Focusing or Fragmenting Representation at Work? Specialist Trade Union Representation in the United Kingdom, by A.Hodder and M.Martinez Lucio, (eds.), Leeds, Emerald Publishing, 2025.

The topic of trade union decline, shaped by increasingly deregulated labour markets within a globalised economy, and the accompanying general downward pressure on working conditions and wages, represents well-trodden ground. So too, in much industrial relations literature, are the many and varied discussions on the ways in which unions have reacted to these changes. Where existing studies often focus on the responsive shifts in internal and vertical union structures, or the forms of broader coalition building unions have enacted, fewer have focused on the changing forms of workplace representation and the role of workplace representatives (or shop stewards), particularly at a local level. This marks the core intervention and contribution of this edited volume, which explores the shifting forms of worker representation in the UK in the context of changes within work and society. In the introductory chapter, Hodder and Martínez Lucio provide a clear and concise summary of this history of union representation. Starting from the development of the shop steward's movement up to and throughout the 1970s, the chapter explores the process of union decline from the 1980s onwards, the subsequent role of workplace activists in the Trade Union Congress' (TUC) organising agenda of the late 1990s, and the increasing development of specialist union representative roles during the 2000s and beyond. This trajectory is of course contextualised by historic shifts in management worker relations, which have notoriously challenged many established forms of worker representation. Nevertheless, the chapter also notes the relevance of the increasing attention which has been paid to a broader set of management and worker contestations in recent years, those which for a long time were largely ignored by much industrial relations literature, such as struggles against racism and gender inequality. For Hodder and Martínez Lucio however, the increasing orientation toward specialist roles and types of worker representation has been driven, in various ways, by three particular factors. Firstly, by the state. Indeed, despite the deregulation of industrial relations, the Labour governments of 1997–2010 are identified as facilitating developments in legislative frameworks which have influenced forms of specialist trade union representation. The introduction of the Union Modernisation Fund (2005–2010) and the Union Learning Fund (1998–2021) are specifically credited in this regard. Secondly, it has been driven, in different ways and at different times, by the approach adopted by trade unions. In particular, this has been prompted by the development of Black Worker Sections and Women's Sections, specifically in public sector unions, alongside increases in the salience of health and safety legislation and associated union roles from the 1970s onwards. In addition, experimentation with environmental roles during the 1990s and the increasing prevalence of young members' networks, has similarly shaped the move to more focused forms of representation. Thirdly, it has been driven by the informational and knowledge gaps across a range of issues generated by various workplace developments, such as the complexities of health and safety legislation, as well as detailed equality legislation which, according to Hodder and Martínez Lucio, ‘require specialist training, organisational, and bureaucratic support from the centre’ (p.9). The expansion of these more diverse and pluralistic union representative roles is the focus of the book, with each chapter in turn addressing a specific type of representative function, outlining their development and the challenges they face. Thus, in Chapter 2 Martínez Lucio and Mustchin focus on Health and Safety Representatives, tracking the expansion of their remit and shifts in regulation throughout the 1970s, the challenges posed by anti-trade union policies during the 80s and 90s, and the effect of encroaching managerial wellbeing initiatives in recent years. Yet despite political and regulatory constraints, it is clear that Health and Safety Reps have adapted, increasingly expanding their role to address psychosocial workplace hazards. In Chapter 3, Kirton outlines how the role of Equality Representatives came to be established in the 2000s. The TUC's biennial equality audits, introduced in 2003, and the Labour government's (1997–2010) ‘union modernisation agenda’ are noted in particular for promoting workplace equality, as well as financing the recruitment and training of representatives. Yet while it is highlighted that the majority of union members in the UK now have access to an Equality Rep, signs remain that these representatives are not fully integrated into workplace union negotiating, with their lack of statutory recognition exacerbating their marginalisation. In Chapter 4, Mustchin and Martínez Lucio focus on Union Learning Representatives, highlighting the significance of the New Labour government's 1998 Union Learning Fund in promoting the role. Unsurprisingly, this form of representation became intrinsically linked with the partnership model of unionism promoted by the Labour Party, with its aim of achieving mutual gains for management and workers, meaning that Union Learning Reps were primarily viewed in a servicing capacity, often focused on career development. The significance of the role has largely diminished following the abolition of the Union Learning Fund in England in 2021, alongside subsequent cuts to publicly funded adult education. In Chapter 5, Simms and Hodder discuss representative structures for young workers, noting that while few unions have formal youth officer roles, most do have some form of young members’ network or section. These groups are credited with providing opportunities for training and development in union activism. However, Simms and Hodder stress the need to balance the autonomy of these networks with central union organisational control, while also noting the constraints in representing young workers’ interests. For example, they