Trade Unions and Politics

Trade Unions and Politics

British Trade Unions once so influential, are now on the defensive. In the face of world economic recession and mass unemployment, their industrial power has been eroded, their membership has declined and industrial action has increasingly become ineffective, even self-defeating. The passing of the post-war seller’s marker for labour has undermined the unions’ traditional perception of their role yet they have failed to define a new one. As union confidence has faltered, so that of a conversative Government committed to reform of labour legislation has grown, culminating in the passage of the 1984 Trade Union Act.

Throughout this century trade unions have sought closer relations with, and influence over, employers and government. The authors scrutinize the progress of these relations from the 1913 Trade Union Act through the years of consensus and “corporatism” to the increasing polarization of class and party interest in more recent days, examining closely the role of trade union leadership in the political process. In a series of tightly argued chapters, illustrated with a wealth of statistical information. They discuss the phenomenon of the general strike, the significance of political funds and campaigns to retain them, the place of the unions in the labour party organization, and the prominent need for an international approach.

Ken Coates and Tony Topham.

Basil Blackwell limited

1986

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English

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