Union Derecognition in Britain in the 1980s
| Author | Tim Claydon |
| Published date | 01 July 1989 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1989.tb00218.x |
| Date | 01 July 1989 |
British
Journal
of
Industrial
Relations
27:2
July
1989
0007-1080
$3.00
Union Derecognition in Britain
in
the
1980s
Tim
Cla
ydon
*
This paper is based on a study
of
union derecognition carried out during
the Summer
of
1988.
The approach was to use press and journal articles
together with interviews with A.C.A.S., the Industrial Society, T.U.C.,
C.B.I., and national trade union officials to estimate the incidence
of
derecognition by identifying as many cases as possible. Further interviews
were then conducted with management and unions in the organisation
where derecognition had occurred. Fifty cases
of
derecognition and
four
unsuccessful attempts at derecognition were identified, and interviews
were conducted covering thirty-six cases. Since then five further cases
of
actual or planned derecognition and one possible case of partial derecogni-
tion have been identified; Today newspaper,
SKY
TV, book publishers
Sweet and Maxwell, Thomas Nelson, MacDonald’s children’s books di-
vision, and Express Newspapers. The majority of cases
-
forty-nine out
of
fifty-six
-
have taken place during
1987-8.
This raises the possibility that
derecognition
is
an emerging phenomenon which will become more wides-
pread in the future.
Derecognition needs to be put in the broader context of the debate over
the future
of
trade unionism and collective bargaining
in
Britain. This
debate is essentially over whether fundamental change
or
underlying
stability has been the main characteristic
of
British industrial relations
during the
1980s. Is
the recent crop of derecognitions an indication that
managerial attitudes towards trade unionism are undergoing a major shift
as a result
of
the experience
of
the
1980s?
If
so,
what will be its impact? It is
worth remembering that union decertification in the U.S.A. is far more
common than derecognition in Britain,
yet
ceteris
paribas
‘it would take
over fifteen years for the current rate
of
decertification to cause a one per
cent fall in overall union density’. (Beaumont,
1977,
pp.
44-45)
However,
the significance
of
derecognition
is
wider than its impact on union density.
Derecognition is not synonymous with deunionisation, but it is associated
with important changes in employment relations.
For
these reasons some
analysis
of
the pattern
of
derecognition in recent years appears to be called
for.
*
Principal Lecturer, Department
of
Human Resource Management, Leicester Business
School,
Leicester Polytechnic.
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