In 2017, European-level unions and business associations agreed a framework for national and workplace level employers and union representatives to take collaborative action to design workforce responses to demographic ageing. This article discusses how unions are responding to pressures to extend working life in the UK. Drawing on industrial relations and social movement literature, it argues that unions pursue the twin strategies of working in partnership with like-minded employers to reorient workplaces towards an age friendly model while organizing and campaigning with members to secure conditions consistent with active and healthy ageing. Resisting an erosion of pension and retirement rights and extending employment protection are examples of this approach, but numerous lower profile initiatives by workplace representatives are also reflective of their having an age friendly agenda. Using qualitative data from focus group discussions with union representatives in two sectors, the article shows that union responses are rooted in both of the dominant models of British unionism—the organizing and partnership models—and argues that literature on social movements helps to understand how union representatives reconcile the competing pressures.

中文翻译：

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工会对老龄化工作场所的反应：来自英国的教训

2017 年，欧洲层面的工会和商业协会同意了一个框架，供国家和工作场所层面的雇主和工会代表采取合作行动来设计劳动力应对人口老龄化的反应。本文讨论了工会如何应对延长英国工作年限的压力。借鉴劳资关系和社会运动文献，它认为工会采取双重策略，即与志同道合的雇主合作，将工作场所重新定位为对年龄友好的模式，同时与成员一起组织和竞选，以确保与积极和健康老龄化相一致的条件。抵制养老金和退休权利的侵蚀以及扩大就业保护是这种方法的例子，但工作场所代表的许多低调举措也反映了他们有一个年龄友好的议程。本文使用来自两个部门工会代表的焦点小组讨论的定性数据表明，工会的反应植根于英国工会主义的两种主要模式——组织模式和伙伴关系模式——并认为社会运动文献有助于理解工会如何代表们调和了相互竞争的压力。