London 2012 Olympics and the Power of the British Trade Unions: A Golden Opportunity?

Abstract

Since their modern inception in 1896, the Olympics have grown in size and stature to become one of the most important mega-sport events. However, unlike other mega-sport events the Olympics has its own value-laden philosophy of "Olympism", advocating sport as a vehicle for social change. This paper utilises Eric Batstone's (1988) three-fold power schema of disruptive potential, labour scarcity and political influence to explore the impact of London 2012 on the power of the British unions. To achieve this, it draws on a comparative study of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) and the Musicians' Union (MU). Based on findings generated from interviews and secondary-data analysis this paper will argue that the collective bargaining results of unions in the run-up to and during the 2012 Olympic Games were a reflection of the individual unions' pre-existing power – those that had more disruptive, labour scarcity or political power prior to the Games were able to win more benefits for their members, whereas those with less were either less successful or did not succeed at all in their negotiations. In addition, when evaluating the power sources, an "Olympic factor" can be observed, which produces a differentiated impact on the power resources of the unions.