Conditions for cross-professional union coalition-building: When enough is enough, but solidarity also has its limits!
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Competition between unions whose membership has different skills and professionalization levels is a long-standing issue in the labour movement. This article investigates the conditions for why and how a unique cross-professional coalition of all Danish public-sector unions developed between 2017 and 2018. Operating in a favourable context, unions overcame professionalization differences when skilled brokers primed a common instrumental base as other unionists used a public interest frame to legitimate the coalition and its demands ideologically. However, once the common instrumental concern was met, the coalition collapsed. The article argues that union coalition-building depends on multiple factors comprising both contextual, and identity and relational conditions. The article further argues that adopting a framing that focuses on the public interest over professional self-interest helps to successfully overcome professional cleavages.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Economic and Industrial Democracy |
Pages (from-to) | 1-26 |
Number of pages | 26 |
ISSN | 0143-831X |
DOIs | |
Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 26 May 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.
- Coalition, mobilizing, professionals, public sector employment relations, union strategy
Research areas
ID: 373881033