Owen TudorThe Work and Employment Research Unit (WERU) at Greenwich University is holding a two-day workshop on 31 May to 1 June about Transnational industrial relations and the search for alternatives. They’re looking for people to present papers, either academic papers or contributions from trade unionists and other actors in civil society: 300-word abstracts need to be submitted to l.kretsos@greenwich.ac.uk by 1 March in four categories (see below), covering how the trade union movement can respond to the growing globalisation of power and wealth (including why we haven’t managed to do so effectively so far).
Union futures
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I’m not on commission, and I’ve only met the bloke once, but if you are interested in what more we can do to rebuild and reinvigorate unions in the workplace and the community you could do worse than checking out ‘Together: how small groups achieve big things’ by Henry Hemming. This is not a ‘union focussed’ book – and at times its a challenging read (that’s TUC-speak for I often disagreed with the author!), but its engaging and insightful nonetheless. -
You may have picked up Carl’s original posting a month or so ago on trade union membership. But, in case you haven’t, here’s our first Organising Academy webinar on those figures and what they mean for unions. Be great to hear your thoughts.
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Image drawn by a young non-member of a 'typical' union member
A subject that has long concerned unions, and therefore Unions21, is how we recruit the next generation of members.
Recent joint TUC/Unions21 commissioned focus group research uncovered a number of distinct and clear barriers that prevent young people from joining the union movement.
These were categorised into four main themes: Lack of awareness, Lack of ‘push factors’, Lack of ‘pull factors’ and Repellent factors (download the full research report for detail on these)
In the last category – Repellent Factors, young people said they found it difficult to identify with union members. Unions were seen as militant, old fashioned, and aggressive, which turned the young people we spoke to off.
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Trade unions are the subject of a new paper published by Acas (written by yours truly – apologies for the shameless self-promotion) as part of its Future of Workplace Relations discussion paper series. In the paper I draw on academic research to argue that unions continue to play an effective role in representing workers, as reflected in the high (and rising) proportion of workers surveyed who believe that unions do an effective job, the constructive role of union representatives in helping to resolve workplace grievances, and the higher wage levels received by members than non-members.
However, unions face the reality of an increasing trend among employers to use non-union mechanisms for communicating with their workers.
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I’ve recently been looking at the lessons that British unions might be able to take from the Scandinavian countries such as Sweden and Denmark, where there is widespread political support for collective labour market regulation, with union membership and collective bargaining coverage both at enviably high levels.
High bargaining coverage is one of the reasons why the Scandinavian countries have among the highest levels of income equality in the world. The ‘social case’ for collective bargaining is well established, and is acknowledged by international bodies such as the OECD and the ILO. Indeed, the decline of collective bargaining coverage in Britain has been singled-out by various studies as a key reason for rising inequality over the past three decades. The number of workers that were classified as ‘low-paid’ (i.e. earning less than two-thirds of the median income) was 13% in 1979 when collective bargaining coverage was near its peak, but has since risen to 22%.
While unions can point to the social benefits of collective bargaining, the economic case is more complicated. But it is on this point where the Scandinavian examples are most informative. Studies on the economic impact of collective bargaining have produced rather mixed findings, with many claiming that it can actually worsen unemployment and inflation.
In 1994, the OECD said that labour market deregulation was the best way for countries to reduce unemployment. However, the OECD revised its recommendations in 2006 after the Scandinavian countries showed that highly coordinated collective bargaining systems and active trade unions could actually produce strong economic performance and jobs growth (essentially the opposite of what the OECD had originally prescribed).
There is considerable agreement within the academic community that highly coordinated systems of collective bargaining have a more positive impact than ‘uncoordinated’ or ‘fragmented’ systems. In other words, it is not how many or how few workers are covered by collective agreements, but rather the extent to which bargaining is coordinated, that matters most in assessing whether collective bargaining systems have a positive or negative macroeconomic impact. This is important if unions want to make a political case for extending collective bargaining coverage across the workforce.
More information on employment relations in Scandinavia, and some of the possible lessons for Britain, can be found in the latest issue of the TUC/ESRC Unions, Collective Bargaining and Employment Relations Research Bulletin.
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The July issue of the TUC/ESRC Unions, Collective Bargaining and Employment Relations research bulletin is now online. A range of themes relevant to British unions are explored in this issue, including:
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Collective bargaining in Scandinavia – what lessons for Britain?
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The opportunities for bargaining around the union learning agenda
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An overview of proceedings from the recent Roundtable on the Future of Collective Representation
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And a wrap-up of the recent issues of the academic employment relations journals
You can find a copy of the latest bulletin here.
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Paul Nowak
Becky Wright
Dan Whittle
Chris Wright
