Papers > By author > Etherington David

The rise in precarious work represents one of the most important challenges for trade unions and industrial relations. The Sheffield Needs A Pay Rise (SNAP) is a campaign that has been initiated by Sheffield Trades Union Council (STUC). The primary impetus for the campaign was the earlier creation of the Britain Needs A Pay Rise organising theme by the national Trades Union Congress which was inaugurated in the autumn of 2014. STUC has sought to develop this campaign on a more grassroots basis targeting recruitment and retention in sectors where there are traditionally low trade union densities such as the hospitality, social care sector and call centres. At the same time the campaign also focuses upon workers in comparatively highly organised workplaces in the public sector who are facing attacks to their living standards via pay freezes. The paper analyses the campaign assessing how far this reflects there is an emerging trend towards a coherent model of local industrial relations and how far and to what extent trade unions are being strengthened by wider community mobilisation. The paper analyses the implications of the findings for industrial relations particulalry in relation to trade union stragies for organising workers. Some questions that will be looked at What are the challenges for organising 'outsiders' and what innovations and creative thinking is being used to engage with social disadvantaged groups in the labour market?