Gregor Gall

Gregor Gall (born 1967) is a British left-wing academic and writer. He is research professor of industrial relations at the University of Hertfordshire,^[1] but lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was previously professor of industrial relations at the University of Stirling. He researches and writes primarily about trade unions, and has a particular interest in the labour movement politics of Scotland.

He is author and editor of numerous academic books, and is also a politically engaged academic, whereby he regularly writes for The Morning Star (fortnightly column), The Guardian's "Comment is free" website, the Frontline magazine, and a number of other media like the journal of the Aslef union. He also provides research and consultancy to a number of unions, particularly the Fire Brigades Union, and is a frequent commentator in the media on matters of unions and industrial conflict. He is also a correspondent for Planetlabor.

Originally a member of Labour Students and the Labour Party, he ended his membership of these over the issue of the poll tax, then joining the Socialist Workers' Party (SWP) in 1990. He joined the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) in advance of the SWP joining on mass, leaving the SWP in 2004 after many years of growing disagreements. He remains a member of the SSP and is a member of the editorial board of the Scottish Left Review,^[2] editor of its book arm, the Scottish Left Review Press, and the chair of the editorial committee of the journal of the Scottish Labour History Society, called Scottish Labour History. He is a member of the board of management of the Jimmy Reid Foundation. He is working on a biography of Tommy Sheridan (due out late 2011), and a history of the SSP (due out late 2012).

Publications

As author

• The Emergence of a Rank and File Movement: the Comitati di Base in the Italian Worker's Movement, 1995, in Capital & Class
• The Meaning of Militancy? Postal workers and industrial relations, 2003, Ashgate, ISBN 0754619028, pp350.
• The Political Economy of Scotland: Red Scotland? Radical Scotland?, 2005, University of Wales Press, ISBN 0708319440, pp260.
• Sex Worker Union Organizing: An International Study, 2006, Palgrave, ISBN 1403949255, pp252.
• Labour Unionism in the Financial Services Sector: struggling for rights and representation, Ashgate, 2008, pp212, ISBN 0754642232.
• Tommy Sheridan: From Hero to Zero? A Political Biography, Welsh Academic Press, 2011, pp256, ISBN 978-1-86057-119-0.
• An Agency of our Own: sex workers of the world uniting and fighting, Zero, 2012.

As editor

• Union Organising: campaigning for trade union recognition. Edited collection, 2003, Routledge, ISBN 0415267811, pp272.
• Union Recognition: Organising and Bargaining Outcomes. Edited collection, 2006, Routledge, ISBN 0415343364, pp260.
• Is there a Scottish Road to Socialism? 2007, Scottish Left Review Press, Glasgow, ISBN 97809506224, pp137.
• Union Revitalisation in Advanced Economies: assessing the contribution of ‘union organising’, Palgrave, 2009, ISBN 9780230204393, pp240.
• The Future of Union Organising – building for tomorrow, Palgrave, 2009, ISBN 9780230222427, pp256.
• New Forms and Expressions of Conflict at Work, Palgrave, 2012

As co-editor

• The International Handbook of Labour Unions: Responses to Neo-liberalism, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2011.
• Global anti-unionism – nature, dynamics, trajectories and outcomes, Palgrave, 2012.

References