Trade Union Movement And The Conservatives example essay topic

Their has been many changes in the Labour market since 1979, The conservatives coming to power in 1979 can be argued to have been one of the biggest influences of the period since 1989. The obvious differences between the old labour movement and the new conservatives of the time are that of the trade unions. Labour who were backed and funded by the trade union movement and the conservatives who were funded by industry were obviously going to have a different approach to government and the Labour market. Trade unions in Britain have existed for over two hundred years. By the early 20th century there were two million trade union members and this rose to a peak of over thirteen million in 1979. Trade union membership however has declined since 1979.

There is a direct link between the trade union restructuring and the change of the labour market. The manufacturing industry has seen a sharp downturn since 1979, this caused a dramatic fall in the number of jobs in manufacturing industries where union membership was traditionally high. The knock on effect of this was there became larger numbers of unemployed people. The recession of 1980-82 led to an increase in unemployment of nearly two million and the unemployed tend to let their trade union membership lapse due to more pressing financial demands.

It is fascinating to note, however, that the rise in employment in the late 1980's did not lead to a corresponding rise in trade union membership. It can be argued that the new jobs created tended to be in the service sector of the economy such as call centres, which is traditionally far less union ised than manufacturing. Part time employment also became more popular since the early 80's. Part Time employees are a lot less likely to join unions as they see their employee rights as less of a priority as they are not in employment as long as a full time member of staff. The large organisations such as British Leyland where union subscription was very high have all but long gone. Small companies now account for over 60% of the public sector.

With small companies it is a lot more difficult to organise a union, it can be argued the reasoning for this is legislation, which the conservatives introduced in the 80's. Such legislation saw a transformation in the climate of industrial relations in Britain. The Conservative government, instead of introducing large-scale legislative reform, passed a number of acts each of which restricted union power at the margin. By 1990 secondary picketing had been made illegal; trade unions had to hold a secret ballot and gain a majority of the votes cast to call an official strike; social security benefits were withdrawn from the dependants of striking workers; union officers had to be elected by secret ballots and closed shop agreements were restricted and greater opportunities were given to employees to opt out of closed shops The 1980's was a decade in which the government showed a marked hostility to trade unions.

This affected the willingness of workers to join unions and increased the confidence of those employers attempting to reduce or eliminate trade union activity in their workplaces. The Conservative reforms and legislation of the 1980's made it more costly and more difficult for workers to take widespread unofficial action and the power of trade union leaders to call strikes was curbed because workers now had to be balloted on strike action. Militant workers who backed strike action found it more difficult to get elected after the introduction of the democratisation of union voting procedures made it much more difficult for militant trade union leaders to get elected to key posts within trade unions. The new Conservative government had its biggest test in the 84-85 miner's strike. The government stood strong for almost a year against the Unions demands but finally defeated the Union. The miners union was one of the strongest and most militant but this was an indication of how the Conservatives have reduced the role and importance of the trade union movement.

Also trade union leaders were now not included in any decision making unlike the previous governments the trade unions had no influence on decision making or policy. Another infamous dispute was that of the Wapping print works (1996). The importance of this dispute had two major outcomes. Firstly, the introduction of technology in the Wapping print factory simply meant that they didn't need as many people to run and maintain their plant. This meant 6000 people would be loosing their jobs to technology.

Secondly, the printing union that these people were members had lost their power, despite striking they were simply not wanted and if any of the lucky employers that had work at Wapping joined them on the picket line they to would loose their jobs. This was a major event in the UK Labour market and highlighted the fact the Conservatives restrictive practices had made the unions powerless. After the first 5 years of conservative rule the total number of unions had dropped from. ".. 453 in 79 to 370 in 1985. This had been a fall of 4 million members...

". Trade Unions In Britain Today J. McIlroy 1988 These figures highlighted the plight of the trade union movement and the downturn in its membership. The graph 'Union density's hows the dramatic fall since the early 80's, however over recent years as the graph shows the membership has levelled off and in the case of women has actually seen a small increase. Depending on whom you discuss this with the reasoning differs.

Firstly, Union membership is taken up by people who have become hard line union member's normally middle-aged relics of the 70's. These group of people will always be in a union and redundancy or sacking will be the only way they would leave the unions. Secondly, more and more women now work full time and this has see a slight increase in their numbers. Women understand the importance of being in a Union. This is due to the issues of sex discrimination and unfair pay or maternity leave where a union will fight for the rights of women. One high profile woman campaigner of women in unions is Cherie Booth - the wife of the Tony Blair.

