Publishing this handbook on labour unions towards the middle of the second decade of the twenty-first century comes at an opportune time. This is because there is something of a glint in the eyes of many members, activists and officers of labour unions and their supporters. This glint is one of cautious and tempered hope. It arises because, after the tremendous disruption of the Covid pandemic to economies and societies (and, thus, including employment matters), there is a sense that many unions and their members have found their “mojo” again. In the battle to at this stage protect – rather than advance – members’ interests in the cost-of-living crisis that has afflicted most economies around the world, unions have had an opportunity to “stand up and be counted” in order to reassert their historic purpose of pursuing members’ self-interest combined with social justice. This has most obviously taken the form of strike and street mobilizations. In the UK, for example, the number of days not worked as a result of strikes – officially designated as “days lost” – in 2022 was nearly ten times higher than in the previous years for which there is full data, namely 2017 and 2018 (ONS 2023a). And from June 2022 to May 2023, data showed some 3.93 million days were not worked due to strikes (ONS 2023a), this being the largest uptick in strike activity in the UK since the late 1980s.

In the case of the UK – but which has implications for unions elsewhere in other countries – although halting and hesitant as well as far from encompassing all unions and all workers (mostly obviously including non-union workers), the hope is that by doing so unions can begin the process of renewing and revitalizing themselves internally and externally. The former refers to levels and types of membership participation and the latter refers to augmenting recruitment (based upon high levels of retention). Both should make unions “bigger” and “better” in their ability to advance – rather than just protect – their members’ economic and political interests. The stimulus of striking to this internal and external generation is held to be true by both practitioners and scholars. Kate Bell, the Assistant General Secretary at the Trades Union Congress, told the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union annual conference in 2023: “We know that industrial action usually drives membership” (Morning Star 13 June 2023).