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Can `Partnership' Reverse the Decline of British Trade Unions?

Can `Partnership' Reverse the Decline of British Trade Unions? Debates and Controversies 034887 Terry 29/8/2003 10:01 am Page 459 Work, employment and society Copyright © 2003 BSA Publications Ltd® Volume 17(3): 459–472 [0950-0170(200309)17:3;459–472;034887] SAGE Publications London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi Can ‘partnership’ reverse the decline of British trade unions? Michael T erry Warwick University, UK he statistics of union decline in the United Kingdom are familiar, depress- ingly so to those who hold a strong trade union movement to be a central T guarantor of economic and industrial democracy. Membership fell from 12.6 million in 1979 to 7.1 million in 1998, a decline in membership density of the employed workforce from 56 percent to 30 percent (Waddington and Kerr, 2000: 231). By 2000 membership had fallen to below 7 million. More recently there has been a flattening-out, even a slight upturn in 2001, but nowhere near enough to mask the scale and significance of decline. Decline has been most marked in the private sector. In 1980 well over half of all private sector employees were union members; by 1998 this had fallen to a quarter, and by late 1999 the Labour Force Survey estimated it to be as low as 19 percent. In the public sector (what remains http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Work, Employment and Society SAGE

Can `Partnership' Reverse the Decline of British Trade Unions?

Terry, Michael
Work, Employment and Society , Volume 17 (3): 14 – Sep 1, 2003
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References (22)

Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
Copyright © by SAGE Publications
ISSN
0950-0170
eISSN
1469-8722
DOI
10.1177/09500170030173003
Publisher site
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Abstract

Debates and Controversies 034887 Terry 29/8/2003 10:01 am Page 459 Work, employment and society Copyright © 2003 BSA Publications Ltd® Volume 17(3): 459–472 [0950-0170(200309)17:3;459–472;034887] SAGE Publications London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi Can ‘partnership’ reverse the decline of British trade unions? Michael T erry Warwick University, UK he statistics of union decline in the United Kingdom are familiar, depress- ingly so to those who hold a strong trade union movement to be a central T guarantor of economic and industrial democracy. Membership fell from 12.6 million in 1979 to 7.1 million in 1998, a decline in membership density of the employed workforce from 56 percent to 30 percent (Waddington and Kerr, 2000: 231). By 2000 membership had fallen to below 7 million. More recently there has been a flattening-out, even a slight upturn in 2001, but nowhere near enough to mask the scale and significance of decline. Decline has been most marked in the private sector. In 1980 well over half of all private sector employees were union members; by 1998 this had fallen to a quarter, and by late 1999 the Labour Force Survey estimated it to be as low as 19 percent. In the public sector (what remains

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Work, Employment and Society – SAGE

Published: Sep 1, 2003

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