Some private sector employers are less approachable and less willing to find common ground than others. With profits and shareholders in mind, they can be tempted to look for ways to cut earnings; lengthen working hours, shed jobs; abandon pension and sickness benefits; lower safety standards to the legal minimum etc. Trade unions encourage employers to resist such a temptation.
For public service workers, matters such as pay and conditions of service were negotiated centrally through a process called 'collective bargaining'. The resulting agreement was then operated nationally; all workers doing the same job across the UK were covered by it.
In the private sector, there tends to be less enthusiasm for collective bargaining and for national agreements. Some hospitals and some schools, for example, are keen to move to negotiating pay and conditions at regional level, and even at 'workplace level'.
Many women in particular prefer to work part-time during at least some stage of their working lives. In recent years, trade unions have pressed governments into improving the rights of part-time workers. Many women union members have benefited.
Considerable progress has been made in many other areas of particular importance to women, including:
- Equal opportunities for promotion
- Socially acceptable working hours
- Maternity leave as a right rather than a privilege.
For example, through negotiation and legal cases where necessary, UNISON has won millions of pounds in improved pay and conditions for thousands of women workers - on issues such as equality for part-time workers and combating sexual harassment.
Overall union membership has indeed dropped from the 13 million achieved in the 1960s and 70s, but in recent years it has been slowly rising. Currently, it is just over 7 million.
The election of a Labour government in 1997 certainly gave trade unionism a boost. The Employment Relations Act 1999 gave unions the legal right to seek 'recognition.' It permits unions to negotiate with an employer about holding a ballot among the employer's workforce.
This ballot would give workers the opportunity to vote in favour of naming a union to represent them in their pay negotiations with the employer and in other activities. This Act prompted many employers to make voluntary agreements with the unions rather than wait for a union to use the legislation; unions came back in from the cold.
Trade unions still face challenges, not least from the dot.com revolution and the growth of call centres, dubbed the 'new sweatshops.' Increasing numbers of union members work in call centres, the majority of whose employees are female and under 25. The trade union record on attracting young members is poor; currently only 18 per cent of young workers (aged 18 to 29) are union members.
