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Organising migrant workers: the living wage campaign at the U niversity of E ast L ondon

2015; Wiley; Volume: 46; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/irj.12099

1468-2338

Ana Lúcia Magri Lopes, Timothy Hall,

Employment and Welfare Studies

Abstract This critical case study looks at the campaign led by C itizens UK and U nison to get the U niversity of E ast L ondon ( UEL ) to sign up to the L ondon living wage ( LLW ). UEL agreed to pay the LLW after a brief campaign in N ovember 2010 and it was subsequently implemented in A ugust 2011. The study charts the course of the campaign and draws on mobilisation theory and new primary research to account for its success. What our findings suggest is that community organisers and union activists were able to organise and mobilise a largely apolitical group of migrant workers. This, we suggest, can be explained by the successful mobilisation of the community and augurs well for future broad‐based campaigns.