.".. Without a union, the relationship between employer and employee would remain fundamentally unequal... ". ."..

800 (colliery) dinner ladies now have the right to equal pay after the NUM (National Union of Mineworkers) supported their case... ". Times 19/03/02 why the trade unions are worth defending These comments made by a very influential member of society still show there is a demand and use for Unions in current time. She supports their movement and purpose even sometimes going against her husband's policy. The government carried out a survey into Workplace Industrial Relations in 1990. This indicated just how vital trade unions are.

Its findings revealed. ".. repeatedly how much worse off employees who do not enjoy the protection of collective bargaining are. They are, on average, less favoured in terms of pay, health and safety, labour turnover, contractual security, compulsory redundancy, grievance procedures, consultation, communication and employee representation... ". Workplace Industrial Relations Survey, 1990 Despite this report being 13 years old the situation has not changed the unions do still have an important role in the 00's and over recent times the actual number of subscriptions has been rising, only slightly but still the first rise since 1979.

Other changes in the labour market are the increase in small self-employed business. People are encouraged to start up their own companies and develop companies. In the 70's people would go and work for the local factory just like their ancestors would. Today that same factory has probably been converted into small self-contained units employing a few employees. Other groups of workers are coming together to form alliances, despite not being affiliated with any major organisations the workers feel these are just as good as joining a recognised trade union. Unemployment is now at an all time low at about 1 million. (web).

This has been achieved by increased education and retraining. The smaller company has to be very efficient in its operation and has turned to education to achieve these goals. Tony Blair said on his election campaign that he has three goals. ".. Education Education, Education... ". .".. we want to keep skilled workers in Britain and not loose them to the USA and Europe" web Following Labours election the education sector has shown a big increase. Courses are being advertised and widening participation is being encouraged to involve a lot more people in education.

This has had knock on effect on other companies such as IT. For example colleges' expanded and brought new equipment and resources. Technology has also had an effect on the way we look at the labour market. For example people have the opportunity to work from home and use the Internet to sell their products.

The world has now become a lot smaller place and customers can be found all over the world at a touch of a button. With the demise of large scale engineering and manufacturing more people now work in 'Support' roles such as call centres or training. Some people do blame the demise of large organisations on the unions. During the 70's the industry was plagued by strikes and large companies could not produce or guarantee a delivery time for its products. The election of Mr Blair and his 'New Labour' party in '97 also had some changes in the way the government dealt with the unions. It can be argued the Unions expected more that the new labour government offered.

Despite legislation changes affecting the Unions giving them more power the downturn in subscription still continued, arguably at a much slower rate. The Unions needed to modernise and look at new ways of dealing with management. This was in the form of partnership. This meant that the unions would work with the management and their Human resource department to create a better understanding and realise the goals of each party. The unions and management agreed that the continued operation of the company should be their goal. The unions understood that redundancies may be the only option if a company wanted to continue to exist.

Despite partnership and fewer and fewer union members the power of the trade unions can still be seen in evidence today. The FBU (Fire Brigade Union) are holding the country to ransom by striking, They have 100% subscription and 100% support from the workers. They can make unreasonable demands and as they do such a valuable job cause the country a lot of disruption. I feel that there is still a need for trade unions as they provide several important functions for the majority of workers. The 'new' unions that embrace partnership and co-operation will survive compared to the hard lined militant workers. The FBU also highlights the importance of government keeping the unions under control and not allowing strikes when these put the country at danger.

They also highlight that the unions still have a lot of power despite there reducing numbers. The power of the British trade union movement has certainly been significantly reduced since 1979. While I think that the trade unions were getting too big and powerful and as a result were causing more bad than good in the 1970's, their rapid decline in the 1980's was not an encouraging development. Combine this with workplace insecurity and evidence of a squeeze on living standards has made conditions in the labour market ripe for trade union protection. Equal opportunities is a massive area that the unions support and I feel workplace conditions and terms of employment will only deteriorate further if trade union power and influence, responsibly used, is not allowed to continue. Trade Unions In Britain Today J. McIlroy -1988 Workplace Industrial Relations Survey -1990 Why the trade unions are worth defending - Times -19/03/02.