to enter factory work and their expectation from work’ (Dutta, 2016: 1). Whilst her research centres upon factory workers in India, we argue here that the principles of a life story approach are useful for understanding activist lives and non-worker engagements with trade union activity.

In this regard, an engagement with a longer history of trade union unionists, we argue, reveals a more persistent, imaginative, and alternative form of trade unionism, based upon class solidarities (Simms, 2012). Indeed, Hannington’s words are suggestive of this much longer trajectory of unemployed activism and the relationship with trade union principles. Stephenson and Wray (2009: 47) reflect upon this through their study of community union principles in the post-industrial context of former mining communities, pointing towards:

[. . .] the need for a broadening of current understandings of the concept of community unionism and for the inclusion of an historical and critical approach to question [sic] of community unionism. Trade unionism is more than simply a contractual relationship between workers and trade union, where the trade union provides political and economic representation to groups of workers, and if the principals [sic] and practices of collectivism can provide a blueprint for living in a post-industrial world then trade unionism may not die with employment.

It is this potential for linking past and present, particularly through activist lives, that connected with our research questions. The quote above is suggestive of how trade unionism offers a worldview and outlook that operates beyond the workplace. For us, we work from the past towards the present from a period that holds a direct connection to contemporary forms of community unions and trade union renewal (Smith, 2022). The people we worked with held connections to trade union principles that stretched beyond their working lives and often reflected decades of trade union and community activism.

One historical example that was pertinent for our research and reflects these connections was the People’s March for Jobs of 1981, where hundreds of unemployed people marched from Liverpool to London. This captured a moment whereby trade union activists aimed to respond to an emerging crisis of UK unemployment (Griffin, 2024). Such scenes reflect a longer lasting commitment of trade unionists to issues beyond the workplace and some of this specific sentiment is still felt today (as was evident in our interviews who referenced 1980s struggles). Tony Benn’s comments, reflecting on the march in 1981, speak to the challenges of connecting events and moments with longer organising strategies:

The danger of looking back with euphoria on a remarkable event is that, if it fails to have a follow up, then it will remain just a remarkable festival [. . .] How does it sharpen, how does it clarify, how do we establish in a non-sectarian way that we are talking about equality, democracy and socialism in a society that is hierarchical, centralised, secretive, unjust, unequal, drifting to war, with no apparent prospect whatever of its problems being solved? (Tony Benn, MP, in Marxism Today, December 1981, p.19)

His comments emerged in response to a euphoric moment of labour movement organising, posing questions for how such labour organising moments might persist and shape political alternatives. This article indicates how this energy was built upon by individuals and how there have been localised efforts to create trade union responses and dialogue around unemployed membership within trade unions. Such actions might also be framed in relation to Jane McAlevey’s (McAlevey, 2016: 24) vision of ‘whole worker organising’ where:

unions understand their members and unorganized workers to be class actors in their communities, and when the workers systematically bring their own preexisting community networks into their workplace fights, workers still win, and their wins produce a transformational change in consciousness.

She goes on to stress that ‘working on community issues isn’t social movement unionism it is simply unionism’ (McAlevey, 2016: 28). This rounded version of trade union action is indicative of the potential ‘social good’ of trade unionism and links with wider claims that disrupt the workplace and community distinctions. Fine (2023: 3) indicates this in her assertion that ‘in community unionism forms of identity, such as race, ethnicity and gender stand in for craft or industry’, whilst Lorde (1984: 138) noted in broader terms that ‘there is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.’ These reflections point towards the potential for struggles to work across work and non-work, and to extend the ‘social good’ of trade unionism through advice, advocacy, campaigning and representation on issues that contest societal ‘oppression, inequality and discrimination’ (Hyman, 2007: 206).

Yet Benn’s comments are also suggestive of a more critical interpretation of such an approach and the potential for follow-up organising not to materialise. He calls on activists to reflect more broadly on the reimagining of a form of political struggle connecting unions more to wider communities, particularly in linking past and present moments, and how radical energy might sharpen and stay with political organisers. His comments, then, are also clearly suggestive of the potential for this energy to be lost, and for movements to dissipate as time progresses. Cockfield et al. (2009: 461) have similarly noted the importance of seeking to ‘understand the obstacles that confront union–community cooperation’. It is this sense of possibility and challenges, alongside the temporality of organising, that is apparent in the views of those interviewed across our research. The article now turns to these accounts beginning with the related ideas associated with the ‘social good’ of trade unionism.

