OUR SERVICES
Strengthening worker organisation, representation and democratic practice to address unequal power relations in the world of work.
Spaces that shift power.
LRS is a labour research, education and movement-support organisation that strengthens organisation and representation through research, convening and strategic facilitation.
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Who we are
LRS exists to strengthen worker organisation, representation, and democratic practice for a better world of work.
What we stand for
Guiding Principles
Strategic programme arenas
Arena 01: Organisation and Representation
Organisation and representation are at the centre of everything we do. We provide unions, federations and worker formations with research, communication and organisational support.
Intellectual assets and resources
The Negotiators’ Guide, Inflation Monitor, Bargaining Benchmarks, Wage Bargaining Review, and Directors’ Fees Report.
Arena 02: Technology and Platform Work
Using technology to deepen organising, coordination, research access and worker power.
What will it take for digital systems to expand democratic participation and the power of workers – and not deepen precarity?
We support the trade union movement to understand how technology is changing labour markets and the organisation of work. Our concern is not only technological change itself, but how digital systems shape power, participation and precarity. We pay particular attention to the impact of artificial intelligence on work and trade unions. We use digital tools to strengthen worker organisation and representation, and to connect, learn and share knowledge.
Intellectual assets and resources
Wage calculator, Actual Wage Rates Database, Agreements Database, Multinational Corporations database, A labour of Love podcast, and research on platform work and the future of retail.
Arena 03: Trade and Industrial Policy
Equipping unions to engage trade, supply chains and industrial policy from a worker-centred perspective.
Trade policy and practice are often shaped far from workers, yet these dynamics shape our economies - what we produce, what we consume, the prices we pay, the jobs available to us, and the quality of those jobs. We strengthen trade union research, capabilities, advocacy and solidarity networks to engage with trade and industrial processes.
Knowledge and expertise
Structure of African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA)
Multilateral institutions
National and regional trade policy
Trade and development
Social dialogue in Africa
Issues in trade
Intellectual assets and resources
Tradeunionsinafcfta.org
Arena 04: Care Economy and Feminist Political Economy
Building a worker- and community-centred care economy agenda.
Care work is the social infrastructure that makes all other work possible, and one of the most under-recognised sites of worker organising. We build analysis and tools that make care work visible, support formalisation, and open up organising possibilities in precarious care sectors.
Knowledge and expertise
Care economy and economic development
Insight into policy that regulates care sectors
Experiences of care work and care worker groups
Insight into possibilities for organising precarious care work
Arena 05: Just Transition and Climate Justice
Supporting worker-led responses to climate change and economic transition.
LRS acts as an interlocutor in this area, contributing emerging analysis, supporting dialogue, and connecting care, gender and climate justice as inseparable concerns. Our work draws on resources on just transition and climate change, experience of engaging unions, and emerging analysis on the links between just transition, gender, feminism and care work.
Knowledge and skills
Resources on just transition and climate change. See here and here.
Experience of working with unions in this area. See here.
Arena 06: Creating Spaces for Discovery and Change
LRS is a convener of safe, inclusive and strategic spaces for dialogue and learning.
“Spaces are political – they either reproduce existing power relations, or create the conditions to transform them.”
We create and hold spaces that cultivate genuine participation, make power visible, and build the skills needed for democratic practice. Our facilitation is intentional, political and transformative. Gender, race, class, precarity, unpaid or poorly paid care work, and GBV all shape participation and democratic practice. At the heart of building democratic organisations is creating and holding spaces where these dynamics can be named rather than reproduced.
Political meaning
LRS spaces are about democracy in trade unions, transformative leadership, and skills for organising.
Resources
Toolkit for facilitators and educators.
Taking a feminist approach to organising women workers in South Africa.
Arena 07: Governance, Sustainability and Fundraising
Strengthening institutional sustainability and strategic resourcing.
We approach sustainability and resourcing strategically. In a volatile funding environment, we prioritise work that strengthens organisation and representation, builds institutional credibility, and protects LRS’s long-term capacity to serve the labour movement.
How we work & what we aim for
LRS Theory of Change
Organised worker leadership
Negotiation and bargaining power
Strategic understanding of trade, technology and care
We say Yes to
- Work that directly strengthens organisation and representation
- Work that builds worker leadership, negotiation capacity and democratic practice
- Work aligned to at least one agreed priority area
- Work that is funded or realistically fundable within 12 months
- Convening and holding strategic democratic spaces
- Research explicitly linked to organising, bargaining or social dialogue
Key contacts:
Trenton Elsely: [email protected]
Nina Benjamin: [email protected]