The “New Realism” in British Industrial Relations?
| Published date | 01 May 1985 |
| Pages | 2-7 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb055057 |
| Date | 01 May 1985 |
| Author | Kevin Hawkins |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
The "New Realism"
in British Industrial
Relations?
by Kevin Hawkins*
Lucas Industries plc
Introduction
Has the recent recession brought about a fundamental and
permanent change in the balance of industrial bargaining
power in Britain? Or has it merely administered a temporary
check to the onward march of trade union power?
Advocates of the "sea-change" hypothesis can certainly
marshall some persuasive evidence in support of their case.
They can point, for example, to the dramatic fall in the level
of strike activity between 1979 and 1983, to the significant
decline in trade union membership over the same period
and to the unions' loss of influence over policy making at
national level. They can emphasise the inability of the TUC
to organise any coherent resistance within the ranks of its
affiliated members to the Thatcher Government's sustain-
ed attack on traditional union immunities from legal action,
and contrast this failure with the crushing defeat inflicted
on the Heath Government over the Industrial Relations Act
in the early 1970s. They can also contrast the impact of
the national stoppage in the coal industry of 1973-74, which
put industry on a three-day week and brought about the
downfall of a Government, with that of the 1984-85 strike.
All this evidence, it is argued, points inescapably to the
con-
clusion that British industry has now entered a new era of
"realism"
in the workplace. Militant union leaders and strike-
happy shop stewards, it is
said,
have lost their grip on the
hearts and minds of their members. Managers, by the same
token,
have now started to manage.
Is this conclusion really justified? Probing beneath the sur-
face,
we encounter an assumption which seems critical to
the "sea-change" argument—namely that the psychological
shock of the recession, which is in turn said to account for
the "new realism" on the shop floor, will stay fresh in the
minds of employees (and employers) when the economic
climate is much more accommodating. This belief could,
of course, be supported by the argument that although the
recession itself is now a matter of history, the continuing
reality of at least three million unemployed—and most
economic forecasters expect this figure to edge upwards
over the rest of the decade—will ensure that the "new
realism"
does not fade away. The existence of this "reserve
army" outside the factory gates
will,
it is argued, keep
employee aspirations and behaviour firmly on the path of
moderation. Similarly, the combined reality of an unaccom-
modating monetary policy, increasingly fierce international
competition and the Government's continuing refusal to bail
out unsuccessful businesses, should keep employers fimly
under the discipline of "the market" and prevent a return
to the bad habits of the 1970s.
The purpose of this article is to explore some of these issues
in more depth. Specifically, we need to identify, firstly, the
various behavioural and institutional changes which have
taken place over the past five years or so and, secondly, try
to assess their permanence.
Trade Union Membership
One yardstick by which the changing influence of trade
unionism can be measured is the level of aggregate union
membership. Between 1969 and 1979 union membership
rose by nearly 28 per cent to stand at 13.5 million, or roughly
54 per cent of the employed labour force.
By the end of 1981, however, total membership had fallen
back to 12.1 million and the decline continued, albeit more
slowly, over the next two years. By the end of 1984, it has
been estimated that the total membership of TUC-affiliated
unions had fallen to between nine and 9.5 million, compared
with a peak of just over 12 million in 1979[1].
Almost every major union within the TUC has lost members
and in some cases the decline has been dramatic. The
TGWU,
for example, lost about a quarter of its membership
between 1979 and 1983 and even heavier losses have been
sustained by two white-collar unions, ASTMS and APEX,
and by the principal construction union, UCATT. Most unions
with a large membership in manufacturing industry lost
ground due to the sharp contraction of employment in this
sector. Between 1979 and 1984, manufacturing employ-
ment as a whole fell by a quarter with a loss of roughly 1.8
million jobs. Employment in public services, by contrast, fell
only marginally, which allowed the dominant trade unions
in this sector (NALGO and NUPE) to retain their member-
ship.
Employment in financial services continued to grow,
which partly explains why the main union in this sector,
BIFU,
succeeding in increasing its membership by nearly 20
per cent over this period.
The prospects for renewed growth in union membership as
a whole, however, are bleak. The reduction in manufactur-
ing employment is not only permanent but is likely to
con-
tinue over the next few years, albeit at a more gradual pace.
The non-manufacturing sector, taken as a whole, is not ex-
pected to increase employment quickly enough to offset this
decline[2].
Only the private service sector, characterised as
it is by small employment units and large numbers of part-
time and female employees, looks certain to continue to ex-
pand,
but this can hardly be regarded as fertile ground for
any trade union. The public service sector, where trade
unionism is strong and relatively well organised, is unlikely
to generate more jobs, while even the financial service sec-
tor now looks to be approaching the end of its long phase
of employment growth.
Taking the economy as a whole, the sharp fall in full-time
employmet which occurred between 1979 and 1983 was
accompanied by a significant expansion in part-time jobs
for women, and most forecasters expect this trend to
con-
tinue.
Indeed, the growing preferences shown by many
employers for part-time female labour has led some
*The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and not
necessarily those of Lucas Industries plc.
2 ER 7,5 • 1985
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