With nothing to lose, workers' associations unlikely to take off (9)
I believe the answer is:
uninstall
'take off' is the definition.
(as in uninstalling something from a computer)
'with nothing to lose workers' associations unlikely' is the wordplay.
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'nothing' becomes 'O' (looks like zero - 0).
'to lose' indicates named letters should be taken away.
'workers' associations' becomes 'unions' (I've seen this before).
'unlikely' becomes 'tall' (as in a tall tale).
'unions' with 'o' taken out is 'unins'.
'unins'+'tall' is 'UNINSTALL'.
'to' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for uninstall that I've seen before include "Remove an app from a computer" , "Get rid" .)