Partnership Versus Organising: Alternative Futures for British Trade Unionism

This paper describes, analyses and offers an evaluation of two current proposals for the revival of British trade unions. These are the pursuit of partnership with employers and the attempt to recreate membership and collective organisation by application of the "organising model". The paper draws on a comprehensive review of debate and research on each proposal as it has unfolded in recent years and concludes by considering whether or not these seeming alternatives can form part of a concerted attempt to revive the fortunes of the British labour movement.

[1]  Jonathan Payne,et al.  British trade unions and social partnership: rhetoric, reality and strategy , 1998 .

[2]  J. Mcilroy The Enduring Alliance? Trade Unions and the Making of New Labour, 1994–1997 , 1998 .

[3]  John Stobo,et al.  United We Stand , 1993, Annals of Internal Medicine.

[4]  J. Waddington,et al.  Trying to Stem the Flow: Union Membership Turnover in the Public Sector , 1999 .

[5]  R. Hyman Trade unions and interest representation in the context of globalisation , 1997 .

[6]  Bob Carter,et al.  Unions in a changing climate: MSF and Unison experiences in the new public sector , 1999 .

[7]  Riccardo Peccei,et al.  Checking Out Service: Evaluating Excellence, HRM and TQM in Retailing , 1997 .

[8]  R. Delbridge,et al.  The TUC’s Organising Academy: an assessment , 2000 .

[9]  Paul Thompson,et al.  THE POLITICS OF PARTNERSHIP ? INNOVATION IN EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS IN THE SCOTTISH SPIRITS INDUSTRY , 1998 .

[10]  Paul Windolf Productivity Coalitions and the Future of European Corporatism , 1989 .

[11]  H. Katz,et al.  Converging Divergences: Worldwide Changes in Employment Systems , 1999 .

[12]  G. Gall,et al.  Facing ‘fairness at work’: union perception of employer opposition and response to union recognition , 2001 .

[13]  R. Peccei,et al.  Partnership at Work: Mutuality and the Balance of Advantage , 2001 .

[14]  Brian Towers,et al.  The Representation Gap: Change and Reform in the British and American Workplace , 1998 .

[15]  S. Wood,et al.  The Statutory Union Recognition Procedure in the Employment Relations Bill: A Comparative Analysis , 1999 .

[16]  K. S. Wever Negotiating Competitiveness: Employment Relations and Organizational Innovation in Germany and the United States , 1995 .

[17]  Phil Taylor,et al.  Unions, Partnership and HRM: Sleeping with the Enemy? , 1998 .

[18]  W. Roche The End of New Industrial Relations? , 2000 .

[19]  THE LIMITS OF STATUTORY TRADE UNION RECOGNITION , 2001 .

[20]  E. Heery Trade unions and the management of reward , 2000 .

[21]  K. Bronfenbrenner Reversing the Tide of Organizing Decline: Lessons From the US Experience , 1998 .

[22]  Bob Carter Adoption of the Organising Model in British Trade Unions: Some Evidence from Manufacturing, Science and Finance (MSF) , 2000 .

[23]  J. Kelly,et al.  Rethinking Industrial Relations: Mobilisation, Collectivism and Long Waves , 1998 .

[24]  R. Hurd Contesting the dinosaur image - the U. S. labor movement's search for a future , 2001 .

[25]  R. Hyman The Future of Employee Representation , 1997 .

[26]  J. Purcell THE END OF INSTITUTIONAL INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS , 1993 .

[27]  R. Delbridge,et al.  Organizing unionism comes to the UK , 2000 .