The Developing Story of UK Trade Unions: Identity and Conflict

Date: Tuesday, 23 September 2025 – 5 to 6.45pm

​This webinar will be conducted through Zoom and details will be available once registered.

For further information, please email Linda Clarke (clarkel@westminster.ac.uk) or Fernando Duran-Palma (F.Duranpalma@westminster.ac.uk)

With trade unions under pressure, this webinar explores the impact of change in UK unions. Bob Smale argues that an historic analysis of union identities informs understanding of developing trends in union organisation, whilst Mark Abel explores the manifestation of change through anti-union policies in the university sector which led to the longest strike in education history.

Programme:

5pm: Welcome: Michael Gold and Linda Clarke

5.10-5.40pm: Bob Smale

The Development of UK Union Identities: The Historic Legacy, Current Trends and Future Potentialities

This paper explores historic and developing trends in UK union identities. It argues that over time there has been a direction of travel from niche to general unions and that the origins of most unions can be traced to distinct segments in the labour market. It further explores developing trends, drawing on over ten years of data on union formations, dissolutions, mergers, amalgamations, and re-brandings. The paper recognises contemporary concerns over organising the unorganised and suggests union organisation may be more effective when targeted on specific labour market niches and that there may be a benefit in fermenting new niche unions.

5.40-6.10pm: Mark Abel

Industrial Relations in British Universities: From Public Sector Corporatism to Corporate-Style Union-Busting.

Over the last decade and a half there has been a seismic change in the climate of industrial relations in British universities. Until quite recently, relations between managements and unions were largely cordial, underpinned by a series of agreements at national and local level governing the terms and conditions of staff. Now the higher education sector is characterised by industrial strife. When efforts by employers to break agreements has provoked a reaction from the trade unions, managements have attacked grassroots trade union organisation and tried to free themselves from the obligation even to consult, let alone negotiate, over changes to hours, workloads and working practices. From the perspective of involvement in the longest strike in British education history, the University of Brighton strike of 2023, the paper traces this transformation, explains its roots and assesses its outcomes.

6.10-6.45pm: General discussion

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Bob Smale: Was formerly a Senior Lecturer at University of Brighton before retiring in 2018. He has been researching trade union identities for a number of years with the work leading to his book Exploring Trade Union Identities: Union Identity, Niche Identity and the Problem of Organising the Unorganised (Bristol University Press, 2020).

Mark Abel: Is a Senior Lecturer in Politics and Philosophy at University of Brighton. He has just finished a six-year term on the National Executive Committee of the University and College Union (UCU) and is currently Vice-chair of his union branch, having been Chair for ten years.

About the BUIRA-ProBE Seminar Series

The Industrial Relations Study Group of the British Universities Industrial Relations Association (BUIRA) and the Centre for the Study of the Production of the Built Environment (ProBE) organise regular seminars on important issues concerning industrial relations in the UK and internationally, proving an opportunity to discuss them in an open forum and consider their wider implications. Anyone interested is welcome to attend.