This revised edition provides an introduction to British trade unionism and key debates about its role in politics in the 1990s. It explores the political background to union activities, the industrial relations scene, the arguments for and against controversial aspects of union practice and the state of the unions in the face of the sustained challenge of the Conservative years.
The collapse of Britain's powerful labor movement in the last quarter century has been one of the most significant and astonishing stories in recent political history. How were the governments of Margaret Thatcher and her successors able to tame the unions? In analyzing how an entirely new industrial relations system was constructed after 1979, Howell offers a revisionist history of British trade unionism in the twentieth century. Most scholars regard Britain's industrial relations institutions as the product of a largely laissez faire system of labor relations, punctuated by occasional government interference. Howell, on the other hand, argues that the British state was the prime architect of three distinct systems of industrial relations established in the course of the twentieth century. The book contends that governments used a combination of administrative and judicial action, legislation, and a narrative of crisis to construct new forms of labor relations. Understanding the demise of the unions requires a reinterpretation of how these earlier systems were constructed, and the role of the British government in that process. Meticulously researched, Trade Unions and the State not only sheds new light on one of Thatcher's most significant achievements but also tells us a great deal about the role of the state in industrial relations.
This is an introduction to the politics of trade unionism in contemporary Britain, assessing the major changes in legislation, policing and attitudes since 1979 as well as the broader social and economic trends to which these have been a response.
Looking both at individual workers and the organizations that represent them, Reid shows how unions have, throughout the modern era, been a crucial element in British life, and that all governments have had to develop policies to deal with them.
Written by very well-respected contributors, this comprehensive volume provides readers with an academic examination and comparison of the politics of industrial relations in the UK and Europe.
The world of work has changed and so have trade unions with mergers, rebrandings and new unions being formed. The question is, how positioned are the unions to organize the unorganized? With more than three quarters of UK workers unrepresented and the growth of precarious employment and the gig economy this topical new book by Bob Smale reports up-to-date research on union identities and what he terms ‘niche unionism’, while raising critical questions for the future.
First published in 1999 , this book discusses trade unionism in Britain from 1964 to 1979. Detailing political change in British politics from union strikes to Thatcherism in the late 1970s and the implications that had on trade unions and industrial politics.
`Everyone concerned over the construction of a truly social Europe will learn much from this thoughtful and probing study." - Professor Colin Crouch, Istituto Universitario Europeo In this comprehensive overview of trade unionism in Europe and beyond, Richard Hyman offers a fresh perspective on trade union identity, ideology and strategy. He shows how the varied forms and impact of different national movements reflect historical choices on whether to emphasize a role as market bargainers, mobilizers of class opposition or partners in social integration. The book demonstrates how these inherited traditions can serve as both resources and constraints in responding to the challenges which confront trade unions in
Drawing from a variety of libraries and archives, this collection brings together material to illustrate the history of the development of trade unionism and industrial relations. It spans the period from the early journeymen's trade societies as they emerged in the 18th-Century through to the end of the First World War. Part I Volume 1 looks at 1707-1800.
