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Britain, being the first country to industrialize itself, has a long history of trade unionism. Trade union was first defined as ˇ§ a continuous association of wage earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the condition of their working lives. ( Webb and Webb 1896) Later, the Trade Union Congress ( TUC) officially defined trade unions as ˇ§ the organization of workers set up to improve the status, pay and condition of employment of their members.ˇ¨ In the History of Trade Unionism, the Webbs distinguished 3 methods which trade unions used to achieve their aims: the method of Mutual Insurance, Legal Enactment and Collective Bargaining. Apart from these 3 roles, trade unions in UK area also play a role in party politics. The Labour Party was established under the support of trade unions, and many of its organizational principles were taken over from the unions. Even now trade unions still have strong influence on the Labour Party. ... The trade unions have a strong link to the Labour party ever since it was formed.
To understand how trade unionism influence British politics in recent years, we have to look at its history of development. In the post war period, the industrial relations were left largely to self regulation by employers and trade unions and the term ˇ§ collective laissez faireˇ¨ was used to describe the industrial relation policy which required resolution of conflicts through collective bargaining of the trade unions. ... The number of strikes rose throughout the period and industrial action was across the whole country. Some other problems also arose because of over-powered trade unions/ Trade unions could cause wage push inflation by demanding more and more wages despite the situation of the economy. ...
1979 was a turning point for the development of trade unionism in UK. The Conservative Party won the election and Mrs Thatcher came to power with the determination to tackle the over powered trade unions. Peter Riddel, Timeˇ¦s political editor, commented ˇ§ The trade union issue has largely disappeared from the center of political stage with much annual exception of Congress week in early September when there is much despairing introspection on the theme of whither the unionsˇ¨ Many believe that Thatcherite and Conservative policies solely caused the decline of trade unionism, hence Labour Party can restore the power of trade unions once it takes office. For example, a commentator on industrial relations was heard to remark that ˇ§ Just as British trade unions were broken by the Conservatives in the 1980s, so their health will now be restored by Labour legislationˇ¨ in 1997. ... They believed that Thatcherism and Conservatism did not solely cause the decline of trade unionism in UK. Hence even when Labour party regain power it would not be able to restore the power of trade unions. In this essay I am going to assess whether Thatcherism and Conservatism is the sole cause of decline of trade unionism in UK so as to assess whether the Labour legislation would be able to restore the power of trade unions.
Some people believed that Conservatism and Thatcherism is the sole cause of decline of trade unionism in UK. It is believed that the Thatcher government did much to overthrow collective laissez faire and reduce trade union power.
Approximate Word count = 2673
Approximate Pages = 10.7
(250 words per page double spaced)
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