New research has highlighted that there is more collaboration between civil society and trade unions than previously thought.
The research project, entitled Working Together in Civil Society: A Study of Collaboration Between Trade Unions and Civil Society Organisations, found that just under one third of civil society organisations (CSOs) surveyed had recognition agreements with trade unions.
Undertaken by Sara Abdaless at Northeatern university London, Michael Rigby at London South Bank University and Stephen Williams at Portsmouth University, the project began in the late summer of 2023, and collated 50 responses from CSOs and 34 from trade unions.
Over half of charities have good relationships with unions
Over half of charities that responded (56%) to the project, considered that their organisation had a good relationship with trade unions.
Meanwhile, 40% of charities indicated that they collaborated with trade unions on an ongoing basis, while 54% would like to develop closer relationships with unions.
Nevertheless, a sizeable minority of organisations did not advocate closer relations. 8% were not interested and 38% were undecided.
Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of trade union respondents (93%) felt their union had good relationships with charities.
Over one quarter of trade unions collaborating with charities
74% of trade unions offered examples of collaborations with charities, while 42% of charities responding provided examples of collaboration with trade unions.
Ways of collaborating included campaigning and advocacy; unions being involved as trustees of charities; provision of funding and resources, usually from trade unions to charities; training; using expertise, and promotion of services, usually with charities using unions to advertise their role.
These closer relationships and commonality of interests with unions had increased in recent years, as a result of the cost-of-living crisis and Covid 19.
In its conclusion, the report notes that the data from the research “reveals a considerable number of collaborations between trade unions and CSOs”, with collaborations including “a wider range of activities than the joint campaigning efforts”.
Organisations displayed mutual ignorance despite shared expertise
Sharing of expertise between the organisations proved particularly useful, with unions with professional interests, such as the Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA), finding common causes with charities more easily, such as with Parkinsons UK; the two organisations collaborated in a campaign against prescription charges.
The report also noted that trade unions’ political experience proved especially useful to charities, citing an example of a collaboration between Napo and the Travellers’ Movement.
However, the report also noted that despite the collaborations mentioned, there remained substantial mutual ignorance in each sector about the other.
The research involved two principal data collection methods: online survey instruments distributed to trade unions and CSOs, and online interviews undertaken with key informants from unions and charities.
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