Trade Unions: Resurgence or Demise?

by Sue Fernie (Editor), David Metcalf (Editor)

Overview

This book features original research underpinned with theory drawn from economics, organization theory, history and social psychology. The authors deliver a comprehensive analysis of trade unions’ prospects in the new millennium as well as case studies which deal with topical issues such as:

• the reasons for the loss of five million members in the 1980s and 1990s
• the way in which unions’ own structures inhibit their revitalization
• the apparent failure of unions to thrive in the benign times since 1997
• the extent to which use of the internet will permit unions to break with their tradition of organizing by occupation or industry
• the prospects for real social partnership at national level
• the way in which high performance workplaces in the US give voice to workers without unions.

Written by some of the leading scholars in the area, this book gives an insight into union prospects for the future and has important policy implications for all parties concerned with industrial relations, unions, employers and governments.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415284110
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/23/2005
Series:	The Future of Trade Unions in Britain
Pages:	286
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Sue Fernie is Lecturer in Industrial Relations at the London School of Economics.

David Metcalf is Professor of Industrial Relations at the London School of Economics.

Table of Contents

Introduction 2. Markets, Firms, and Unions: A Historical-Institutionalist Perspective on the Future of Unions in Britain 3. Circling the Wagons; Endogeneity in Union Decline 4. Social Movement Theory and Union Revitalization in Britain 5. British Unions: Resurgence or Perdition? 6. Union Responses to Public-Private Partnerships in the National Health Service 7. Unions and Performance-Related Pay: What Chance of a Procedural Justice Role? 8. From the Webbs to the Web: The Contribution of the Internet to Reviving Union Fortunes 9. The Public Policy Face of Trade Unionism 10. Follow the Leader: Are British Trade Unions Tracking the US Decline? 11. Trade Unions in Germany: On the Road to Perdition?