The Current Roles of the Trade Union in the UK - Essay Example

Assess the current roles of the trade union in the UK and who are UNITE and what are trade unions Introduction In Britain, industrial relations have been closely related to trade unions. Through trade unions workers in Britain have been able to promote their rights and strengthen their position towards employers. However, the last three decades the power of trade unions in intervening in employment conflicts has been significantly decreased. The Employment Act of 1979 had highly contributed in the limitation of trade unions’ power in Britain (Singh 2011, p.50). However, trade unions remain the key mechanism for the protection of employees’ rights in Britain. The role of trade unions in UK is critically discussed in this paper using relevant literature. Reference is made to UNITE, a quite powerful trade union in Britain. It is proved that the power of trade unions in Britain has been reduced compared to the past; still, the decisive role of trade unions in promoting employment rights cannot be doubted. 2. Current roles of the trade union in the UK 2.1 Trade union in the UK – Overview and role In UK, trade unions are a key element of ‘the country’s industrial relations system’ (Singh 2011, p.51). In order to understand the role of trade unions in UK it is necessary to refer to their characteristics and their relationship with their members. In Britain trade unions represent the workers through the ‘shop steward framework (Singh 2011, p.51). The term shop steward refers to the member of a trade union who has, simultaneously, two roles; ‘he occupies an official position in the union and he also works in an organization’ (Singh 2011, p.51). The definition of trade unions is included in the 1913 Trade Unions Act. According to the above Act a trade union is ‘any combination, whether temporary or permanent, the principal objects of which are…. the regulation of the relations between workmen and masters…’ (Jackson 1982, p.69). It is also noted that trade unions have the power to intervene in conflicts developed between employees, or those developed between employers, i.e. it is not necessary that the one party is a worker and the other is a master (Jackson 1982, p.69). Trade unions in Britain have three objectives: a) to keep the level of wages standardized preventing reductions in employees’ real income; in the same context, trade unions have the power to intervene when issues related to hours of work or conditions of work appear (Singh 2011, p.51); b) to promote full employment for all workers across UK and c) to support ‘the increase of power of workers in Britain’ (Singh 2011, p.51); in fact, due to the interventions of trade unions workers have been given the chance ‘to participate in management’ (Singh 2011, p.51). Photo 1 - Miners vs police/ Battle of Orgreave, Miners’ strike, 1984. Photograph: Don Mcphee/ The Guardian (Conn, The Guardian, 22/12/2012) Wilton (2010) highlights the significant power of trade unions in Britain. According to Wilson, the power of trade unions in the specific country ‘reached its highest point in 1970s’ (Wilton 2010, p.281). In fact, in 1979, the number of trade unions’ members was estimated to 13.2 million (Wilton 2010, p.281). It was then also, as noted previously, that the 1979 Employment Act was introduced. From that point onwards the power of trade unions started to decline. 2.2 Who are UNITE UNITE is the most powerful trade union in UK (Singh 2011, p.80). The specific union is rather new, it was created in 2007 through ‘the merger of Amicus and the Transport and General Workers Union’ (Singh 2011, p.80). UNITE has a critical role in all major employment conflicts in UK. For instance, it was UNITE that gave its consent to ‘the takeover of two major British car manufacturers, Jaguar and Rover, by Tata Motors’ (Singh 2011, p.80). The members of UNITE are estimated to 2 millions (Barron 2009, p.149). The above union represents workers in firms operating in a high range of industries, such as the health sector and ‘the transport, education and financial services sectors’ (Barron 2009, p.149). UNITE also represents employees in UK’s public sector, a fact that increases the trade union’s power towards the British government (Barron 2009, p.149). The power of UNITE to set rules in regard to critical employment issues has been made clear through the case of Rover/ Jaguar, mentioned above. Particular reference should be made to the following fact: even if UNITE has resulted by the merger of trade unions, its integrity has been kept at high levels, meaning that the union’s decisions are supported by all its members without conflicting interests to appear (Barron 2009, p.149). This characteristic of the union is critical for its success, especially since unions’ power to bargain has been significantly increased compared to the past. On the other hand, the number of UNITE’s members can be characterized as rather low, compared to figures of trade unions’ members in 1970s, 13.2 million as explained earlier. Since UNITE represents employees in almost all British industries it would be expected to have many more members especially today when employees’ rights face continuous limitations (Barron 2009, p.149). In this context, it would be necessary to refer to the various aspects of trade unions in UK. Through these aspects, as analyzed below, it will be possible to understand the current status of UNITE, as the most powerful trade union in UK and to evaluate whether the prospects for UNITE and for other trade unions in UK are positive or not. 2.3 Aspects of trade union in UK 2.3.1 Change Leadership If trying