Trade unions' strategic use of data to strengthen the effectiveness and outcomes of their union building efforts

Trade union representation is crucial for workers to have an effective voice in the future of work. To build membership strength and legitimacy, unions need to organise new and existing members. This work is referred to as 'union organising'. UK unions have invested heavily in organising work as the knowledge base about 'what works' has strengthened in the past 25 years. But the systematic use of data to inform organising focus and decision making has only recently become a practical priority for some unions. Most unions are still very weak at understanding their data architecture, let alone using data to shape and inform organising activity. This project will work collaboratively with a union that is an early adopter of such ideas and structures to address the question; how can data be used by unions to strengthen the effectiveness and outcomes of their union building efforts including in organising and engagement?

To address this, the project has the following research questions:

What data do unions have in these areas and how do they use it?
What methods are currently relied on to gather this data?
What data do those working in these areas (think they) need to strengthen their effectiveness?
What are the barriers to collection and limitations to use of new forms of data?
How can data better support unions to achieve more sustainable union building outcomes?

The doctoral researcher will be embedded with the union's data and organising teams to develop a practical and theoretical understanding of the opportunities and challenges in using data to inform organising activity. This will result in a ground breaking understanding of the ways unions can use data to support workers' voices in the future of work, resulting in important academic contributions to union renewal, worker voice and future of work literatures, as well as practical advice to other unions seeking to use data more effectively.