IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v31y2017i2p302-318.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The community dimensions of union renewal: racialized and caring relations in personal support services

Author

Listed:
  • Louise Birdsell Bauer

    (University of Toronto, Canada)

  • Cynthia Cranford

    (University of Toronto, Canada)

Abstract

Union renewal research calls for moving beyond broad terms, like community unionism, to specify how social relations of work shape renewal for different workers, sectors and contexts. Analysis of interviews with union officials and union members in publicly funded, in-home personal support reveal two community dimensions: both caring and racialized relations between workers and service recipients. Scholarship on care workers emphasizes empathy and coalition with service recipients as a key aspect of union renewal, yet says little about racialized tensions. Studies of domestic workers emphasize organizing in response to racialization, but provide little insight into caring social relations at work. This article develops arguments that both positive and negative worker–recipient relations shape union organizing and representation in the service sector by specifying the ways in which racialization contributes to this dynamic. It suggests that anti-racist organizing at work, alongside coalition building and collective bargaining, are important renewal strategies for this sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Louise Birdsell Bauer & Cynthia Cranford, 2017. "The community dimensions of union renewal: racialized and caring relations in personal support services," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 31(2), pages 302-318, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:31:y:2017:i:2:p:302-318
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017016653094
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017016653094
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0950017016653094?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Boris, Eileen & Klein, Jennifer, 2012. "Caring for America: Home Health Workers in the Shadow of the Welfare State," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195329117.
    2. Caroline Murphy & Thomas Turner, 2014. "Organising non-standard workers: union recruitment in the Irish care sector," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(5), pages 373-388, September.
    3. Ian Kessler & Paul Heron, 2001. "Steward Organization in a Professional Union: The Case of The Royal College of Nursing," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 39(3), pages 367-391, September.
    4. Bob Carter, 2006. "Trade union organizing and renewal," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 20(2), pages 415-426, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Simon de Turberville, 2007. "Union organizing: a response to Carter," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 21(3), pages 565-576, September.
    2. Marek Korczynski, 2007. "Service work, social theory, and collectivism: a reply to Brook," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 21(3), pages 577-588, September.
    3. Ian Fitzgerald & Jane Hardy, 2010. "‘Thinking Outside the Box’? Trade Union Organizing Strategies and Polish Migrant Workers in the United Kingdom," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 48(1), pages 131-150, March.
    4. David Peetz & Barbara Pocock, 2009. "An Analysis of Workplace Representatives, Union Power and Democracy in Australia," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 47(4), pages 623-652, December.
    5. Jeremy Waddington & Allan Kerr, 2015. "Joining UNISON: does the reform of a union organising strategy change how members perceive their recruitment?," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 187-207, May.
    6. Tom Redman & Ed Snape, 2014. "The antecedents of union commitment and participation: evaluating moderation effects across unions," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(6), pages 486-506, November.
    7. Atticus Maddox & Lynette Mackenzie, 2022. "Occupational Violence Experienced by Care Workers in the Australian Home Care Sector When Assisting People with Dementia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-18, December.
    8. Goldberg, Harmony., 2015. "The long journey home : the contested exclusion and inclusion of domestic workers from federal wage and hour protections in the United States," ILO Working Papers 994878543402676, International Labour Organization.
    9. Edmund Heery & Leon Gooberman & Marco Hauptmeier, 2017. "The Petroleum Driver Passport scheme: a case study in reregulation," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3), pages 274-291, May.
    10. Dukes, Ruth & Streeck, Wolfgang, 2020. "From industrial citizenship to private ordering? Contract, status, and the question of consent," MPIfG Discussion Paper 20/13, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    11. Rosaria Burchielli & Donna Buttigieg & Annie Delaney, 2008. "Organizing homeworkers: the use of mapping as an organizing tool," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 22(1), pages 167-180, March.
    12. Amy Horton, 2022. "Financialization and non-disposable women: Real estate, debt and labour in UK care homes," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 54(1), pages 144-159, February.
    13. Danielle Docka‐Filipek & Lindsey B. Stone, 2021. "Twice a “housewife”: On academic precarity, “hysterical” women, faculty mental health, and service as gendered care work for the “university family” in pandemic times," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(6), pages 2158-2179, November.
    14. Caroline Murphy & Thomas Turner & Michelle O'Sullivan & Juliet MacMahon & Jonathan Lavelle & Lorraine Ryan & Patrick Gunnigle & Mike O'Brien, 2019. "Trade Union Responses to zero hours work in Ireland," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(5-6), pages 468-485, November.
    15. Mathew Johnson & Jill Rubery & Matthew Egan, 2021. "Raising the bar? The impact of the UNISON ethical care campaign in UK domiciliary care," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 27(3), pages 367-382, August.
    16. Andy Hodder & Paul Edwards, 2015. "The essence of trade unions: understanding identity, ideology and purpose," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 29(5), pages 843-854, October.
    17. Davide Però, 2020. "Indie Unions, Organizing and Labour Renewal: Learning from Precarious Migrant Workers," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(5), pages 900-918, October.
    18. Cécile Guillaume & Gill Kirton, 2023. "‘Walking a fine line’: Union perspectives on partnership in nursing and midwifery workplaces," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 44(3), pages 893-909, August.
    19. Heather Connolly & Stefania Marino & Miguel Martinez Lucio, 2017. "‘Justice for Janitors’ goes Dutch: the limits and possibilities of unions’ adoption of organizing in a context of regulated social partnership," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 31(2), pages 319-335, April.
    20. Caroline Murphy & Michelle O’Sullivan, 2021. "Running to stand still? Two decades of trade union activity in the Irish long-term care sector," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 27(3), pages 383-397, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:31:y:2017:i:2:p:302-318. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.