Trade Union Mergers in British and Australian Television Broadcasting
| Published date | 01 June 1997 |
| Date | 01 June 1997 |
| Author | John T. Campling,Grant Michelson |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8543.00049 |
British Journal of IndustrialRelations
35:2 June 1997 0007–1080 pp. 215–242
Trade Union Mergers in British and
Australian Television Broadcasting
John T. Campling and Grant Michelson
Abstract
A complex set of forces facing trade union organizations has mea nt that union
restructuring vis-a`-vis merger activity has been a prominent feature of many
Western labour movements in the 1980s and 1990s. This paper is located in
these structural developments, and its main contribution lies in the insights
provided by an in-depth examination of recent union merger activity in
commercial television in the UK and Australia. In contrast to the work of
Undy et al. (1981), the results suggest that union mergers are influenced by
more than changes in membership patterns,and that the delineation of merger
categories may be far more complex than what has previously been identified
by their model. It is argued, too, that the nature of the forces and the processes
that led to the broadcasting union mergers in the UK and Australia were
significantly influenced by the different institutional contexts of both coun-
tries. Finally, and related to this ,i t would appear that union merger outcomes
(at least in the short term) are linked to the preceding processes by which
merger is brought about. One policy implication of this is that anyt hingot her
than a case-by-case evaluation of union mergers may be misleading.
1. Introduction
From time to time trade union organizations are subject to and shaped by a
number of different structural events, including formations, mergers,
breakaways and dissolutions. These events all have the potential to impact
significantly upon union form. Turning specifical ly to one of these structural
developments, mergers can affect external union structures by changing
union jurisdictions or territories (Abrahamsson 1993). A review of the
literature suggests that there are a number of key distinguishing features of
union mergers: there is a combination of two or more separate entities; there
is a legal combination; there is often a resultant loss of autonomy and control
for at least one of the unions involved (even if this loss is only minor); and
reduced autonomy and control will occur either at the point of combination
John T. Campling and Grant Michelson are Le cturers in the Department of Industrial
Relations in the Faculty of Economics, University of Sydney, Australia.
¥ Blackwell Publishers Ltd/London School of Economics 1997. Published by Blackwell Publishers Ltd,
108 Cowley Road,Oxford, OX4 1JF, and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
216 British Journal of Industrial Relations
or at some agreed stage shortly thereafter (see e.g. Chaison 1982; 1986;
Chitayat 1979; Elias 1973; Spooner 1984; Waddington 1988). For our
purposes, a union merger is defined as having occurred when all these
characteristics are satisfied. Following Waddington (1992: 141), the term
‘merger’ is used broadly and refers to both amalgamations and transfers of
engagements.
In addition to identifying the criteria that dist inguish a merger from other
forms of inter-union alliances, previous research also indicates that there are
four main aspects involved in the trade union merger process: merger
motivations, opposition to the proposed merger, merger negotiations, and
the immediate post-merger period. Union mergers, for example, are
assumed to be influenced by a wide range of factors including technological
change, the desire to improve economies of scale, corporate merg era ctivity,
deteriorating union finances and changing membership patterns (see
Buchanan 1981; Chaison 1986; Conant and Kaserman 1989; Undy et al.
1981). While there may be a number of imperatives prompting unions to
merge, opposition sometimes arises either from the union’s leader s,fr omits
membership, or from other trade unions (Chaison 1986). Merger negotia-
tions thus may be affected by the existence of opposition as well as by the
existence of any institutional differences between those unions planning to
merge. Having negotiated a merger and subsequently seen this agreement
ratified in a membership referendum, some studies have attempted to
provide an evaluation of union mergers in the period following their legal
combination (e.g. Willman et al. 1993). The post-merger experience of
many trade unions in a number of cases appears to be less than entirely
positive.
Merger activity has a long history within the labour movements of a
number of Western industrialized countries as one major source of
organizational change. Between 1900 and 1978, there were 143 union
mergers in the USA (Chaison 1980); and in Australia at least 94 mergers
involving federally registered unions occurred between 1905 and 1986
(Griffin and Scarcebrook 1989); in the UK over a similar period
(1911–79), 932 cases of union merger were reported (see Buchanan 1974
and 1981). More recent research in the UK found that a total of 85
merger cases took place between 1980 and 1988 (Waddington 1992: 109).
In Australia, in contrast to historical patterns, it is clear that union
merger activity has accelerated since the mid-1980s: an examination of
the Australian Industrial Relations Commission records indicate that
from 1987 to mid-1994 there were 69 successful cases of merger involving
federal trade unions.
It is axiomatic from the data that union merger activity in the 1980s has
remained a prominent feature of the British industrial landscape and has
assumed greater significance within Australia. This article is situated in
these broader trends and adopts a comparative per spective of union merger
activity within a single industry — commercial tele vision broadcasting — in
the UK and Australia. It does so with the explicit purpose of documenting
¥ Blackwell Publishers Ltd/London School of Economics 1997.
To continue reading
Request your trial