Conditions for cross-professional union coalition-building: When enough is enough, but solidarity also has its limits!
The so-called 'Musketeer oath’ was a unique cross-professional coalition formed among Danish trade unions during the collective bargaining process in the public sector in 2018, which had great importance. In a new article Nana Wesley Hansen from FAOS and Nick Krachler from King's College in London examine why and how the 'Musketeer oath' arose, and what role the coalition had during the negotiations, as well as why it subsequently collapsed.
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.
Read the full article 'Conditions for cross-professional union coalition-building: When enough is enough, but solidarity also has its limits!' by Nana Wesley Hansen and Nick Krachler, published in Economic and Industrial Democracy.