Wider support, from people who are not directly subject to an employer's discipline but who can exert influence on the company, can strengthen workers’ ability to meet their demands. Doellgast, Bidwell and Colvin identify a growing trend among trade unions internationally, as traditional institutions have weakened, to pursue strategies that can challenge employers’ claim to legitimacy and threaten reputational backlash as a point of leverage. Wider support can also make a material difference to workers’ ability to sustain action. Due to the importance of the strike hardship payments outlined in Chapter 4, a wider movement that can consistently raise donations seems essential if the organizing model described here were to extend to other sites and realize its potential for sustained action.

McAlevey's approach to building wider support begins with the power structure analysis, which identifies both potential organic allies for unionized workers by looking at the ‘whole worker’ and their multiple social connections, and institutions beyond the company where pressure might be brought, whether through the employer's investors, partners, consumers or regulators. These are areas where Holgate argues that the newer ‘indie’ unions in the UK have generally done better than traditional unions like the GMB. This chapter examines challenges the GMB faced as it tried to build wider support with the BHX4 workers, and how the union responded.

Challenges in building wider support

This section explores the challenges building wider support, rooted in the wider political conditions in Britain during this period.