Trade Unions in the United Kingdom - Assignment Example

?Trade Unions in UK: Past and Future Essay 02 June Contents Introduction 3 2 Factors Influencing Changes in Union Member Ship 3 2 Economics Factors 4 2.2 Political Factors 4 2.3 Industrial Factors 5 2.4 Internal Union Factors 5 3 Future of British Trade Unions 6 4 Conclusions 6 References 8 1 Introduction Employment relations and industrial relations are some of the key aspects which has shaped the global economy, including the British economy. Cordial industrial relations are increasingly important for the both the employer and the employees’, in a changing and rapidly globalized business economy. This essay examines the ways in which the UK labor unions have been formed over time, and the effects of different factors on the increase and decrease in the union membership in UK. The main factors such as economic, social and political are examined in detail in relation to their effects on the trade union in UK. One of the underlying aspect of the trade union movement in UK has been the economic bargaining power of the combined unit of employees against the perceived unjust behavior of the capitalist class, which has been a key contentious issues within the labor union movement. This essay also examines issues of the future of the trade union, and the ways in which the future trade unions will behave and formulate their strategic direction in a global economy. One of the key conclusions of this research is that the although new technologies will present a threat to the trade union movement in UK, however the need for a fair system of checks and balances will be needed, and the role of the trade union in the industrial relations systems in UK will be increased. The growth of the trade union in UK is also likely to grow in the next five years, as the disputes between the employees and the employers are likely to increase in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, which is already leading to budget cuts, redundancies and organizational restructuring, which will lead to further conflicts. In such circumstances, the membership of trade unions is also likely to increase and the unions would most probably flourish in this period. The development of industrial relations in UK has taken place over the many centuries,. And the these are signified by the highly refined and clear laws and regulations which govern the trade unions in UKL today (Penn, 1983, Rose, 2008). However, the industrial relations in UK have not always been highly regulated, as the owners of factories and business used their influence to exploit the working class (Karnes, 2009, Fishman, 2005). The industrial revolution in UK has a huge effect on the working class, as the population was then required to work on the shop floors and factories, rather than on farms (Williams, 1997, Williams and Adam-Smith, 2009). Within this new environment, there was a rapid rise in the number of employees who has to proceed from medieval guilds of Europe to the modern trade union system, and saw the rise of the modern trade union in UK (Rose, 2008) 2 Factors Influencing Changes in Union Member Ship The first formation of the trade Union in UK was in 1987, by the royal commission, which was based on the notion of giving employees and employers equal benefits from this structure (Williams and Adam-Smith, 2009). The trade unions worked as employee committees, which worked to improve the socio-economic conditions of the employees, and formed the basis of the Labor party (Williams and Adam-Smith, 2009). The era of Margret Thatcher saw the powers of these trade unions being decreased, as the then prime minister worked to make strikes illegal. It was in this era that the trade union suffered, and number of members in the trade union started to fall in 1980 and 1990s, as employees saw other routes to get their grievances solved by the employer (Fishman, 2005, Laybourne, 1997, Wallis et al., 2005, Williams and Adam-Smith, 2009). This rise and fall in the last 40 years has been due to a number of factors, which have been characterized as economic, political and industrial in nature (Bain and Elias, 1985, Beaumont and Harris, 1995, Blackaby et al., 1991, Cregan and Johnston, 1990, Fishman, 2005, Healy and Kirton, 2000). As the wider environment has changed, the trade unions also had to change accordingly. The next subsections examine the ups and downs of trade unions in UK in light of these important factors in the wider environment, and seeks to examine the ways in which trade unions had adopted the changes in the environment. 2.1 Economics Factors Economic factors are one of the key determinants of the labor union membership in UK in the last 40 years. Traditionally, recessions and tough times of the economy are seen as times when the employers are able to cut their employee numbers due to cost pressures. In UK, this happened in 1970s, which led to an increase in the number of people working joining the union. (Fishman, 2005, Laybourne, 1997). However, the economy in the 1990as rebounded, and the working class did not see a major benefit in joining the labor unions in this time, and the membership of the unions drastically reduced in this period due to economic prosperity and the apathy of the working class from the labor union (Morris and Fosh, 2000, O'Brien et al., 2004, Rose, 2008). Mrs. Thatcher also pronounced that Labor Unions were a British Disease for the economy, and the government in her era saw trade unions being vilified for economic woes of the country (Morris and Fosh, 2000, O'Brien et al., 2004, Rose, 2008). This also led to the decline of the trade union memberships in the country. However, in 2000, the memberships of the trade unions started to stabilize and in some cases the numbers increased. This was due to the concerns of the working class about their job security and the exploitation b y the capitalist class, which was a major determinant in the rise of the trade union in 2000s (Rose, 2008). Issues such as the rise of income for workers through national minimum wage also led to the fall of the trade unions, as the employee did not feel threatened from the employer, and the economic conditions of employee improved, leading to a decrease in the union membership (Machin, 2000, de Turberville, 2007). 