A study undertaken by Sara Abdaless, associate professor of accounting and finance at Northeastern University in London, found campaigns were more effective when the two sectors collaborated.
LONDON — Collaborations between trade unions and civil society organizations can strengthen campaigns and increase their influence on government policy, new research from Northeastern University finds.
Sara Abdaless, associate professor of accounting and finance at Northeastern’s London campus, led a study exploring how such groups in the U.K. are forming alliances to tackle shared challenges.
Reduced government funding, rising inflation and the coronavirus pandemic have left civil society groups with less access to funds, shrinking donations and fewer volunteers, while trade union membership in Britain has declined heavily since its heyday in the 1970s.
The research, titled “Working Together in Civil Society: A Study of Collaboration Between Trade Unions and Civil Society Organisations,” involved more than 35 online interviews and 84 survey responses to identify where the sectors had combined effectively.
Abdaless and her two co-researchers honed in on 12 cases of collaboration. When train operators proposed closing hundreds of ticket offices at rail stations in England in 2023, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers teamed up with the Royal National Institute of Blind People to campaign against the move. The former Conservative government ended up scrapping the idea after strong opposition was raised during the consultation period.
“This was a relatively short collaboration but very impactful,” Abdaless told the Financial Services Club during a recent presentation.
“It only took about six months, I believe, for the campaign to actually yield some results and those results prevented the closure of rail ticket offices — and with good reason.”
Other cases of working together included Unison and the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants setting up a telephone help line for migrant workers, while Maternity Action charity and the National Education Union collaborated on providing training and advice to union representatives on maternity issues.
Key findings from the report said the benefits of collaboration between civil society organizations and trade unions included enhanced campaign activity and being better able to lobby and influence government policy, while also allowing knowledge and expertise to be shared.
“It does create a synergy,” said Abdaless, “and it does create a really good impact and power between the two.”
The study, funded by a small research grant from the British Academy, found that 40% of civil society organizations in Britain confirmed they are collaborating with unions, while most trade unions claim to have a good relationship with their counterparts in the third sector.
Areas of interaction have included pushing for equal rights, civil political rights, calling for improvements in health, education and training, and campaigning in favor of measures to reduce poverty and climate change.
However, the report also noted that, despite there having been past successful cooperation, there remains substantial mutual ignorance in each sector about the other.
The main barriers to collaboration highlighted by charities and similar groups included a lack of knowledge about trade unions and not considering unions important enough partners. Trade unions, on the other hand, said they did not always have time to work with NGOs and wanted to focus on their own collective bargaining abilities.
The end result of Abdaless, Rigby and Williams’ study was to produce a set of 15 guidelines for effective collaboration between the two sectors. They included recognizing common interests, exploiting the political leverage of partner organizations and upholding worker interests, with a focus on job security.
According to Abdaless, the data and views uncovered during the study show that civil society and trade unions are stronger when they act in unison.
“In the current socio-economic climate, effective collaboration between the elements of civil society are more important than ever,” she told Financial Service Club members.
“I truly believe that, and the research has demonstrated that as well. Effective collaboration between trade unions and civil society organizations is achieving greater social economic and environmental justice.”
The next move, said Abdaless, involves undertaking a comparative study with researchers in Spain, looking at the nuances and cultural differences when it comes to international collaboration between such interest groups.