Employee Relations: An International Journal

Bank, John

1981 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/eb054980

As the first anniversary of the strike at Gdansk approached, I sought out Lech Walesa to make an assessment of how the movement was doing in the initial stage of becoming a fullblooded trade union. In this report I first offer some comments on the differences between a movement and a trade union. I look at the four stages a movement goes through on the way to becoming a trade union. These are

Poole, Michael; Mansfield, Roger; Blyton, Paul; Frost, Paul

1981 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/eb054981

In general from the early 1960s onwards there was a marked acceleration of interest in employee participation and industrial democracy. Although this was by no means novel in conception, it was occasioned in this particular period not just by changing balances of power but also by a major adaptation in the climate of values in British industry and society. This quickening of attention culminated in the establishment of a Committee of Inquiry on Industrial Democracy, and although since that point there has been a period of retrenchment and a decline in overt enthusiasm for schemes of this type, this in no way invalidates the importance of the wide range of experiments which were instigated in the 1960s and 1970s nor suggests that political enthusiasm in this direction will not reemerge with renewed vigour in the later part of this century.

Taylor, Tom

1981 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/eb054982

A significant feature of the postwar period in the UK has been the continued attempts by successive governments to implement incomes policies, with a total of 22 such policies or stages of policies having been introduced since 1948.

Macbeath, Innis

1981 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/eb054983

One of the oddest things about the current recession is the skill shortage which makes so many managers irascible and baffles so many commentators and politicians it baffles especially the ones who are accustomed to talk about the traditional talent and ingenuity of the people. Besides, if every person trained in a skill were exercising it for, say, 30 hours a week there would be super abundance. Some are promoted, some walk away, some hang about. Looking for work whether you are in work or not is far more timeconsuming than doing a good job. The nature of the problem lies deeper than statistics by category. Our society seems to set a high value on skill of one kind or another, but a low value on people who acquire it and define themselves by it. It is much easier to moralise than to peel away the layers of complication to uncover more appropriate simplifications that have some practical value.