Gregor Gall

Gregor Gall (born 1967) is a British left-wing academic and writer. He is professor of industrial relations at the University of Bradford but lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was previously professors of industrial relations at the University of Stirling and the University of Hertfordshire. He researches and writes primarily about trade unions, and has a particular interest in the labour movement politics of Scotland - for example, he is working on a research project examining union leadership and the disproportionate contribution of Scots to the British-wide union movement at senior levels (like general secretaries).

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, The Scotsman, 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 en masse, 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, 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 has written a lengthy and detailed biography of Tommy Sheridan (Welsh Academic Press, 2012), and is working on a history of the SSP.

His current web details are found at the University of Bradford

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 0-7546-1902-8, pp350.
• The Political Economy of Scotland: Red Scotland? Radical Scotland?, 2005, University of Wales Press, ISBN 0-7083-1944-0, pp260.
• Sex Worker Union Organizing: An International Study, 2006, Palgrave, ISBN 1-4039-4925-5, pp252.
• Labour Unionism in the Financial Services Sector: struggling for rights and representation, Ashgate, 2008, pp212, ISBN 0-7546-4223-2.
• Tommy Sheridan: From Hero to Zero? A Political Biography, Welsh Academic Press, 2012, pp360, ISBN 978-1-86057-119-0.
• An Agency of Their Own: sex worker union organising, Zero, 2012, pp97, ISBN 1846942543.
• Scotland the brave? Independence and radicalism, Scottish Left Review Press, 2013.
• The Politics of Joe Strummer: resistance, rebellion and radicalism, Zero, 2014.
• Scarlet Scotland – the paradox of radicalism, Welsh Academic Press, 2014.
• Sex worker unionisation: global developments, challenges and possibilities, Palgrave, 2015.

As editor

• Union Organising: campaigning for trade union recognition. Edited collection, 2003, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-26781-1, pp272.
• Union Recognition: Organising and Bargaining Outcomes. Edited collection, 2006, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-34336-4, pp260.
• Is there a Scottish Road to Socialism? 2007, Scottish Left Review Press, Glasgow, ISBN 978-0-9550362-2-4, pp137.
• Union Revitalisation in Advanced Economies: assessing the contribution of ‘union organising’, Palgrave, 2009, ISBN 978-0-230-20439-3, pp240.
• The Future of Union Organising – building for tomorrow, Palgrave, 2009, ISBN 978-0-230-22242-7, pp256.
• New Forms and Expressions of Conflict at Work, Palgrave, 2013, ISBN 9780230300071, pp272.
• Is there a Scottish Road to Socialism? 2013, Scottish Left Review Press, Glasgow, second edition.

As co-editor

• The International Handbook of Labour Unions: Responses to Neo-liberalism, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2011, ISBN 978 0 85793 882 4.
• Global anti-unionism – nature, dynamics, trajectories and outcomes, Palgrave, 2013, ISBN 9780230303348.