Trade unions in the United Kingdom
National organization(s) | TUC, STUC, ICTU |
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Regulatory authority | Department for Business and Trade Northern Ireland Department for the Economy |
Primary legislation | Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 |
Total union membership | 6.44 million (2019)[1] |
Percentage of workforce unionised | 23.5%[1] |
International Labour Organization | |
The UK is a member of the ILO | |
Convention ratification | |
Freedom of Association | 27 June 1949 |
Right to Organise | 30 June 1950 |
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Socialism in the United Kingdom |
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Trade unions in the United Kingdom were first decriminalised under the recommendation of a Royal commission in 1867, which agreed that the establishment of the organisations was to the advantage of both employers and employees. Legalised in 1871, the Trade Union Movement sought to reform socio-economic conditions for working men in British industries, and the trade unions' search for this led to the creation of a Labour Representation Committee which effectively formed the basis for today's Labour Party, which still has extensive links with the Trade Union Movement in Britain. Margaret Thatcher's governments weakened the powers of the unions in the 1980s, in particular by making it more difficult to strike legally, and some within the British trades union movement criticised Tony Blair's Labour government for not reversing some of Thatcher's changes. Most British unions are members of the TUC, the Trades Union Congress (founded in 1867), or where appropriate, the Scottish Trades Union Congress or the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, which are the country's principal national trade union centres.
Membership declined steeply in the 1980s and 1990s, falling from 13 million in 1979 to around 7.3 million in 2000. In September 2012 union membership dropped below 6 million for the first time since the 1940s.[2] Union membership has since begun rising gradually again, reaching 6.44 million in 2019.
History
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Law
Much like
Democratic organisation
The principle that the common law enforced a union's own rules, and that unions were free to arrange their affairs, is reflected in the
Union constitutions
The structure of the unions was based in
Discipline and expulsion
- ASLEF v United Kingdom[2007] ECHR 184
- McVitae v UNISON [1996] IRLR 33
- Roebuck v NUM (Yorkshire Area) No 2 [1978] ICR 676, Templeman J
- Esterman v NALGO [1974] ICR 625, Templeman J
- Radford v NATSOPA [1972] ICR 484, Plowman J
Dispute resolution
- Hamlet v GMBATU [1987] ICR 150, Harman J
- Longley v NUJ [1987] IRLR 109
Union members' rights
- Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 ss 28–31, true and fair view of accounts, member's right to inspect, and complaints to Certification Officer.
- Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 ss 62–65, right to require a ballot before industrial action, and no detriment may follow
- Knowles v Fire Brigades Union [1997] ICR 595
- Edwards v Society of Graphical and Allied Trades [1971] Ch 354
- Cheall v APEX [1983] 2 AC 180
- Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 s 174
- ASLEF v United Kingdom[2007] ECHR 184
- Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants v Osborne [1910] AC 87, political donations
- Trade Union Act 1913
- Birch v National Union of Railwaymen [1950] Ch 602
- Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 s 72–73 and 82
- Paul v NALGO [1987] IRLR 413
- Weaver v NATFHE[1988] ICR 599 EAT
Subscriptions
Members' subscriptions are often paid by DOCAS (Deduction of Contributions at Source) i.e. deduction from salary. Implementation of the draft Trade Union (Deduction of Union Subscriptions from Wages in the Public Sector) Regulations 2017 has been delayed until 2019.[9]
Union organisation
Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government, first elected in 1979, saw trade unions as an obstacle to economic growth and passed legislation of the sort the Conservatives had mostly long avoided.[10]
Membership declined steeply in the 1980s and 1990s, falling from 13 million in 1979 to around 7.3 million in 2000. In 2012, union membership dropped below 6 million for the first time since the 1940s.[2] From 1980 to 1998, the proportion of employees who were union members fell from 52 per cent to 30 per cent.[11]
