Trade Unions and Immigration in the UK

This chapter examines the responses of UK trade unions to immigrant workers and their role in integrating them into both trade unions and the wider society. In the UK, the dominant strategies and responses have focused on organising immigrant workers and support for the inclusion of immigrant and BAME workers, particularly in terms of self-organisation and inclusion through learning and training strategies. The tradition, albeit changing, of voluntarism in the UK, where there is less of a role for the state in labour relations more broadly, has meant there has been a lack of collective regulation and state-led inclusion strategies in relation to the social inclusion and integration of immigrants. According to the analytical framework presented in Chapter 1, the dominant logic of action of British trade unions was between class and race/ethnicity.