Trade union movement in Britain - Essay Example

? For any one country, assess the current of its trade union movement and describe and evaluate the strategies it is using to increase its influence – the case of Britain 1. Introduction The protection of employee rights has been traditionally a key point of conflict in workplaces globally. Through the decades, a series of laws has been developed for securing the interests of employees in businesses of all sizes. Still, the application of these laws in practice has been proved quite problematic. Trade unions have appeared for covering this gap. The power of trade unions in countries around the world is not equal. In certain countries, such as Britain, the role of trade unions in promoting the rights of employees has been critical. Current paper presents the current state of trade union movement in Britain. In addition, the strategies that trade union movement in Britain employs to increase its influence are explained and evaluated. Through the literature published in regard to this subject it has been revealed that the current power of trade unions in Britain is limited, compared to the past. Radical changes in these unions’ policies and practices are required so that the power of trade union movement in Britain to return to high levels. 2. Trade union movement in Britain 2.1 Definitions In order to understand the various aspects of trade union movement in Britain it is necessary to present the definitions of certain terms, as these terms are closely related to the issues under discussion. The trade union has been described as ‘a continuous association of wage-earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their working lives’ (Sinha 2004, p.1). Through a similar point of view, a trade union reflects ‘a combination aiming to regulate the relations between workmen and masters….’ (1913 Trade Union Act, in Jackson, 1982, p.69). Different approaches have been also used for describing trade unions. For instance, reference can be made to the definition of trade union as developed by Flanders in 1975: ‘unions should act in order to challenge capitalism’ (Gardner and Palmer 1997, p.86). The above definition, being influenced by Marx’s views on employment relations, focuses on the relationship between employment and politics and not so much on the rights of employees in the workplace. Reference should be also made to the definition of worker. According to the Employment Rights Act 1996 a worker is an individual that meets the following three requirements: ‘a) works under a contract, b) to carry out personal services and c) for the other party of the contract’ (Gennard and Judge 2005, p.102). In the context of another definition, an employee is considered to be ‘the person that works for another under the terms of compensation’ (Twomey 2009, p.78). The compensation of employees can be monetary or of other form (Twomey 2009). 2.2 Current state of trade union movement in Britain As in all countries where a trade union movement exists, in Britain also, the trade union movement focuses on ‘the protection of jobs and of wages’ (Padhi 2008, p.543). Moreover, trade unions have the power to check whether working conditions are kept at a specific level, in terms of quality and safety (Padhi 2008). The existence of trade unions is based on the following fact: the position of employees is less advantageous compared to that of their employers (Weiss 2008, p.357). This means that employees are not equally powerful with their employers when having to negotiate for their rights (Weiss 2008). This fact has led to the introduction of trade unions, as a means for increasing the power of employees towards their employers (Weiss 2008). The current status of trade union movement in UK can be characterized as rather discouraging. In fact, through the decades the failures of the efforts of union leaders to secure the support of Labour government towards the trade union movement, as analyzed below, have led to the decrease of the unions’ power across UK. A series of additional reasons, apart from the lack of political support, has been found to be related to the limitation of the power of trade union movement in UK. According to Daniels and McIlroy (2008) the decrease of the power of unions across Britain should be related to specific facts: a) the existing resources for organizing workers have been proved inadequate; the limitation of the financial support provided by the state to the unions has negatively influenced the power of unions to organize their members, b) union leaders have not participated actively in the development of trade union movement, c) the number of workers who have been, traditionally, involved in the support of trade union activities has been significantly increased (Daniels and McIlroy 2008); reference is made, specifically, to ‘full-time employers and activists’ (Daniels and McIlroy 2008, p.109). Moreover, the involvement of trade unions in many, critical, employment disputes from 1979 onwards has led to the limitation of employees’ rights (Rose 2008). Indeed, during the last three decades, the continuous failures of trade unions to secure the rights of their members have led many workers to leave the trade unions (Rose 2008). Another reason for the limitation of power of trade union movement in Britain is the following one: through the decades mergers have been used for helping towards the increase of the power of trade unions (Rose 2008). However, gradually this practice led to the decrease of the total number of unions and, at the next level, to the decrease of the number of unions’ members. Also, trade unions in Britain are structured in such way that there are no potentials for representation of employees at a multi-employer level (Rigby 1999). This means that most of trade unions in Britain are related to a particular industrial