New from ILR Press
*Power in Coalition
Strategies for Strong Unions and Social Change
Dr Amanda Tattersall
ISBN: 978-0-8014-7606-8 | Publication date: august 2010*
Many people in the labor movement see coalitions as an important tool
for social
change and union revitalization. Yet, despite a good number of books
describing these
coalitions and documenting their spread, there is little analysis of
what makes them
successful or what makes them fail. In this forthcoming book, Amanda
Tattersall—a
community organizer and a labor scholar—seeks to address this missing
element with
the first internationally comparative study of coalitions between unions
and community
organizations. She uses three detailed case studies—the public education
coalition in
Sydney, the Ontario Health Coalition in Toronto fighting to save
universal health care,
and the Grassroots Collaborative in Chicago engaged in a living wage
campaign—
to create a new conceptual framework for understanding when and how
coalition
unionism is a successful strategy for social change, organizational
development and
union renewal.
In Power in Coalition, she defines different measures of success before
trying to determine
the extent of that success, providing useful and usable frameworks and
insights that
will help guide union and community organizers in United States, Canada,
Australia,
New Zealand and the United Kingdom. For example, Tattersall found that a
“less is
more” approach was a consistent theme, suggesting that it is easier to
build stronger
coalitions with fewer organizations making decisions and sharing
resources. She also
discovers that individuals matter a great deal, with coalition success
depending on
leaders’ ability to broker relationships between organizations, as well
as plan campaign
strategy. Goals that match public interest and awareness of electoral
and legislative
politics were also crucial.
Amanda Tattersall is Deputy Assistant Secretary of Unions NSW and
Director of
the Sydney Alliance. In 2007, after a year as a visiting fellow at
Cornell’s ILR School,
she earned her Ph.D. in industrial relations from the University of
Sydney, where
she is an Honorary Associate in Work and Organizational Studies.
Tattersall has
extensive professional experience in unions and community organizations.
She was
the President of the National Union of Students (NSW Branch) in 1999,
established
Labor for Refugees in 2001, was the key union coordinator in the Walk
against the
War Coalition in 2003, and has worked on numerous coalition campaigns.
In 2005 she
co-founded GetUp.org.au, a web advocacy organization with over 350 000
members
in Australia, and in 2007, with support from Unions NSW, she founded the
Sydney
Alliance, which now has over 21 organizational members ranging across
unions,
religious organizations and community organizations
To receive more information about this book or order copies, please
e-mail Robin Coleman
in the Cornell University Press sales department at [log in to unmask]
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Dr Jane Holgate
Working Lives Research Institute
London Metropolitan University
31 Jewry Street, London EC3N 2EY
Tel (w) + 44 (0) 20 7320 3029
Tel (h) 020 8802 0373.
Tel (m) 07960 798399
email: [log in to unmask]
http://www.workinglives.org/staff/current-staff/jane-holgate.cfm
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