Moody's Account of Social Movement Unionism: An Analysis

Abstract

Social movement unionism is becoming the strategy/ideology that North American unions should adopt. The most influential account of social movement unionism is that by Kim Moody. However, there has been very few systematic analysis of his work. This article analyzes Moody's account of social movement unionism by examining three crucial aspects of his argument: the importance of union democracy, union alliances with social movements, and the role of the rank-and-file. Furthermore, by analysing the Canadian Auto Workers (a social movement union) I argue that a social movement union under Moody's account has had success in organizing proportionally more new members, and achieving a better collective bargaining agreement than business unions.