sector, a fact that set barriers to the development of negotiations with government in regard to the rights of a high majority of employees (Rigby 1999). Instead, negotiations between trade unions and employers/ government tend to be limited each time to specific industrial sector(s), a fact that prohibits the establishment at national level of rules securing the rights of employees in all industries (Rigby 1999). At this point, emphasis should be given on the following fact: unionism in Britain, as in other countries also, has been traditionally related to left-side ideologies, such as Communism (Kirton and Healy 2013). The limitation of power of the political groups that share such ideology has negatively affected trade unions worldwide, including Britain (Kirton and Healy 2013). In other words, the decline of trade union movement in UK can be related to the change in the style of life as followed by change in the political views of people in all social classes (Kirton and Healy 2013). This means that the significant increase of capitalism, not just as economic framework but also as political framework, has, necessarily, resulted to the decrease of the power of other political ideologies, especially left-side ideologies; the latter are those that mostly support the employees’ efforts to protect their rights (Kirton and Healy 2013). Under these terms, the role of trade unions in Britain in securing employee rights has been limited. Moreover, employees have become unwilling to participate in trade unions. Indeed, in ‘2002 the number of trade unions across UK was estimated to 199’ (Rose 2008, p.132); in the following four years, a significant decrease in the number of the country’s trade unions has reported. Indeed, by 2006 Britain’s trade unions were limited to 186 (Rose 2008, p.132). The current decrease of the power of trade union movement in Britain can be understood by referring to the country’s trade unions in the beginning of the 20th century; in 1920 ‘about 1300 trade union existed across UK’ (Rose 2008, p.132). It should be noted that up to 1979 the power of trade unions in Britain has been kept at rather high levels; indeed, at 1979 ‘the members of trade unions in UK were estimated to 13 millions’ (Phelan 2009, p.199), representing ‘more than half of the country’s total workforce’ (Phelan 2009, p.199). In 2004, i.e. about 25 years later, the representation of workers in trade unions had been significantly reduced, reaching ‘the 30% for workers of the private sector and the 20% for workers in the public sector’ (Phelan 2009, p.199). Another characteristic of the trade union movement in the UK is the following one: the demographics of unions’ members indicate a higher union membership in ages over 50 while among younger workers, the level of union membership is lower (Wilton 2010). Also, geography seems to influence union membership in Britain. Indeed, the level of union membership in Wales is the highest in UK, ‘reaching the level of 37.4%’ (Wilton 2010, p.282). The region with the lowest level of trade union membership seems to be ‘the Southeast England, where union membership is just 21.5%’ (Wilton 2010, p.282). It should be noted that the power of the trade unions in Britain cannot easily reach its past levels due to the following fact: these unions have been, traditionally, based on ‘the oligopoly of skills’ (Burnette 2008, p.272). This means that the members of these unions used to be, mostly, employees with unique skills, in regard to a variety of industrial activities (Burnette 2008). Today, where white-collar workers represent a high percentage of workers in Britain, there are no potentials of trade unions to secure their power using the skills of workers (Burnette 2008). 2.3 Strategies that the trade union movement in Britain uses to increase its influence Normally, the trade union movement in UK would be expected to significantly increase its power after the winning of the elections of 1997 by the Labour party (Barlow 2008). Indeed, the reverse of a high majority of Conservatives’ decisions, especially in regard to the labour rights, was considered as secured, since the governance of the country was passed to the Labour party (Barlow 2008). For this reason, the leaders of trade unions in Britain helped Tony Blair to secure a long presence in the control of Britain, by offering to him significant help during the elections that followed, of 2001 and 2005 (Barlow 2005). However, Tony Blair avoided cancelling any of the critical decisions of Conservatives in regard to employee rights (Barlow 2008). The revival of the trade unions’ power, as expected to follow from 1997 onwards, was proved unfeasible. Reference is made to the above facts as they are considered as important in order to understand the methodology of trade unions’ leaders for securing the power of their unions during the last 15 years. In order to understand the strategies used by the trade union movement in order to increase its influence, reference should be made to certain trends, as related to businesses of all sizes in Britain. These trends are presented below and are followed by the practices that the union leaders in Britain tend to adopt for facing the relevant challenges: a) workplace has become quite competitive; positions available have been reduced and hiring has become more difficult (Hermann and Flecker 2013); the leaders of trade unions across Britain have tried to limit the pressure on employers for accepting employees’ claims. It is not implied that trade union leaders currently show less willingness to support the rights of trade unions members; rather, they have become less reluctant in negotiations with employers and seek for achieving a balance between the employees’ needs and the employers’ potentials, meaning especially the funds available for wages and over-time work; McKenna