Social good of trade unionism

Almost without exception interviewees referred to the social good of trade unionism in their discussions about their trade union framed activism. In a sense this is unsurprising for people who have had active involvement in their unions, yet the wider benefits of trade unionism continuing beyond the workplace, creating communities of solidarity was of great importance for interviewees. Unite Community were, in the main, either retired or unemployed, often with a long history of trade union membership. This is suggestive of those not in paid employment wanting to continue to have agency within society for social good. We looked at how these trade unionists operated outside of the workplace for the benefit of others and considered how their current trade union and community organising can be viewed as providing distinct working-class spaces both for social good and personal fulfilment.

Here is a related quote from Alexander, a long-time trade unionist who is now retired and had joined Unite Community because he wanted to continue linking his trade union and community work:

I’m just very pleased that Unite is the one trade union that actually is prepared to think widely about people in vulnerable positions who are not actually members of an industrial workforce who can organise at a local level. We used to have claimant’s unions in the old days which [. . .] but they’re quite contained and tend to be specialised in welfare benefits. The great advantage of Unite saying we want to organise at a community level is that it can broaden the issues to whatever is actually bothering people locally about real injustice and their community. (Alexander, Unite community member)

This was a fairly typical response from interviewees when asked about why they had chosen to be involved. Key from this comment is a view that unions should be supporting vulnerable people outside of the workplace as well as inside – a sense that there could be an opportunity to build community spaces in localities through linking different struggles (Wills, 2001). This was articulated more directly by another interviewee who felt that unions should revisit the 19th century mutual aid tradition of trade unionism. Here, the imagined connections between past and present forms of organising are acknowledged by community union activists (Gibbs, 2016). However, this notion of a union focus on ‘the common good’ is something that largely dissipated following the development of the welfare state in the UK. While class struggle was always at the heart of trade unionism this became the primary focus in the 20th century through workplace industrial struggle (Simms, 2012).

Yet there was a strong feeling from interviewees that a return to the broader social good of trade unionism was something to be welcomed – indeed necessary particularly in times of austerity and in a period where there is a cost-of-living crisis (Koch, 2021). But it was also more instrumentalist than this might suggest – it was argued that the Unite Community initiative could provide a link to greater workplace organising:

Community could say that people in workplaces like mine could join the Unite Community branch and then they’d get educated in what unions [are about], and they would be valuable members, but also, they would gain the confidence and the knowledge to go back into the workplace and start organizing. (Sue, new Unite community member)

Again, this was a widespread view expressed in interviews, but interestingly it wasn’t shared by Unite officials and the instigators of the community initiative – despite the academic literature that has championed the benefit of community unionism (Tufts, 1998; Wills, 2001). The union was quite clear that the industrial membership and the community membership were to be kept separate. Although the reasons from Unite were not articulated as such, it appeared from other interviewees that internal politics over demarcation lines was the reason that the two areas operated without much interaction. Despite this, members had a strong belief in reciprocity and solidarity being basic trade union principles that they wanted to put in practice beyond the workplace.

In some places, such as in Derbyshire, Unite Community has become heavily linked to spaces like Unemployed Workers’ Centres, recognising their crossovers in activities. In this instance the Centre advises and supports welfare claimants, as well as providing a space that is different to other welfare organisations in that it is linked to trade unions, including the work of Unite. John, from Derbyshire Unemployed Workers’ Centres and Unite Community member, eloquently expressed that the social good of community unionism was far more than just practical help, it could act as the ‘social glue’ that helped bind communities together and prevented social isolation:

When somebody loses their job or even retires because they’re not a member of a union then they’ve lost the empowerment and they’ve lost that sense of solidarity. And once that’s gone and they’ve got nothing else to fall back on. Then people get isolated and then they’ll listen to populism, and that’s how bad politics start because they haven’t got a structure. [They] think ‘well I’m comfortable here I’ve got the union behind me’. We don’t have the ability to strike in a community union, but the one thing we’ve still got is solidarity with all the other members.

What is interesting about this comment is that the potential societal benefits in countering social isolation through trade union participation is not something that has received much focus in either industrial relations or sociological research – or even from the trade union movement itself. Yet, the remarks above reveal the potential for solidarity beyond the workplace and its significance within local communities (Simms, 2012). Indeed, John’s words are pertinent here in that they described how he translated his shop steward skill set and experiences to a community approach to issues such as workplace injury. Interestingly, the commitment to using these skills beyond the workplace was often shaped by a wider social justice commitment, rather than a direct connection to campaigning or working on matters of personal experience. Kevin Flynn spoke of this when framing his long-term activism (over 40 years) and organising amongst unemployed communities in the North East, and more recent engagement with Unite Community, during an interview:

[Y]ou don’t put your union card and your work boots at your locker at work, and when you come home you’re no longer a trade unionist. You’re a trade unionist when you’re asleep, you’re a trade unionist when you’re off on holiday, you’re a trade unionist at all times [. . .] So therefore the trade union should be fighting for you within your home, within your community, within your workplace, within every aspect of your life.

