Expanding the Union Zone: Union Renewal through Alternative Forms of Worker Organization

Abstract

This article presents a conceptual model that seeks to explain why trade union incidence in North America encounters difficulties and how the union movement might approach renewal. Those who use the work of others for profit are considered not only employers, but also "deployers" of labor; even self-employed workers are often in situations of dependency vis-à-vis their deployer. This gives rise to new possibilities and new forms of collective action, which the trade union movement should either embrace or with which it should collaborate.