Roger Undy

Negotiating Amalgamations: Territorial and Political Consolidation and Administrative Reform in Public-Sector Service Unions in the UK

Since 1990 there has been a series of union amalgamations among Britain’s public-sector unions. This study examines three amalgamations and one aborted amalgamation. Each was initiated by union leaders reacting to government-sponsored reforms of the public sector, and all involved unions with either defensive or consolidatory merger motivations. The complex negotiations are presented as resolving issues of political, democratic and administrative concerns. It is argued that the balance of power on critical constitutional issues lay with the leaders of the consolidatory unions, particularly the dominant activist groups within such unions. As a consequence, success in amalgamation negotiations lay in satisfying such group’s interests in sustaining the existing political ethos and democratic system, while securing agreement on the desired administrative reforms.

New Labour and New Unionism, 1997‐2001: but is it the same old story?

This article examines the impact of the 1997‐2001 Labour Government’s public policy on British trade unions. First, the ideologies of New Labour and New Unionism are considered; second, the TUC’s relationship with the Government is discussed, by reference, one, to procedural and, two, to substantive interests; and, last, the value of the relationship to the trade unions will be assessed, by examining two of the four problem areas identified by Minkin as determining the unity of the Labour Movement, i.e. ideological compatibility and satisfaction of unions’ interests.

The Impact of the National Minimum Wage on the Apparel Industry

This analysis of the NMWs initial impact in the apparel industry focuses on organisational and institutional factors in explaining the effects on pay and related issues. The NMW had a marked effect on national terms and conditions, in particular raising the minimum earnings level. At the local level, it impacted directly on the pay of a small number of employees in almost half the 42 organisations surveyed in the East Midlands and Northern Ireland. These tended to be the larger employing units facing foreign competition and selling into the domestic market. Also, in some workplaces, the NMW adversely affected the piecework system. The reaction of local management to these changes is discussed.

The British merger movement: the importance of the ‘aggressive’ unions

Union mergers in Britain are dominated numerically by transfers of engagements from minor unions to major unions. Just five major or acquiring unions were responsible for absorbing 79% of all transfers to TUC affiliated unions between 1978 and 1994. This study establishes the extent of this domination, examines the characteristics of the five unions’ aggressive merger policies and considers the consequences of the findings for theories of union mergers.

Union Autonomy, a Terminal Case in the UK? A Comparison with the Approach in Other European Countries and the USA

Since 1979, the Conservative government in the UK has introduced wide-ranging and detailed regulations for the conduct of union internal affairs; a number of other Western industrialized countries have not done so (or have not done so to the same extent) but have continued their tradition of relying on unions themselves to establish democratic procedures. Alternative views of the role of the state in industrial relations underlie these differences. A second, linked article, appearing in Employee Relations (Vol. 15 No. 4), examines state approaches to union autonomy in the context of attitudes towards other controls on union activities and attempts to explain the successive shifts in British policy in the UK since the 1960s.

Trade union organisation

Union organisation was studied by Lord (Bill) McCarthy throughout his academic career. It also figured large in his political engagement with national policy making under both Labour and Conservative Governments. From 1968 onwards he was particularly interested in conducting research into, and producing related publications and unpublished papers on, the efficacy of various models of union structure and union government. The following article therefore focuses on these two critically important aspects of union organisation. It also assesses the different roles Bill played in his attempts to influence the reform of union organisation between 1968 and 1979, a relatively, and at least initially, benign political period and his attempts to protect union organisation in the more hostile political and economic climate of 1979 to 1996. It is also argued that Bill, following his appointment as Labours front bench spokesman in the House of Lords in 1980, now occupied his niche role.