Select any ONE U.K.trade union. Explore their current levels of membership, and services for members and critically examine theoretical analysis for this current position and activity within the Employee Relations literature.

The history of the trade unions stretch far into history, with craftsmen guilds’ protecting their members’ interest in the medieval market, but it was not until the industrial revolution, in the 19th and 20th century trade unions stretched its power. The Industrial Revolution was a real turning point for Unions, as they substantially increased their member numbers which in-turn enhanced their ‘bargaining powers’. During this period their membership grew and the trade unions’ power reached its height with also 12 million members, and even in some cases used their power militantly, like the Nottingham weavers who destroyed threshing machines in the 1830’s at a time when unions were outlawed, described as “collective bargaining by riot” by historian Eric Hobshawm. 

One of the momentous occasions of their decline of trade unions occurred towards the end of the 20th century, by the conservative party lead by the “Iron lady” Margaret Thatcher in 1980, 1982, 1984, 1988, 1990 and 1993. Thatcher’s government passed a legislation intended to fracture the power of the unions and the change in legislation is one of the main reasons for the trade unions decline. These laws cumulatively, greatly restricted and controlled trade union activity. This process reversed the historic role of most governments since the 1870s: to protect unions, by legislation, from court judgments that seriously interfered with their functioning in peacetime. When Tony Blair became leader in 1994, he campaigned to drop the longstanding Clause 4 of the Labour Party constitution (of 1918), with its emphasis on 'common ownership' - part of his 'New Labour' project. It was replaced by a weaker formulation that also embraced 'the enterprise of the market and the rigour of competition'. The new weakened power only gave the unions some recognition rights and minimum wage, but has made it very clear that the unions will not return to the legal immunities they had before the Thatcherism period. 

Figure 1: Trade union density for employees in UK

In autumn 2003, 7.4 million UK workers belonged to a trade union. The number of trade union members has remained broadly flat in the last couple of years, signalling a possible revival.

Have looked at the past and current state of Trade Unions’ and there association with Employee Relations, this essay will look into other key factors during this period that could have a significant impact on the decline of union members in the United Kingdom specifically - the change in the labour market, globalisation of the business environment (multi-national organisations), the rise in human resource management (HRM) in the 1990’s; and the change in work patterns examining Part time & Full Time employment.

A major contributor factor to trade unions such Amicus finding being increasingly less influence has been the radical transformation of global capitalism with liberalization of the currency markets, coupled with the advancement in IT and telecommunications has made transactions and flow of information even faster and resulted in a negative impact on the trade unions. The challenges now for the UK companies come not only from European market competitors but also the increasing competitive Asian & Oriental markets, whom not only focusing on high-quality production and service products but compete strongly on price. The UK workforce similarly to American and Canadian workforces are moving away from manufacturing based employment to greater service oriented organisations, in essence the UK has become a service based economy export the industrial age to other countries. A factor covered very strong in Naomi Klein’s No Logo in which she explores the euphoria behind Globalisation. Klein claims that many company such as Ford, Nike, IBM, Marks & Spencers, etc are finding that the try value of the company is judged through branding and increasing many of the top globalised organisation are outsourcing or contracting the production of their products.

Globalisation has been a major thorn in the trade union survive as modern communications and information technologies has made it possible for global sourcing, for example, labour or wage intensive production can be transferred to other countries, and the increased pressure exerted by the labour markets in the East, has influenced the multi-national companies i.e. to move their call centres in the UK to Delhi or the increased purchase of cheaper raw material in Eastern European. These kinds of actions leave trade unions with little room to manoeuvre, as the companies are willing to threaten and in many cases have move entire production processes to other countries (also known as Job Flight) or contracting them.

With the ever-present globalised workforce, trade unions have had to rethink their involvement in Employee Relations and dealing with Employers. Alan Fox presents the idea of different theory to employee relations with differing views of conflict, each of which describes the relationship between trade unions and managers. The Unitarist approach advocates the strong culture shared by everybody, which brings all members under a common goal, in the interest of everybody. As a result, there is no need for conflict; because agreements are put forward by management and trade unions have not much to offer. However, this view is not realistic enough, because it fails to recognise the de facto existence of conflict. For this reason, the pluralist approach is the most reasonable, as it, sees conflict as inevitable due to the different interest groups, but it should not be escalated. According to the theory, conflict can be within reasonable limits and can be resolved, in a way that both parts compromise something for acquiring something else (win-win situation).

