International Journal of Labour Research

Trade union revitalization: navigating uncertainty, change and resilience in the world of work

This article assesses six innovative approaches to trade union revitalization through the lens of the unions’ ability to navigate change. It introduces the “triple-A governance” framework, based on the three pillars of anticipation (the ability to understand the dynamics of change that may impact emerging futures), agility (the organization-wide ability to deal with uncertainty and change) and adaptation (the ability to translate anticipation and organizational learning into concrete actions and strategies to create desired change). It further introduces a number of participatory, democratic and non-prescriptive tools that can be used by trade unions to reflect and act upon revitalization: these include horizon scanning, the futures wheel, immunity to change and backcasting.