Divided we fall: trade unons and their members in the 1990s

Abstract

The last two decades have been difficult times for trade unions, faced with declining membership, adverse public opinion and erosion of their powers through restrictive government legislation. Economic restructuring and the decline of heavy industry have deprived the union movement of its firmest traditional basis of support, while the most dominant growth area of the economy, private services, is resistant to union organization. In the face of this hostile economic and political climate, most unions have acknowledged the need to reconsider and reform their existing structures, policies and practices. Options available may include developing a more professionalised approach, offering members a range of financial and technical services calculated to appeal to their individual needs. Alternatively unions may seek to retain their traditional collectivist stance, attempting to find ways to get their members more involved in active campaigning. Both these approaches, however, would involve a recognition of the need to cater more effectively for members' needs, especially those members who often have been marginalized in the past; in the words of the General Secretary of the TGWU, unions must now cater for “the problems and aspirations of temporary and part‐time workers, young people and members of ethnic minorities who have, quite frankly, been neglected in the past.” (quoted Payne, 1989).