emphasise the few opportunities unions have to limit the effects of precarious work, citing the necessity of law and state regulation in this area. Finally, in Chapter 6, Jo Cutter addresses Environmental and Green Representatives. Arriving in the 2000s, this role was initially associated with union-management partnership, but has since considerably broadened to more combatively address the long-term issues of climate justice, with new campaigns emerging in alliance with other environmental groups. The strength of the book lies in its detailed account of the developments briefly outlined above, particularly with regard to the effect of shifting employment relations, alongside the role of government legislation and trade union policy, which the various chapters each provide a comprehensive account of. However, while a good deal of analysis is dedicated to these shifting institutional and structural factors, the role of worker-led resistance, or self-organised struggle from below, in shaping the broadening focus of labour contestations, and therefore the remit of workplace representatives, is paid less attention. Given that industrial relations and labour studies has been critiqued for a tendency to prioritise unions as institutions, over social relations between people (Atzeni 2021), this seems like an especially pertinent area to address. This is not to say that examples of working-class agency are absent from the book, and there is a good deal of variation across the multiple chapters. For example, despite the increasing encroachment of individualising corporate ‘wellbeing’ programmes, in Chapter 2 Martínez Lucio and Mustchin note that, in recent years, there has been ‘significant innovation in many aspects of health and safety representation’ (p.30). As a result, we have seen a growing linkage between workplace stress and mental health issues with struggles over work intensification and deteriorating conditions. The UCU's national workload campaign is cited as an example of this form of innovation, signalling toward its worker-led character. However, the extent to which pressure from below has spurred these developments feels worthy of further investigation, particularly given the way in which local UCU representatives are currently putting workload issues on the health and safety agenda (e.g., Birmingham UCU 2025). The section of the book where a greater focus on worker-led forms of resistance and organisation felt most pressing however, was in Chapter 3, on equality representation. Here, it is noted that women and black members’ voices gained increasing traction within trade unions throughout the 1970s, leading to the establishment of new members groups, committees and, eventually, specialist Equality Representatives (p.40). While the account of this process provides ample detail on the top-down processes by which unions officially established these roles, alongside the effect of TUC led training, as well as support provided by the Labour government's Union Modernisation Fund, the role of bottom-up anti-racist resistance, black self-organised struggle, and radical feminist movements in shaping these changes, is largely absent. This felt like a missed opportunity to highlight the multiple examples of such struggles, particularly throughout the 1970s, where workers who were subject to racism, both from their employers and unions, engaged in independent forms of collective resistance, from the Mansfield Hosiery strike, to the Imperial Typewriters strike, Grunwick dispute and beyond, which in turn forced changes in union and TUC policy, as well as shop steward training (Sivanandan 1982:130; Virdee 2000:554). This focus on bottom-up struggles as generative of institutional and structural change might also enable us to look at the ways in which contemporary worker-led struggles are shaping new forms of worker organisation (Ness 2014). In the UK for instance, the emergence of grassroots independent unions, predominantly led by migrant workers (Però 2019), have been found to have stimulated changes in the larger TUC unions, particularly in response to precarious work (Smith 2021). Interestingly, the role of worker agency in broadening the remit of union representation was signalled to most explicitly in Chapter 6 on Green Representatives. Here, Cutter notes how the initial emergence of Green Rep roles in the 2000s coincided with an emphasis on partnership unionism within the TUC and across the union movement. However, the chapter also demonstrates how, in recent years, the role of grassroots activism among union members has been central to building alliances with other green and environmental organisations. This has facilitated an expansion of the remit of Green Union Representatives, away from their initial focus on working with management to reduce workplace emissions, and towards broader societal aims around decarbonisation, public ownership and a just transition (pp.91–112). Overall, by centring the role of workplace representatives in the broadening focus of industrial relations, the book makes a timely and important intervention. Seen in a positive light, these changes are presented as a focusing of representative roles, enabling network building within unions as well as with other organisations and campaigns beyond the workplace. In articulating a more critical view, it is suggested that such changes might be viewed as a form of ultra-specialisation, fragmenting the collective interests of the workforce rather than building common points of reference. This dichotomy is one which Martínez Lucio and Hodder pose in the concluding chapter, rather than definitively answer and resolve. However, the real tension at the heart of these changes in workplace representation is signalled to in the book's closing remarks: ‘The problem is whether these developments in workplace representation are mainly service driven or whether they pursue a broader and more critical vision of work in terms of its conduct, organisation, and relation to broader social changes’ (p. 123). The latter, I would argue, depends very much on the level of bottom-up rank and file organisation on the many and varied fronts which constitute the contested terrain of contemporary work.