ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses collective identity formation in the Trade Union of
Health Care Workers (TUHW).1 It explores how the TUHW has negotiated
its identity, goals and strategies in the juncture of the Soviet past and the
social transformation of the 1990s. The previous chapter illustrated how a
multidimensional collective identity and emotional commitment, reinforced
by the multiple ties between participants, were central factors in engender-
ing and sustaining the activities of the Centre for Women’s History and
Gender Studies (CGS). In the TUHW, by contrast, we are faced with a weakness of collective identity. The TUHW has not been able to create a
shared understanding of who ‘we’ are that would find resonance with its
members and engender a sense of emotional commitment.