It is these crossovers which might inform the ability for trade unions to work with members and non-members to build what Hyman (2007) describes as ‘social capital’. We specifically turn to some of the more specific skill sets found within the organising experiences we encountered.

Skills and experience: drawing on trade union experience

Many interviewees had developed considerable skills throughout their time as trade union members, as a result of undertaking casework or representing members in negotiations with managers. They wanted to continue to use their knowledge and experience in ways that were of benefit to others – either through advocacy and welfare advice in Unemployed Workers’ Centres or by providing solidarity by campaigning on welfare issues in street campaigns. But this wasn’t just about ‘doing good’ or being charitable. Interviewees were keen to stress the distinctiveness of their work as aligned with a trade union emphasis on advice and campaigning – this is crucial to highlight the particularity of the organisations with which we worked. They stressed the importance of approaching the issues encountered both as individuals but with an effort to build collectives and campaigns.

You can’t find out what the problems are that people are facing who are out of work unless you offer advice. [We] have to offer advice, but when people come in, we’re not just going to sit there and say ‘well we can help you with that, [but] we can’t help with that – you can claim that – you can’t claim that’. If we saw that there was an injustice, then our job is to get people together to do something about that injustice. (Colin, Derbyshire Unite Community activist)

This speaks to the many debates in the labour movement literature on the best way to organise workers. The dichotomy between ‘servicing’ and ‘organising’ has never really been resolved in practice in unions, although it is often articulated that both are necessary in building an effective labour movement. Indeed, the principle of ‘solidarity not charity’ was a regular theme across our engagements with activists (see also Mould et al., 2022). What is highlighted here though, and in other interviews, is that retired or unemployed union members have the time and experience – being outside the workplace – to undertake advocacy or casework and to engage in organising activities. Yet, this resource is under-used by most unions despite the fact that there remains a desire to be part of something collective that aligns with the related ‘communities of practice’ underpinned by social justice principles (Smith, 2022).

Indeed, one activist provided a direct connection between their previous working life and subsequent involvement with Unite Community and welfare rights. David is a voluntary welfare rights advisor at the Tyne and Wear Centre Against Unemployment and has also been involved with the campaigning work of Unite Community. When talking about his involvement, he drew connections between his working life, previous trade unionism and his current involvement with community union activity:

I was never the type of union rep that got involved with negotiations. I always did personal representation so when people were faced with disciplinary action or efficiency warnings or dismissal so that’s the type of union activity that I spent most of my working life doing [. . .] So by the time it came to retire [. . .] then I decided that I wanted to continue representing people, so therefore involvement [ . . .] was a natural progression for me. (David, Tyne and Wear Unite Community activist)

Such experiences were common across the community union experiences we encountered both historically and more recently. Activists generally viewed the community union as a space to continue their trade union involvement, as a collective organising forum to make use of their skills. David, in his quote above, makes a direct comparison between his previous role as a trade union representative and his current voluntary work in supporting welfare claimants. This potential for trade union skills (e.g. representing members and an intimate knowledge of policies and procedures) to continue beyond paid employment is something which again has perhaps not been stressed in related scholarship.

Similarly, interviews in Derbyshire revealed a shared emphasis upon the empathy derived from an approachable trade union approach. It was regularly stressed that this underpinned activity across community union activity. Indeed, it was generally suggested that the familiarity of a trade union approach might make some people more likely to seek advice and support. A welfare rights worker at the Unemployed Workers’ Centre in Chesterfield explained this, reflecting that:

[T]here’s no airs and graces, and we’re on the front line, we’re on the coalface really with it, you know, so a lot of that side of it, that we were there, different to sort of other organisations because we’ve always done face-to-face drop in.

His comments are suggestive of the benefits of a working-class space that is empathetic to the struggles of the unemployed. The centres in Derbyshire have been able to quantify their work in economic terms to show the value of their advice and representation (e.g. attending tribunals) as equating to over £4m returned in annual aggregated welfare claimant work (data taken from 2017 and 2018 Derbyshire Unemployed Workers’ Centres reports). In these terms, the centres’ work can be viewed as vital opposition in providing a further ‘bulwark against’ the harsh realities of welfare claimant conditionality (Koch, 2021: 256). Unite Community has built upon such longer lasting work (centres have been open since the 1970s) and produced claimant self-help resources in more recent times, and again the working-class collective response frames these interventions.