2.2 Political Factors The politics of UK had a profound effect on the membership of the trade unions. Trade Unions are traditionally assisted with the Labor party, as the main trade union in UK, TUC was the founding member of the party (Rose, 2008, Williams and Adam-Smith, 2009). Periods where the trade unions were not very successful have traditionally been when the conservative government of Margret Thatch introduced a number of anti-union policies in 1980s, which led to a severe decrease in the number of trade unions members (Heery, 1994, Warburton, 1994). Margret Thatcher, together with miners leader Arthur Scargill managed to destroy the power of the trade unions, which has been called as a major achievements by some of her supporters, while other have called it a shamefully disgrace (Heery, 1994, Warburton, 1994). In UK, inn 1984, Margret Thatcher had a showdown with the miners and the major union, which led to mass protests by the labor union. However, the politics of the era were such that the labor unions struggled to get major support from the public, and therefore lost many members as they were seen negatively by the public at that time. Other major political changes, such as the new labor coming into power also led to a number of initiatives which were instrumental in the way unions were to be formed in the last 10 years. The trade union density continued to fall till 2009, and decline continued especially in the private sector from 20 percent in 1997 to 15 percent in 2009, which was due to the apathy of the labor government towards trade unions, as labor did not see the trade unions as crucial to their political power. 2.3 Industrial Factors The ups and downs of the British Industrial might has also been a crucial factor in the consequent rise and fall of the labor. The fall of the UK’s industrial production led to the subsequent decrease in the number of members of the trade union, as many workers moved into knowledge based economy in 1990s and onwards. In many of these jobs, the workers did not feel threatened from the employer, and therefore did not see a need to join the labor union in an active manner (Rose, 2008). Another major industrial factor was that the production of goods being produced in UK fell drastically in 1990s and 2000, which led the way for the labor unions to be dormant in many of the industries, and the employees looked towards different government regulations to safeguard their interest, rather than the labor union (Danford et al., 2002, Disney, 1990, Gall, 2005, Greene et al., 2005). Further developments in the trade unions have been diverse, where the trade unions started to diversify in the services sector in the 2000s, and were able to maintain themselves to some degree in these different fields of interest. However, the membership of the trade unions in the industry feel to less than 30% in mid-2000s, which has been a major concern for the unions (Karnes, 2009, Rose, 2008). 2.4 Internal Union Factors The fractionalization and internal fighting among union bosses was also a major factor in the decline in the number of trade union members in UK (Warburton, 1994, Williams, 1997, Williams and Adam-Smith, 2009). A main issue of the union politics which was that many of the union officials have been more pro-government supporters, as was seen in 1984 miners stake, when fighting between union bosses saw the failure of the coal miners’ strike, and a caused a public backlash which caused the membership numbers of the unions to fall dramatically in 1990s (Warburton, 1994, Williams, 1997, Williams and Adam-Smith, 2009). Due to this infighting, the outlook of unions was not very strong in 1990s, and continues to be an issue for the unions. 3 Future of British Trade Unions The current financial crisis has a deep impact on the way unions are seen in the country, and has led to a increase in the number of union members in UK. The job cuts and the expected budget cuts in the public sector in UK in the last few years have raised the prospect of the increase in union membership, as the workers increasingly feel that they may be threatened with job losses and redundancy (Williams and Adam-Smith, 2009). A recent pool b y civil servants in UK has been taken, which would lead to 750,000 public sector workers on a walk out on 30 June 2011, which could lead to severe breakdown of government services in schools, policing and other functions (The Guardian, 2011). However, some commentators are of the view that union memberships would continue to fall, as the worker apathy towards the attitude of the unions is well documented and clear. Some of the research suggests that this worker number may continue to fall as workers working in the knowledge economy would not feel a need to join unions, as they are place in comfortable jobs (Machin, 2000, de Turberville, 2007). A key challenge for labor unions in future is the way they are able to get workers their rights in an era of economic hardship and financial cuts. Already, the unions had a recent success in the case of British Airways cabin crew strike, where a positive outcome has been achieved by the unions for its members. If the employees are assured that their intere4sts can be safe guarded by the unions in the modern workplace, then the number of members who have never joined unions and people who have left unions is likely to increase, as the employees will see this as a way of fighting job cuts and redundancies in the coming years. There is already some evidence to suggest that unions have been successful in improving the working conditions for the BA flight crews, and due to such positive outcomes, the future numbers could grow further. 4 Conclusions A number of conclusions have drawn from this essay on the ways trade unions have fared in the past, and the kind of issues that unions could face in the future. There is no doubt that the future of the workplace is changing drastically, as the UK moves away from hard core production and manufacturing to being a digital and knowledge economy, The advent of the new technologies is also seen as a threat to union membership, as these new kinds of organizations are not very well suited for the unions. However, the new economy also comes with new problems, where the recent global financial crisis has shown that workers jobs and livelihoods can be threatened due to the need to undertake cost cutting by governments. In such circumstances, the union membership is likely to grow, due to the job insecurity and rising labor disputes, as seen in the UK in 2011. Another major issue for the unions is the way they are able to change and respond to the changes in the market. Unions are usually seen as old fashioned by employees working in knowledge economy firms, and therefore the union membership numbers do not grow in such new high-tech companies, however if the unions are able to restructure themselves, and show flexibility in changing according to the needs of their members, then they could be highly successful in increasing the membership numbers. This would be in the interest of these employees, as they will feel more secure about their jobs. Another key union issue for the unions in the future is the way they are able to respond to the financial crisis which started d in 2008. It is of crucial importance for the unions to show that they understand the modern issues in the workplace, which include flexible working and other issues, and able to fight for the workers on tense diverse issues in a tough economic climate. 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