Voice and agency: workers with a disability and trade unionism

ABSTRACT

Workers with a disability have long recognised the benefits of organising collectively, with union representation and protection regarded as critical in enabling voice and agency in pursuit of workplace rights. Understanding the nature of disability at work requires recognising the differences between workers who come to the workplace with a pre-existing disability or illness and those whose disability or illness is work-related, through exposure to hazardous substances and practices. To explore organising strategies adopted by these workers, the historical use of separate organising by workers with a vision-impairment is viewed through the formation and activism of Blind Workers Unions in Australia. The importance of generating voice and agency is examined by reference to media depictions of blind workers‘ bodies. Informed by the ‘bodily’ turn in labour history, together with the new disability history, identifying how voice and agency were expressed through both the blind workers’ unions and the broader labour movement reinforces how separate organising can underpin solidarity.

KEYWORDS:

• Disability
• trade unions
• separate organising
• blind workers
• voice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cathy Brigden

Cathy Brigden is a professor in the School of Management and the Centre for People, Organisation and Work at RMIT University. Her research is currently focused on two projects on saving, recovering and promoting women trade unionists’ voices: one is Save Women’s Stories', the collaborative Union Women Oral History project and the other concerns the legacy of women’s unions. Alongside these projects is her ongoing collaborative work on workers’ theatre.