to evaluate the power and the role of trade unions in UK it is necessary primarily to understand the leadership status of these unions. It is expected that trade unions are governed by individuals who are capable of negotiating and communicating so that employees’ rights are secured. However, at this point, another issue appears: which are the criteria under which the leadership status of trade unions in UK is decided? For identifying the appropriate answer to this question, the legal status of trade unions should be primarily made clear. According to Anderton (1977) unions have certain operational rules, as these rules have been established through relevant legislation. Reference should be made primarily to the Combination Acts of 1824 that secured ‘the right of unions to organise’ (Anderton 1977, p.495, see also Photo 2). The key law that recognized the power of unions to intervene in employment conflicts has been ‘the Industrial Dispute Acts of 1906’ (Anderton 1977, p.495). The above Act accepted the potential of unions to proceed to strike for supporting the interests of their members (Anderton 1977, p.495). Since then, efforts were developed by the British government to reduce the power of trade unions, which seemed to be continuously increased, but these efforts were led to a failure (Anderton 1977, p.495). Moreover, the power of unions’ leaders has been also increased, mostly due to their access to the press and the media; the British government had to introduce measures for making ‘the use of headlines by workers more costly’ (Anderton 1977, p.495) so that their power to press the government to accept their claims to be reduced (Anderton 1977, p.495). The Employment Act of 1979 reflects the anxiety of British government to control the access of unions’ leaders to the media (Singh 2011). The above Act established the appropriate framework for the above effort of the British government to be successful (Singh 2011). Photo 2 – Gas workers at Peckham Rye, 1889 (Union History, TUC Library Collections, London Metropolitan University) Daniels and Mcllroy (2008) support that union leaders have always tried to keep their power at high levels so that they are able to persuade employees to join their union (Daniels and Mcllroy 2008, p.161). At the next level, Daniels and Mcllroy (2008) note that through the decade union leaders have not managed to develop a framework that could be opposed to the neoliberalism concept the power of which was continuously increased in Britain. Also, union leaders have been proved incapable to secure the active participation of management team to critical employment conflicts (Daniels and Mcllroy 2008, p.161). In addition, a key weakness of union leaders in UK has been the following one: the inability to organize a ‘strong resistance from below’ (Daniels and Mcllroy 2008, p.161). It is implied that union leaders were not able to persuade all their members to join the unions’ initiatives. Instead, the increase of failures in regard to the protection of employees’ rights has led many workers to ignore their unions’ calls for action (Daniels and Mcllroy 2008, p.161). Union leaders in Britain have not managed to keep workers motivated for resistance against the government’s and employers’ decisions in regard to the limitation of employees’ rights (Daniels and Mcllroy 2008, p.161). 2.3.2 Advertising Advertising has been a key element of employment relations in UK, as also in other countries worldwide. The involvement of advertising in the particular sector is based on the following basis: employers use advertising in order to identify candidates who are capable of performing specific tasks (Grant and Vidler 2000, p.239). However, this practice often faces the opposition of unions that aim to set the rules on which the selection and hiring of employees is based (Grant and Vidler 2000, p.239). However, the relation between advertising and trade unions mainly has the following form: unions, like political parties, need to advertise their activities in order to attract new members (Hackley 2005, p.70). However, in this case the following question is set: does the involvement of advertising in union show the gradual transformation of unions to frameworks similar to political parties? The answer is difficult to be identified. Reference can be made, as an indication of the potential answer, to the following fact: DDB London, a major advertising agency in UK, has an extensive customer base. The Labour Party and several unions like ‘the National Union of Teachers and the Unison are among its clients’ (Hackley 2005, p.70). Another aspect of advertising, as involved in the activity of trade unions is the following one: political parties in Britain always seek for the support of trade unions (Jones et al. 2007, p.195) so that they can secure their win in elections (Jones et al. 2007, p.195). For example, Labour Party has been highly benefited by the advertising developed by trade unions in regard to British politics (Jones et al. 2007, p.195). 