The making and breaking of solidarity between unwaged and waged workers in the UK

ABSTRACT

This article explores in what way solidarity relationships are made and unmade between waged and un-waged workers in the UK. It thereby feeds into the broader discussion on the decline and future of trade unionism and new ways of organizing struggle. In particular, it engages with the literature on community unionism. Methodologically it draws on Participatory Action Research undertaken between 2013 and 2017 with 12 unwaged workers’ groups organizing outside of established trade unions. Conceptually the article challenges understandings of solidarity based on self-interest by emphasising its relational complexity. It argues for a concept of workers’ solidarity that is based on a broadened understanding of work but which at the same time goes beyond a common identity by paying attention to power-discrepancies and current inequalities. Through such a lens, solidarity is created through affective bonds and is based on a shared anger about injustice and a common desire for transformation.

KEYWORDS:

• Community unionism
• solidarity
• unemployed workers
• United Kingdom
• workfare
• welfare conditionality

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all the researched groups. Without their knowledge and deep reflection this article could not have been written. Furthermore, I would like to thank Andreas Bieler, Sian Moore, David Bailey and the two reviewers for their helpful comments on prior versions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. It goes without saying that there are many kinds of unwaged work and it is by no means limited to the public sphere. Feminist thinkers have addressed the issue of reproductive unwaged work in depth (see for example Federici 1975). This article focuses on the unwaged work of benefits claimants.

2. See Richards (2012) for similar research findings.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Vera Weghmann

Vera Weghmann is a Research Fellow in the Public Services International Research Unit at the University of Greenwich. She recently completed her PhD at the University of Nottingham, which focused on the problems of workfare and opposition to it in the UK. She has also been an activist in various groups and movements and recently co-founded the grassroots trade union, United Voices of the World, which is almost entirely comprised of migrant workers in London’s low wage, service sector.