and Beech (2008) verify that trade unions have become less reluctant to accept the proposals of employees in regard to a series of employment disputes; b) the treatment of employees in the workplace has been changed; instead of being considered as parts of the production process, as in the past, employees have become members of their organization (Hermann and Flecker 2013); in this context, employees have been given the right to state their view in regard to critical organizational decision and to negotiate with their employer all terms of their employment contract (Hermann and Flecker 2013). In other words, in modern organizations employees do not need the trade unions, as an intermediate, for proceeding to negotiations with employers (Hermann and Flecker 2013). For this reason, it has been noted that in modern business environment employees can support their rights effectively even ‘in a non-union environment’ (Fernie and Metcalf 2005, p.202). Leaders in trade unions emphasize on creativity focusing on negotiation schemes and other similar practices that could help employees to simplify the negotiation process with employer (Hermann and Flecker 2013). Such schemes, in order to be accepted by employees, should not set, as a requirement, the absence of employees from negotiations, as in the past. Rather, they should be based on the potential of employees to be present at negotiations, if they wish to, and state directly their views to their employer. Despite the challenges that trade unions in Britain have to face, their effectiveness has been kept at satisfactory levels (Branine 2011). Reference can be made, specifically, to the structure of trade unions but also to ‘their negotiation capabilities’ (Branine 2011, p.162). According to Barry and Wilkinson (2011) trade unions in Britain currently have to resolve a series of problems, such as ‘low union membership and employee apathy’ (Barry and Wilkinson 2011, p.411). For facing these problems, the leaders of trade unions in Britain have decided to promote ‘cross-border mergers’ (Barry and Wilkinson 2011, p.411). These mergers can help trade unions to expand their members’ base and to increase their power in negotiating with employers and the government (Barry and Wilkinson 2011). 3. Conclusion In the context of the modern workplace, the use of trade unions for securing employee rights can be characterized as unavoidable. Today, still, trade unions are necessary for promoting the interests of employees. However, the activities of trade unions should be differentiated from the initiatives developed by groups of people. The latter can simple support certain ideas, in a way similar to a social movement (Buhlungu 2006). Trade unions need to be differentiated at the following point: they should protect the rights of their members but using the principles of equality and fairness. This means that emphasis should be given on feasible targets, according the economic and social conditions of the local market. Otherwise, the efforts of trade unions would be of no value. In addition, such practice would destroy trust between workers and unions, a problem that has also appeared in Britain. In the particular country the increase of power of the trade union movement would be only achieved through the introduction of changes both in the structure and the priorities of unions. The latter should become more independent from politics. In other words, the trade union movement in Britain should focus specifically on employees’ needs and not on their political beliefs. References Barlow, K. (2008) The Labour Movement in Britain from Thatcher to Blair. Peter Lang: Frankfurt. Barry, M. and Wilkinson, A. (2011) Research Handbook of Comparative Employment Relations, Edward Elgar Publishing: Cheltenham. Branine, M. (2011) Managing Across Cultures: Concepts, Policies and Practices, SAGE: London. Buhlungu, S.(2006) Trade Unions And Democracy: Cosatu Workers' Political Attitudes in South Africa. HSRC Press: Cape Town. Burnette, J. (2008) Gender, Work and Wages in Industrial Revolution Britain, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. Daniels, G. and McIlroy, J. (2008) Trade Unions in a Neoliberal World: British Trade Unions under New Labour, Taylor & Francis: Oxon. Fernie, S. and Metcalf, D. (2005) Trade Unions: Resurgence Or Demise? Routledge: London. Gardner, M. and Palmer, G. (1997) The Employment Relationship, Macmillan Education: South Melbourne. Gennard, J. and Judge, G. (2005) Employee Relations, CIPD Publishing: London. Harcourt, M. and Wood, G. (2006) Trade Unions And Democracy: Strategies And Perspectives, Transaction Publishers: New Jersey. Hermann, C. and Flecker, J. (2013) Privatization of Public Services: Impacts for Employment, Working Conditions, and Service Quality in Europe, Routledge: London. Jackson, M. (1982) Industrial Relations: A Textbook, Taylor & Francis: Oxon. Kirton, G. and Healy, G. (2013) Gender and Leadership in Trade Unions, Routledge: London. McKenna, E. and Beech, N. (2008) Human Resource Management: A Concise Analysis, Pearson Education: Essex. Padhi, P. (2008) Labour And Industrial Laws, PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.: New Delhi. Phelan, C. (2009) Trade Unionism Since 1945: Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, Peter Lang: Frankfurt. Rigby, M. (1999) European Trade Unions: Change and Response, Routledge: London. Rose, E. (2008) Employment Relations in the UK, Pearson Education, Essex. Sinha, P. (2004) Industrial Relations, Trade Unions, And Labour Legislation, Pearson Education India: New Delhi. Twomey, D. (2009) Labor & Employment Law: Text and Cases, Cengage Learning: Belmont. Weiss, J. (2008) Business Ethics: A Stakeholder and Issues Management Approach, Cengage Learning: Belmont. Wilton, N. (2010) An Introduction to Human Resource Management, SAGE: London. Read More