The Representation Gap: Change and Reform in the British and American workplace

The Representation Gap: Change and Reform in the British and American workplace

This comparative industrial relations text explains this development primarily through the Withdrawal of Public Policy support and, mainly in Britain’s case, its replacement by government hostility which has been only recently, and partially, changed by the election of a labour government in May 1997. An important consequence of this weakening is the erosion of the representation and defense of employee interests as management has allowed, even encouraged, to extend its authority in the workplace. Hence a representation gap has opened so that six out of seven US employees, and two out of three British, have no effective form of representation at work.

Recent trade union initiatives and political developments, both countries, have only slightly improved the prospects for narrowing the representation gap. Yet a growing body of research is indicating that employers who bargain with trade unions, or enter workplace partnerships with them, are likely to be more productive than their non-union competitors, More importantly, the size of representation gap presents a clear denial of the democratic rights of citizens, in their role as employees, with potentially serious implications for social stability both within and beyond the workplace.

Brian Towers 

Oxford University Press

1997

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English

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