Ideas such as those mentioned above by Alan Fox lead to the greater influence of the Human Resource School of Management and creation of Human Resources Management (HRM) department within organisation during the 1990’s. Evidence shows that the decline in trade union coincided with the increased development of the HRM practices and new forms of organisational work schemes, Guest (1989) concluded, “that HRM is incompatible with pluralist industrial relations”.  The HRM model assumes that the employer and worker share common goals and in order to meet these goals the HRM implement different methods. These methods are often subsumed under labels such as empowerment, high employee involvement and high commitment or simply HRM.

Figure 2: Analysis of Full & Part Time employment

In the last 25 years some major changes in the UK labour market and the industries have taken place, which in the end had an impact on the decline of the trade unions. An important aspect here is the improvement of women position in the workforce, the shift from manufacturing i.e. manual workers from the heavy industries (less physically demanding) towards the service sectors as mentioned previously. With the strong association to women in work, the labour market itself has increased the use of part-time and contract workers most likely aided by the shift into the service sectors. This has given the workforce greater flexibility in their working hour, and created this new army of employee made women, student and causal labour workforce. Initially these groups were not viewed by many trade unions as target members and the employees themselves disassociated themselves with the idea of joining trade unions (due in some case to high labour turnover). This however has changed as seen in the construction of membership for unions such as Amicus, which includes all the groups listed. This shift has created a new backbone to unions influence and has increased in a push for greater right for part-time and contract workers.

In conclusion it is clear that unions such as Amicus have faced turbulent times over the past 50 years and increasing facing revolutions in the ways they deal with both their members and employers. These increasing demands and negotiations have lead to increased flexibility in the roles of both parties in the shaping of trade unions. Undoubtedly evidence shows that trade union membership levels faced a decline from it peak during the late 1970’s & early 1980’s to a catastrophic drop in the late 1980’s & 90’s. However, Harvey Ramsay (1991) cites that “a swing from tight control to employee involvement and back again” may actually be what is happening. He claims that although trade union membership may not be what is was, the control of the labour market is tightening and managers are increasingly under threat.

Therefore, although it can be seen that the trade union are fighting their way back into the forefront of employee relations, this is being done with a new breed of members, many of whom are highly educated and working in the services sector. The size of the UK manufacturing, construction and mining industry have been eroded with the Globalised economy bring in factors such cheap labour in the Export Processing or Free Trade Zones. This and other issues dealing with the theory and motives behind the structure of modern production process are dealt with greater detail in Naomi Klein’s No Logo. The UK now has a strong workforce in the services sector and this is reflected in the membership of Amicus with a larger majority of it members working in the services sector.

Trade unions such as Amicus find that they face the problems of limited access and control of the situation with organisation as they try and tackle international companies. With global trends shifting the way the workforce in the UK is dealt with the trade unions have to deal within the national boundary. Dave Lyddon cites that “increasingly Europe (rather than the British government) is the source of most individual employment rights, such as the Working Time Directive (with its right to paid holidays), health and safety law, and rights to consultation”.  What is increasing worrying is that in many case of services outsourcing trade union have little they can do about such action and member are left powerless. With the increase in part time and contract employment younger workers, i.e. those under 35 are not valuing the membership of trade unions. This is something that trade unions must aim to tackle in order to command greater respect form the globalised community.

A question also raised by theorist such as Weber & Weber is “are trade unions actually good or bad for an economy”, they refer to the effects of a reduced influence by trade unions, leading to multi-skilled workers with in the remaining factories, the increase of women with construction and manufacturing sectors, the improved competitiveness of UK businesses in the World market due to avoidance of excessive wage demands and a reduction in the number of days lost due to industrial disputes. This question can be countered with “what about those who are left in vulnerable positions?” issues which the European legislation is quick to support and attended to. So it can be said that trade union are by no means a way of the past but that their roles have grown in flexibility with ever changing boundaries.

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Bibliography & Sources of Information:

• Source: Labour Force Survey

• Office of National Statistics -

• Certification Officer for Trade Unions

• Amicus website

• Klein N, No Logo, Harper Collins (2000)

• Slamon M, Industrial Relations: Theory & Practice, 4th edition, Prentice Hall 2000

• Storey J, Sisson K, Managing human Resources & industrial Relations, Open University Press (1993)

• Malcolm Surridge, People & Organisations, Hodder & Stoughton (2000)

• Molander C, Winterton J, Managing Human Resources, Routlegde, 1995

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