Reflecting on these insights, we argue that the interview extracts are indicative of the wider transferability of trade union principles and skill sets. They reveal the continued relevance of the core skills of trade unionism, particularly in relation to wider class-based solidarities (Simms, 2012). These atmospheres and actions matter and might be considered as ‘quiet activisms’ in how they intervene in individualised struggles, but their value as a collective endeavour is wider than this (Horton and Kraftl, 2009). The next section considers this potential value from a different perspective by exploring the individual benefits of participation within community union activities.

Individual benefits: addressing social isolation/building skills and confidence

The final cross-cutting theme in our analysis reflected how individual involvement with community union organising was viewed not only in collective terms, but also as resisting the potential social isolation of low-paid work (particularly where in-work benefits were being claimed) and labour market inactivity. This had a personal benefit for those we spoke to. In Tyne and Wear for example, a care worker and volunteer with Unite Community (having previously been unemployed), described the growing confidence they experienced through their involvement with the community union and particularly the support they provided to welfare claimants:

I like not only the subject and the work we are doing and I get on well with the people [. . .] for me, because I don’t like my paid job, it is a chance for me to do something I do like with people I get on with much better in a much better environment. So there is something in it for me as well as me helping others.’ (Anonymous member and volunteer, Tyne and Wear Unite Community)

This potential for fulfilment, self-development and confidence building was derived in part through their own experiences, and ability to empathise. They also described how ‘having been on benefits myself, I have an understanding with the people we are helping there.’ Here, the activists’ ability to empathise not only links with the social good of trade unions but also indicates the potential for individuals to benefit from their trade union involvement.

Indeed, this theme of personal development was apparent across the research, with participants attributing their collective involvement with community organising as providing a collective space in a potentially isolating context of unemployment and retirement. It has long been recognised that unemployment in a neoliberal world has the potential to isolate individuals and that welfare systems can be hostile and dehumanising in their approach (Taylor, 2015). The potential then for community unions to provide a sense of collective endeavour was stressed by many of our participants as an important influence on their involvement. For example, in the North East, one member stated the following:

The fact that Unite allows me to have a voice outside the workplace, when I was thrown on the scrapheap again and for people with health issues is absolutely excellent. (Anonymous Unite Community Member)

As such, the intervention of a trade union in contexts of unemployment and punitive welfare conditions becomes more significant. The potential to intervene in individual lives is crucial for resisting the negative social impacts of unemployment. These individual benefits can be experienced by a service user (during a crisis moment which might create the need for advice for example) and might be where a connection to a community union ends, but during interviews it was clear that there was a potential for such an interaction also to lead to volunteer and activist engagement. Below, an anonymous volunteer and Unite Community member described their experience of accompaniment to a Job Centre during a challenging time in their life, and subsequent involvement with the same welfare rights work:

I want to keep this place (Unemployed Workers’ Centre) alive because it did keep me alive when I was in a terrible state before that time when [x] came to my job centre appointment because he was just brilliant and nothing happened, and it was like wow, the threat, the level of threat was there, and then it was like nothing happened. (Anonymous, Tyne and Wear Unite Community member)

During this interview, the participant indicated the emotional value of advisory intervention within a moment of crisis. Such interactions are frequent within community union spaces that offer welfare advice, and are noteworthy in their own right, but the comments above also document how these acts, when held within a trade union framework, might also instigate reciprocal involvement in community union organising. Indeed, in Newcastle and Gateshead, former centre users were prominent as volunteers, as well as participating within Unite Community campaigns and demonstrations relating to in-work and unemployed struggles (e.g. around the employer Sports Direct and their use of zero-hours contracts; campaigns around changes to Universal Credit; as well as attending local picket lines during disputes).

Such stories and reflections were equally evident in historical documents, with many examples of reports and centre documents noting the individual benefits of involvement through engagement with historical forms of community union struggle. As indicated already, many of our participants identified a link to community struggles of the late 1970s and 1980s as informing their involvement in the present. For many, this connection was identifiable through their involvement with Unemployed Workers’ Centres, which were linked to Trades Union Councils, and looked to provide a space for unemployed organising (Griffin, 2023). Such connections between past and present were important for many of our participants, and briefly revising this history is useful for indicating the longer lasting engagements of activists in this area.

