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The Role of Communication in Presenting Union Relevance: An Analysis of the United Nurses of Alberta
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- Author / Creator
- Susan Cake
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For the past 30 years unions have faced declining membership density because of a combination of increasingly hostile employers and governments, as well as industrial restructuring and globalization. In response, a number of studies have attempted to shed light on possible union renewal strategies to reverse these trends. This dissertation examines an important, but understudied, issue that is highly relevant to union relevance and union renewal: a union’s own communication practices and strategies. Specifically, it examines the communications of a nurses’ union, the United Nurses of Alberta (UNA), and their internal and external communication activity from 2010-2015.
The main question driving this research is: What is the relationship between union communications and union members’ understanding of their union’s relevance? There are several sub-questions including: What are the central activities of the union and what kind of unionism is practiced and communicated by UNA? What are the main types of communications used by UNA? Finally, how do members perceive their union and its communications? How do union members assess the relevance of UNA to their lives? To examine these questions, I conducted 23 interviews and analyzed over 3,500 data points including UNA’s newsletter, website and social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. The data was collected from 2015-2019, and is analyzed using feminist political economy (FPE) and collective action frame (CAF) perspectives.
Overall, the analysis presented here shows that the different communication avenues showcase UNA’s leanings towards social unionism while much of the actual communication content emphasises the business unionism activities and in turn many UNA members still think of UNA primarily as a business union. UNA uses multiple communication avenues to connect with their members, and to “meet their members where they are”. At times, these different communication avenues are even geared towards specific groups of members such as general members or those who are highly involved with the union. The FPE and CAF analysis helped highlight two distinct frames repeated through UNA communications. The first frame is that nurses are distinct health care providers based on their education, skill, and regulated status. The second frame is that nurses are advocates for their patients and also for the Alberta public health care system. These frames used by UNA in their communications shape how nurses understand themselves as a profession and also shape the services that nurses think they need from the union. UNA’s various communications shape how UNA presents itself as relevant for its members, this in turn partially shapes how UNA members evaluate and understand their own union.
Overall, this case study provides valuable empirical and theoretical insights into the activities and communication practices of a unique and important Canadian union, and highlights its implications for perceptions of union relevance. It also provides solid groundwork for future studies examining the role of union communications and how union members evaluate their unions and the union relevance.
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- Graduation date
- Fall 2020
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Doctor of Philosophy
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- License
- Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission.