Trade union renewal through local partnerships for skill formation

Abstract

This article investigates how unions can strengthen their role in settings that are highly affected by globalisation and liberalisation through engagement in local partnerships for skill formation. We identify a number of capacities possessed by unions that can be complementary to firms and other actors in the local arena and thus be formative for such partnerships. We build our argument by drawing on concepts from the literature on trade union revitalisation, on governance and on political economy. The article’s claims are substantiated by a multiple-case study from Denmark that illustrates how union-based partnerships have successfully facilitated retraining and labour market inclusion for workers who were made redundant during economic restructuring and, due to neoliberal reforms, were cut off from adequate assistance from the public employment system.