Worker-Led Dissent in the Age of Austerity: Comparing the Conditions of Success

Abstract

The decline of the power of organised labour, which is a central feature of neoliberalism, was compounded during the ‘age of austerity’. Yet, the potentially disruptive agency of workers remains. This article presents a qualitative process-tracing exercise for over 150 prominent episodes of worker-led dissent in the period 2010–2019 in the UK, the results of which are also made available in a website accompanying the article: ‘Contesting the UK’s neoliberal model of capitalism: worker-led dissent (2010–2019). The article identifies seven configurations of causal conditions that proved sufficient for workers to successfully pursue their stated aims during this period. While ‘standard’ national disputes led by mainstream trade unions were on the whole not sufficient to achieve success during this period, nevertheless a number of alternative combinations of conditions did prove to be sufficient, especially locally-focused campaigns, those undertaken by grassroots ‘indie’ unions and those in the transport sector.