Partnership versus organising: alternative futures for British trade unionism

Sets out the two main strategies that have been proposed as the means for renewing UK trade unionism - partnership with employers to gain a recognized place within the organization and opportunities to recruit and represent members; and organizing which aims to strengthen the union by recruiting and organizing to strengthen collective organization within a firm. Reviews these two strategies using the framework developed by Hyman, which focuses on three fundamental questions concerning the interests the union represents - who does it represent, what are the objectives and how does it achieve them. Based on this, examines the activities undertaken under each strategy, how these are selected and the constraints that they face. Points out that both of the two strategies have been embraced by unions and assesses if they can be combined into a single strategy for renewal. Concludes that they can and considers how this could be made to work in practice