In this regard, a 1980s survey of Unemployed Workers’ Centres by Forrester et al. (1988) estimated that over 10,000 people nationally were in weekly contact with a centre, with the predominant activities being across advice work, education, and campaigning. In more qualitative terms, an early report from Tyne and Wear Centre – entitled On the Stones – included extracts from volunteers involved with centre activities:

I spent the first 6 months of my unemployment searching diligently for jobs. But after that I became disillusioned and ceased to be so active in my search for work. But because I’m involved a lot with the unemployed workers’ centre I am not affected by my unemployment as much as other people. I have been able to take a positive look at unemployment [. . .] I know it is not my fault. I know that I am not a scrounger. I know that I have the right to the money, though pitifully small. ¹

The sentiment expressed here emerged a short while after the opening of the Newcastle centre in 1978. In many ways, these times were particular to the time with the emergence of Thatcherism, de-industrialisation, and dramatic growth in unemployment. Yet, the comments made above still resonate with the present and were connected with the motivations and sense of belonging found within community union endeavours. Participants were keen to stress the need to continue to offer alternatives to dominant representations of unemployment, challenging ‘scrounger’ narratives, and fundamentally resisting the stigma associated with labour market inactivity (Tyler, 2020). For some of our participants they were able to directly connect their contemporary work with previous involvement with Unemployed Workers’ Centres. We utilise this archival fragment above to draw attention to the persistent alternative offered by activists like those from Unite Community considered above, who continue to challenge the misrepresentation of welfare claimants.

Conclusions: activist lives and trade union sensibilities

Our reflections have drawn across interviews with activists that in some instances reflect 40 years of activities that might be broadly categorised as social movement unionism (Lee and Yoo, 2022). We have deliberately centred individual experiences within our approach in order to foreground elements of community unionism previously downplayed. These reveal a persistent possibility of trade unionism beyond the workplace and a set of activist perspectives that are committed to trade union life, although might not always be found within official trade union frameworks (Smith, 2022). We have deliberately centred the activist life to offer new insights into how community unionism is considered. Our emphasis has been to draw attention to these lesser heard trade union perspectives and to centre these in scholarship on both labour histories and labour futures. The materials above are presented thematically but draw equally upon memories of the past and more contemporary reflections to reveal an enthusiasm for ‘whole worker organising’ within the community space.

For example, we drew direct connection between past and present through the distinctiveness of a working-class atmosphere as found within these community union spaces. This potential for class-based solidarities speaks closely to the potential for trade union work around unemployment. Secondly, our project identified the social good of trade unionism which was consistently stressed across our research. This transferability of trade union skill sets is now well established beyond the workplace but might still be more widely recognised. Thirdly, the individual benefits of volunteering or being an activist within a collective approach was again stressed across our interviews. These parallels reveal the connections between past and present, suggesting a longer history of community union sentiment (Stephenson, and Wray, 2009), but also a resource base of campaigns, actions and organising that might be considered as a usable past for the labour movement moving forward (Griffin, 2018a). More specifically, it reveals how our study of community unionism contrasts with other similar formations internationally. In our British cases, the activisms uncovered were not necessarily closely related to work or industry and instead reflected a trade union commitment based upon social good, solidarity and the desire to challenge injustice. This might differ slightly with other community union scholarship, in other contexts such as America and Japan where these strategies have gained further ground through targeting work within low-income and informal work sectors (see Fine, 2005; Royle and Urano, 2012).

Whilst our reflections here have largely stressed the generative potential of such crossovers, we recognise that such interventions remain relatively small scale in relation to other forms of industrial relations. Participants noted this during interviews with some comments around the lack of reciprocity from workplace branches towards community unions, as well as a lack of input in wider union decision-making. This tension is one that has been long present in relation to trade unions and the community sphere, and can be traced to the early 20th century and the lack of official trade union support for the Unemployed Workers’ Movement (Watson, 2014). We also note that the current position of Unite Community, over 10 years into its development, remains potentially vulnerable and currently without national leadership. This potential for the acts above to feel marginal or peripheral within union decision-making was acknowledged by the activists and volunteers and reflects a longer history of tension about community purpose, as well as the uneven connections between the unemployed and the wider trade union movement (see Griffin, 2023; Kelliher, 2017).

These concerns make our intervention all the more necessary as a moment to stress the continued potential of community union principles. Some of the individuals considered here provided reflections on over 40 years’ involvement with community union organising and have consistently vouched for a trade union sensibility beyond the workplace. As a result, their perspective and insight prove valuable for reflecting on community union futures. They offer reflective insight into the activist lives that sustain community union endeavours. As noted, these activities are often shaped by a commitment to tackling societal injustices and are generally not connected to the activists’ own struggles or experiences, yet more recent campaigns by retired members around the Winter Fuel Payment reductions (as imposed by the Labour Government) might highlight the potential for these connections (Unite, 2025). Our analysis of their experiences suggests that the community union model still has much to offer the wider trade union movement, and that the movement should not lose sight of this in a moment where there might be a tendency to return to worker-led struggles and neglect workers out of work.