Union membership declined in parallel with the reduction in size of many traditional industries which had been highly unionised, such as steel, coal, printing, and the docks.[12]
In 2016, the Conservative government passed a new Trade Union Act, which proposes stricter ballot thresholds for industrial action, further restraints on picketing and a requirement that union members contributions to political funds would only be via an ‘opt-in’.[13]
International affiliations
See also
- Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act 1875
- Criminal Law Amendment Act 1871
- Employers and Workmen Act 1875
- GCHQ trade union ban
- History of the socialist movement in the United Kingdom
- History of trade unions in the United Kingdom
- Labour Party (UK) affiliated trade union
- List of trade unions in the United Kingdom
- Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023
- Student unionism in the United Kingdom
- Trade Union and Labour Party Liaison Organisation
- Trade Union Freedom Bill
- Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
- Trades Union Certification Officer
- Union Modernisation Fund
Notes
- ^ a b Bishop, Ivan (27 May 2020). "Trade Union Membership, UK 1995–2019: Statistical Bulletin" (PDF). Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 February 2021. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
- ^ a b Moylan, John (7 September 2012). "Union membership has halved since 1980". BBC News. Archived from the original on 19 January 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
- ^ See the Bubble Act 1725 and the Combination Act 1799
- Lee v Showmen’s Guild of Great Britain[1952] 2 QB 359
- Belize
- ^ See Foss v Harbottle (1843) 67 ER 189
- ^ [1950] 2 All ER 1064
- ^ Irwin Mitchell, Update on Deductions of Contributions at Source (DOCAS) Archived 1 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 1 August 2018
- ^ Neil J. Mitchell, "Where traditional Tories fear to tread: Mrs Thatcher's trade union policy." West European Politics 10#1 (1987): 33–45.
- ^ Andrew Charlwood, "The anatomy of union membership decline in Great Britain 1980–1998" (PhD . Diss. The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), 2013), Bibliography pp 212–22. online Archived 7 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ See graph Archived 7 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Williamson, Adrian (8 March 2016). "'The Trade Union Bill 2015: echoes of the General Strike?'". History and Policy. Archived from the original on 18 July 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
Further reading
- Adams, W. S. "Lloyd George and the Labour Movement." Past & Present 3 (1953): 55–64.
- Aldcroft, D. H. and Oliver, M. J., eds. Trade Unions and the Economy, 1870–2000. (2000).
- Campbell, A., Fishman, N., and McIlroy, J. eds. British Trade Unions and Industrial Politics: The Post-War Compromise 1945–64 (1999).
- Charlesworth, Andrew, Gilbert, David, Randall, Adrian, Southall, Humphrey and Wrigley, Chris. An Atlas of Industrial Protest in Britain, 1750–1990 (1996).
- Clegg, H. A.et al. A History of British Trade Unions Since 1889 (1964) The major scholarly history; highly detailed.
- --do.-- A History of British Trade Unions Since 1889: vol. 2 1911–1933. (1985)
- --do.-- A History of British Trade Unionism Since 1889, vol. 3: 1934–51 (1994),
- Davies, A. J. To Build a New Jerusalem: Labour Movement from the 1890s to the 1990s (1996).
- Laybourn, Keith. A history of British trade unionism c. 1770–1990 (1992).
- Minkin, Lewis. The Contentious Alliance: Trade Unions and the Labour Party (1991) 708 pp online
- Pelling, Henry. A history of British trade unionism (1987).
- Wrigley, Chris, ed. British Trade Unions, 1945–1995 (Manchester University Press, 1997)
- Wrigley, Chris. British Trade Unions since 1933 (2002) 115 pp online
- Zeitlin, Jonathan. "From labour history to the history of industrial relations." Economic History Review 40.2 (1987): 159–184. Historiography
- Reid, Alistair J. (4 April 2017). "Trade unions and ‘Original Labour’: an alternative to state-socialism". History and Policy. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
External links
- Media related to Trade unions in the United Kingdom at Wikimedia Commons
- Britain's unions. Trades Union Congress (TUC)