Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
The aims of the study were: to conduct a multi-level investigation of the campaigning activities of British trade unions at the 2001 General Election; to analyse the impact that the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act (2000) and that changes in the union-Labour Party link have had on union campaigning activity; and to create a baseline study for analysis of trade union campaigning in future general and other elections in the UK. To fulfil these aims, a number of objectives were pursued including: investigating the campaign activities of Trades Union Congress, the 13 unions with more than 150,000 members, the Trade Union Labour Party Liaison Organisation, and any unions registering as 'recognised third parties' under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act; deploying the distinction between persuasive and mobilising campaigning, and the list of seven basic constituency campaign activities, elaborated by Denver and Hands in their studies of constituency campaigning in 1992 and 1997 (held at the UK Data Archive (UKDA) as SN 3587 'Constituency Campaigning in the 1992 Election', and SN 3922 'Constituency Campaigning in the 1997 Election'); distinguishing between different objectives of union campaigning (e.g. policy lobbying, increasing member/voter support for Labour) and different methods of campaigning (e.g. advertising, internal campaign material distribution, allocating staff to constituency campaigns). The study was carried out using a variety of mixed methods, by collecting campaign materials, conducting qualitative interviews with national, regional and constituency officers, conducting a quantitative postal survey of trade union constituency co-ordinators, and using election data from the 2001 Election.
Main Topics:
This study is in two parts: Firstly, results of a postal survey of Trade Union Constituency Co-ordinators recognised by the National Trade Union and Labour Party Liaison Organisation in the British General Election of 2001. The quantitative dataset contains 86 cases (51% response rate) and 113 variables covering the background and status of the co-ordinators, their experience and training, preparation for and evaluation of trade union participation in the election campaign on behalf of the Labour Party. Likert-type scales were used to measure respondents' attitudes on a number of issues. Secondly, the anonymised transcripts of 53 recorded, semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted with national, regional and constituency-level trade union (and some Labour Party) officers before and after the 2001 British General Election. Of the 53 interviews, 45 were conducted face-to-face, and the remaining 8 by telephone. The interview transcripts cover the purposes and methods of trade union campaigning. A further 24 interviews were conducted off-the-record.
100% sample: Postal survey; Purposive selection/case studies: Semi-structured qualitative interview
Face-to-face interview
Telephone interview
Postal survey
