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This article explores the inter-relationship of gender, sexuality, race and class among cabin crew, members of trade union BASSA, in the British Airways dispute of 2009–2011. It evaluates the utility of intersectional analysis in the context of industrial action, investigating the ways crew mobilised intersectional identities and class interests. In their narratives, crew evoked the 1984–1985 miners' strike, but rejected a version of class and militancy based on a perceived historical legacy of class as white, heterosexual and male. Engaging with debates in Sociology on class, the article restores work as the key site of class formation and identifies BASSA as providing the organisational and ideological resources to legitimate an inclusive worker interest that transcended sectional identities and generated a reimagined and reconfigured class identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the impact of Trade Union Act 2015–16 of Great Britain on trade unions and protect essential public services against strikes and proposed changes to thresholds for industrial action in strike ballots. It mentions that Code on picketing to protests linked to industrial action which may encompass the use of social media. It also mentions that potential consequences of the inclusion of measures on unions' use of social media in the Code of Practice.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore what has happened to the notion and reality of equal pay over the past 50 years, a period in which women have become the majority of trade union members in the UK. It does so in the context of record employment levels based upon women’s increased labour market participation albeit reflecting their continued over-representation in part-time employment, locating the narrowed but persistent overall gender pay gap in the broader picture of pay inequality in the UK. Design/methodology/approach – The paper considers voluntary and legal responses to inequality and the move away from voluntary solutions in the changed environment for unions. Following others it discusses the potential for collective bargaining to be harnessed to equality in work, a potential only partially realised by unions in a period in which their capacity to sustain collective bargaining was weakened. It looks at the introduction of a statutory route to collective bargaining in 2000, the National Minimum Wage from 1999 and at the Equality Act 2010 as legislative solutions to inequality and in terms of radical and liberal models of equality. Findings – The paper suggests that fuller employment based upon women’s increased labour market activity have not delivered an upward pressure on wages and has underpinned rather than closed pay gaps and social divisions. Legal measures have been limited in the extent to which they have secured equal pay and wider social equality, whilst state support for collective solutions to equality has waned. Its replacement by a statutory minimum wage initially closed pay gaps, but appears to have run out of steam as employers accommodate minimum hourly rates through the reorganisation of working time. Social implications – The paper suggests that statutory minima or even voluntary campaigns to lift hourly wage rates may cut across and even supersede wider existing collective bargaining agreements and as such they can reinforce the attack on collective bargaining structures, supporting arguments that this can reduce representation over pay, but also over a range of other issues at work (Ewing and Hendy, 2013), including equality. Originality/value – There are then limitations on a liberal model which is confined to promoting equality at an organisational level in a public sector subject to wider market forces. The fragmentation of bargaining and representation that has resulted will continue if the proposed dismantling of public services goes ahead and its impact upon equality is already suggested in the widening of the gender pay gap in the public sector in 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The protracted dispute (2009–11) between British Airways and BASSA (British Airways Stewards and Stewardesses Association) was notable for the strength of collective action by cabin crew. In-depth interviews reveal collectivism rooted in the labour process and highlight the key agency of BASSA in effectively articulating worker interests. This data emphasizes crews’ relative autonomy, sustained by unionate on-board Cabin Service Directors who have defended the frontier of control against managerial incursions. Periodic attempts to re-configure the labour process, driven by cost cutting imperatives in an increasingly competitive airline industry, eroded crews’ organizational loyalties. When BA imposed radical changes to contracts and working arrangements, BASSA successfully mobilized its membership. The article contributes to labour process analysis by emphasizing the collective dimensions to emotional labour, restoring the ‘missing subject’, but also articulating the interconnections between labour process and mobilization and the role unions can play in providing the organizational and ideological resources to legitimate worker interest. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ABSTRACT This article explores how far the emergence of public sector Equality Representatives represents a departure from a distinct radical model of union self-organisation generated by the collective mobilisation of politically conscious identities, towards a more inclusive liberal model of equality based on abstract notions of 'fairness'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the experiences of British trade union representatives when addressing claims of multiple employment discrimination which is when an employee is subject to multiple kinds of discrimination such as gender, age, and race. An examination of a report by the Working Lives Research Institute is presented.

This article suggests that the union learning representative (ULR) is increasingly situated at the heart of trade union activity. The paper draws upon recent research based on interviews with national trade union officers and case studies of union learning activity to explore the competing demands being made upon ULRs and the implications for their role in the union and the delivery of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in the workplace. It finds that whilst the government's learning and skills agenda has moved away from a broad conceptualisation of learning for social and self-development and towards an increasingly narrow interpretation of lifelong learning based upon employability, ULRs and trade unions have not abandoned this vision. At the same time, union expectations of the role of the ULR appear to have shifted and they are increasingly seen as part of wider union recruitment and organising strategies. The case studies suggest that where efforts are made to integrate ULRs into the wider union, a number broaden their activism beyond learning and make a contribution to building workplace or branch organisation on the basis of learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose- The paper sets out to ask whether the existence of a statutory model of collective bargaining has influenced the scope and depth of bargaining following voluntary trade union recognition. Design/methodology/approach- The paper is largely based on a telephone survey of 101 employer representatives, commissioned by the Department of Trade and Industry (2000). The survey was based on a sample of 213 voluntary trade union recognition agreements concluded between 1998 and 2002. The paper also draws on a textual analysis of 213 voluntary recognition agreements and refers to nine in-depth case studies. Findings- In this paper the research found evidence of dynamic relationships following recognition and in the majority of cases there has been collective bargaining on the core issues of pay, hours and holiday. There was less likely to have been negotiation over the non-core issues of pay, hours and holiday. There was less likely to have been negotiation over the non-core issues of pensions, equal opportunities and training. There are clear differences between employers' reports of the nature of discussions with the union and what was set out in the written recognition agreements. The fact that a proportion of voluntary agreements have been formally limited to the core issues suggests the influence of the law in shaping both the scope and depth of voluntary recognition (and subsequent practice). Research limitations/implications- The analysis in this paper is based on employer perceptions of the bargaining process; clearly bargaining also reflects union aspirations. Further case studies based on workplace bargaining would illustrate this dynamic process. Originality/value- The paper offers the first analysis of bargaining following voluntary recognition and assessment of the impact of the Employment Relations Act 1999. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A third statutory trade union recognition procedure was introduced in the UK in 2000. This paper explores the scope for increased recognition, employers' willingness to concede recognition, unions' response to the procedure and, finally, the use of it so far. The paper concludes that, while the procedure may be sustainable in the long run, its direct impact on union membership and recognition may be minimal. The indirect effect, through voluntary recognition will be greater. But any reversal in union decline will ultimately be dependent upon successful union recruitment well beyond their conventional territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]