Unkettling the unions? An action research study of surmounting the Trade Union Act 2016 in the UK higher education sector

Richards, James; Ellis, Vaughan

Abstract

The paper responds to calls for the sharing of ‘best practice’ were trade unions have successfully met turnout levels required of the Trade Union Act 2016 (the Act). The study is based on an action research case study of one higher education (HEI) branch of the University and Colleges Union (UCU) – HEIUCU, which twice in one year breached the turnout requirements of the Act. The findings are presented in the form of a model of best ‘get the vote out’ (GTVO) practice. The study is limited as it is based on a small-medium branch of a national union, but a strength is demonstrating how high levels of voting can be achieved in the context of an annual pay round and where turnouts are traditionally low.

Citation

Richards, J., & Ellis, V. (2019, April). Unkettling the unions? An action research study of surmounting the Trade Union Act 2016 in the UK higher education sector. Paper presented at International Labour Process Conference, Vienna

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: International Labour Process Conference
• Start Date: Apr 23, 2019
• End Date: Apr 26, 2019
• Deposit Date: May 7, 2019
• Keywords: Trade Union Act 2016; GTVO; UCU; higher education; retrospective action research; case study; organising model
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1784340