The Future of Work and the Future of Unions

This event marks the launch of a special issue of Employee Relations, which looks back on 150 years of the Trades Union Congress (TUC).

Established in 1868 in Manchester, the TUC has continually been at the forefront of campaigning for workers’ rights but has surprisingly been the focus of limited academic enquiry in recent years. The special issue of Employee Relations has been co-edited by Dr. Andy Hodder (University of Birmingham) and Paul Nowak (Deputy General Secretary, TUC). At this event, we examine the key issues facing the trade union movement today.

A roundtable of key academic figures in the field of industrial relations will reflect on: the relationship between the decline in collective bargaining and the rise in wage inequality; the UK’s productivity problem and the extent to which this may be resolved through the introduction of the new technologies of artificial intelligence; various new forms of institutional experimentation to regulate the employment relationship and strengthen employment protections; the TUC’s efforts to embed organising in the trade union movement.

The event will include a drinks reception and a question and answer session.

Confirmed speakers include: 

• Paul Nowak (Deputy General Secretary, TUC)
• Professor Melanie Simms (University of Glasgow)
• Professor Sian Moore (Greenwich University)
• Dr. Paul Lewis (University of Birmingham)
• Dr. Alex Wood (Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford)
• Dr. Barry Colfer (St. Anthony’s College, University of Oxford)