2.3.3 Media Media has always tried to keep a balance between the government’s views and the claims of workers. However, in practice such target cannot be achieved. In fact, it has been proved that the information provided by media in regard to strikes and other activities of union is not accurate. Moreover, in certain cases the photo/ video of a strike, as provided by media may cause to the public doubts as to the actual reason of the particular initiative (Photo 3). In Photo 3, the strikers seem to be a few; the validity of their claims may be reconsidered by the viewer of this photo. Photo 3 – RMT strikers outside Kings Cross station, London, Nov 2012 (Murray 2012, Union News) In any case, media is important for the success of strikes and other activities that are organized by unions. However, it is necessary for union leaders to be capable to communicate with media (Harcourt and Good 2006, p.326) so that the unions’ claims to be appropriately presented to the public. Of course, there are cases where media is clearly negative towards the unions’ initiatives. Such case has been identified in regard to the miner’s strike (Branine 2011, p.134, also Photo 1); this problem though could be considered as expected since the dependency of media on the state is very difficult to be limited. 2.3.4 Motivation/Inspiration The potential of a union to keep its members motivated or to inspire its members is considered as critical for evaluating whether the particular union is successful or not (Harcourt and Good 2006, p.331). According to Harcourt and Wood (2006) the ability of a union to inspire workers is reflected to the following fact: the number of young people who join the union. It seems that through the decades the above potential of unions is significantly declined. For example, between 1989 and 1999 the number of young workers, aged between 20 and 24 years, who were members of unions has been decreased by a percentage of 11%,, ‘from 30% in 1989 to 19% in 1999’ (Harcourt and Wood 2006, p.331). This decrease indicates the inability of unions to communicate with workers (Harcourt and Wood 2006, p.331). 2.3.5 Nationalisation The demand for nationalisation has always been a key element of union policies. In fact, the first initiative of unions for promoting nationalisation can be identified in 1890 when the union under the name ‘New Unionists’ (Ghigliani 2010, p.50) promoted the nationalisation as a policy for securing ‘social interests’ (Ghigliani 2010, p.50). From the same point of view, Gennard and Judge (2005) note that trade unions have, traditionally, opposed to the idea of free market. For trade unions nationalization should be always preferred when the management of a particular production unit/ services unit is to be decided (Gennard and Judge 2005, p.90). The promotion of nationalization has caused severe conflicts between trade unions, the supporters of this practice, and Conservatives, who have stated clearly their preference for the free market (Gennard and Judge 2005, p.90). The series of legislative texts introduced by the Conservatives from 1979 to 1997 shows the importance of nationalization as a point of conflict between the unions and the government (Gennard and Judge 2005, p.90). 2.3.6 Technological The technological aspect of unionism is the following one: most commonly, unions are opposed to the introduction of new technology in the workplace (Forester 1985, p.520). This trend could be possibly considered as justified if taking into consideration the rapid growth of technology worldwide and the level of replacement of humans by machines in firms operating in all industries (Forester 1985, p.520). On the other hand, the continuous development of technology in the workplace has revealed the inability of trade unions to stop the specific process, i.e. the automatization of most processes in the workplace (Forester 1985, p.520). At the same time, Gennard and Judge (2005) claim that the rapid technological change, as supported in firms worldwide has highly influenced employee relations (Gennard and Judge 2005, p.93). 2.3.7 System Approach The System Approach is a theoretical framework developed by Dunlop. The specific approach is based on the view that industrial relations are highly depended on a particular industrial relations system (Barbash and Barbash 1989, p.157). The above system is based on ‘a shared body of ideas or beliefs... in regard to the role of actors that helps to bind the system together’ (Barbash and Barbash 1989, p.157). Another important characteristic of the above theoretical framework is the following one: a system’s approach is highly depended on ‘the establishment of rules’ (Barbash and Barbash 1989, p.157). In fact, the establishment of these rules is considered as the priority of the system (Barbash and Barbash 1989, p.157). If industrial relations in Britain were highly influenced by the above framework, then the potentials of unions to take initiatives were significantly reduced. 3. Conclusion One of most important challenges that union leaders in UK have to face is the following one: to keep workers inspired. Indeed, the significant decrease of the number of union members from 1979 up today can be characterized as the major problem of unionism, as a political and social movement. In the literature a few more issues are also highlighted: a) union leaders have not been capable to develop an idea/ framework that could delay the efforts of British governments to promote the free market concept, b) nationalisation, which has been a critical element of British politics, has lost its significance, c) workers are willing to participate in initiatives that aim to protect their rights; still, the relationship between the unions and the workers seems as severely traumatized, a fact that it is also reflected in the low participation of workers in unions, compared to the past. In the above context, the need for a radical alteration of the rules regulating the operation of trade unions is emergent, otherwise the existence of trade unions, as critical social units, is threatened. References Anderton, A., 1977. Economics. Delhi: Pearson Education India. Barbash, J. and Barbash, K., 1989. Theories and Concepts in Modern Industrial Relations. 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