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Organising migrant workers: the living wage campaign at the U niversity of E ast L ondon
Author(s) -
Lopes Ana,
Hall Timothy
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
industrial relations journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.525
H-Index - 3
eISSN - 1468-2338
pISSN - 0019-8692
DOI - 10.1111/irj.12099
Subject(s) - political science , wage , migrant workers , economics , economic growth , law
This critical case study looks at the campaign led by C itizens UK and U nison to get the U niversity of E ast L ondon ( UEL ) to sign up to the L ondon living wage ( LLW ). UEL agreed to pay the LLW after a brief campaign in N ovember 2010 and it was subsequently implemented in A ugust 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.