ism is usually associated with the development of industrial production in Europe in the
early nineteenth century and the need for workers to join forces to fight for their inter-
ests against suppression by employers and owners of factories. These ‘interests’ are not
homogenous. Every employee has a reason why he/she would join a trade union. A
study by Waddington & Whiston (1992) found diverse opinions in trying to find out
why employees joined trade unions in Britain. The results are presented in Table 9.1.
Table 9.1 Reasons for joining trade unions
Reason %
Support in difficulties 72
Improve pay conditions 36
Belief that it is a good thing 16
Free legal advice 15
Because others are members 14
Source: Waddington & Whiston (1992).
Support in difficulties seems to be the major driving force behind employees joining
trade unions. The implication is that if employees believe that the risk of difficulties in
employment is small their commitment to the trade union will also be weak. The extent
to which employees can get support in difficulties will depend on the power of the trade
union to influence the employers to create such support systems. Weak membership
commitment reduces the number of employees who will join trade unions and remain
active, and therefore the power of the trade union to influence management is dimin-
ished.
Trade unions have become a force to reckon with, particularly in the British labour
market as well as politics. Indeed the Labour party originated from the trade union
movement. As could be recalled from chapter 1, in the 1950s and 1960s we witnessed
the power of fully fledged trade unions through powerful negotiations with employers,
which in many ways led to destructive strikes and business closures. However, the pow-
er of trade unions has been declining over years. Since late the 1970s and particularly in
the 1980s we saw the weakening of the role of trade unions as a regulatory mechanism
in the workplace. The following reasons explain this diminishing power:
- Economic recession, which led to bankruptcies, mergers and acquisitions, contract-
ing out and privatisation. Since the power of trade unions depends on how many
members it has, bankruptcies led to lay- offs of many employees, which weakened
trade unions. - Challenges of welfare policies versus market led economy particularly in Britain
under Margaret Thatcher. Criticisms were levelled at, among others, union’s restric-
tive practices, over manning, overpriced wages, low productivity per workers, poor
quality work and products. - Measures to review the economy included new policies, employment and trade un-
ion acts that gave management more power to manage their organisations. - Management strengthened while trade unions weakened. This was a result of less
government intervention.