The Power of Labour

Whereas in earlier eras associational power was typically used by trade unions to achieve institutional influence, as trade unionism in Europe gradually moved to the defensive, it became more and more dependent on its past achievements, consolidated as institutional power resources. In the era of neoliberalism, the institutional domain had little to offer to trade unions as their political weight was eroded and their views became increasingly ignored. This paper engages in a theoretical discussion of the trade union power resources model and focuses on its utility in analysing the outcomes of contemporary trade union campaigns. More specifically it examines the problem of transferring (or translating) power resources from one domain to the other, discussing the preconditions for this as well as the implications deriving thereof. How can trade unions effectively capitalise any gains they make in the societal and communicative fields?

The basic contribution here is the exploration of the power dimension underpinning labour antagonisms and the efforts of trade unions and labour movements to provoke shifts in the prevailing power dynamics. Through discussing examples of societal outreach and communicative politics of trade unions in relation to the development and the outcomes of industrial conflicts, this paper revisits the trade union power resources model and adds further nuance on a) the connection between the different domains and the articulation of different levels and b) the challenges as well as opportunities of using power amassed outside the workplace to bear upon and within the industrial relations field proper. This analysis has both theoretical and practical implications. It both enriches the literature on trade union revitalisation and mobilisation theory through elaborating further the power resources perspective and it illuminates the prospects and obstacles the adoption of a social movement repertoire of action entails and can thus future inform trade union strategy.