Trade Union Services for the Unemployed: The Unemployed Workers' Centres
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1990.tb01002.x |
| Published date | 01 November 1990 |
| Author | Keith Forrester,Kevin Ward |
| Date | 01 November 1990 |
British Journal
of
Industrial Relations
28:3
November
1990
0007-1080
$3.00
Trade Union Services for the
Unemployed: The Unemployed
Workers‘ Centres
Keith
Forrester
and
Kevin
Ward
*
Final version accepted 20 February 1990
1.
INTRODUCTION
It was at the 1980 TUC Congress that the General Council was instructed ‘to
consider ways in which the interests of the non-employed could be represen-
ted, on the basis that the “social wage” should be a matter for negotiation by
Congress, and to report to the next Congress’ (TUC 1980: 382). Following a
special consultative conference organized by the TUC in November 1980,
there was ‘a wide consensus’ that, first, ‘unions should continue to develop
their organizations and services for the retention
of
unemployed members
and, where appropriate, the recruitment of unemployed people’. Second,
‘the conference urged that unemployed workers’ centres (UWCs) should be
established with trade union backing to advise, assist and involve the
unemployed’. (TUC 1981a: 48-50). TheTUCitself would provide theoverall
co-ordination for the centres instead
of
individual trade unions, and
so
would
avoid ‘undue bureaucracy and duplication
of
the TUC and union machinery’.
By May 1981 over
50
such centres had been established; by 1983 there were
over 180 and
by
1984 over 200. By 1989, largely as a result of the abolition of
the county councils and
of
the decision by the centres to sever financial
relationships with the training agency, this number had fallen
to
around 150.
In 1988 the Department of External Studies at the University of Leeds was
invited to undertake periodic surveys of the centres. The information from
the surveys not only would provide the TUC (Services for the Unemployed)
with
a
source of empirical data within an often fluid and rapidly changing
context, but also could be an important educational resource to be used and
discussed by UWC workers and ‘users’ at local, regional and national
meetings.’ This short research note selectively comments on some
of
the
results from the first two national surveys.’
The growth rate of UWCs throughout most
of
the 1980s is impressive and
represents a more extensive and developed response by trade unions to the
Department
of
External Studies, University
of
Leeds
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