Organising migrant workers: The living wage campaign at the University of East London

Lopes, Ana; Hall, Tim

Abstract

This critical case study looks at the campaign led by Citizens UK and Unison to get the University of East London (UEL) to sign up to the London Living wage (LLW). UEL agreed to pay the LLW after a brief campaign in November 2010 and it was subsequently implemented in August 2011. The study charts the course of the campaign and draws on mobilisation theory and new primary research to account for its success. What our findings suggest is that community organisers and union activists were able to organise and mobilise a largely apolitical group of migrant workers. This, we suggest, can be explained by the successful mobilisation of the community and augurs well for future broad-based campaigns.

Citation

Lopes, A., & Hall, T. (2015). Organising migrant workers: The living wage campaign at the University of East London. Industrial Relations Journal, 46(3), 208-221. https://doi.org/10.1111/irj.12099

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: May 1, 2015
• Deposit Date: Mar 23, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: May 6, 2017
• Journal: Industrial Relations Journal
• Print ISSN: 0019-8692
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 46
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 208-221
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/irj.12099
• Keywords: living wage, community organising, mobilisation, migrant workers, community unionism
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/835199
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/irj.12099
• Additional Information: Additional Information : Published online 06 May 2015. This is the accepted version of the following article: Lopes, A. and Hall, T. (2015) Organising migrant workers: The living wage campaign at the University of East London. Industrial Relations Journal, 46 (3). pp. 208-221. ISSN 0019-8692, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/irj.12099