“How is Organising Playing Out? A three country study in retail”

Trade union renewal strategies have become increasingly important in the context of challenging conditions for unions worldwide (Frege & Kelly 2003). This paper examines union renewal, and in particular, how organising strategies play out in the retail industry in three countries: the United Kingdom (UK), Australia and New Zealand (NZ). The trade unions that are the focus of this study are: the Union of Shop Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) in the UK, the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association (SDA) in Australia and FIRST Union in NZ. Our analysis reveals both similarities and differences in how retail unions in the three countries are organising workers. In particular, our analysis identifies an empirical puzzle: the NZ union is different with respect to organising. In this paper, we seek to explain why these differences exist: namely, union leadership and risk and urgency.