Trade Union Activity - Essay Example

Unionism in Britain is nonetheless no relic from the past. Despite their problems, British unions remain by far the largest single "associational" component in their societies and are crucial to the governance of British economies. What they do continues to matter.

It is within the industry that the most autocratic and feudalistic practices of modern democratic communities occur. Trade unions are a reaction against these practices; against the belief that within the four walls of the factory the employer can exercise arbitrary control over workers. The intervention of trade unions in the determination of worker/management relations has set in motion a process of democratization of industry. Activities previously regarded as managerial prerogatives are now the joint responsibility of workers and management. Promotion, redundancy, the calculation of piece rates, the installation of new machinery, are all now covered in various industries by National Working Rule Agreements. Grievance procedure, whether operated by shop stewards or works councils, is part of the democratic process which involves in the industry the surrender of the arbitrary exercise of power. To illustrate this point, however, one has no need to give a detailed examination of the control of industry; one needs simply to point out that from the very moment that an employer recognizes the right of workers in his factory to combine he is agreeing to the extension of the democratic process in the industry, for he is, in effect, agreeing to the curtailment of his own autocratic power.

Briefly, then, trade unions, as voluntary organizations, are essential for the maintenance and extension of democracy. But, it can be argued, if it is true that the majority of trade-union members are simply paying members and play no direct part in the government of their unions, if, that is, the unions are not democratically run but are oligarchies, then they constitute a direct threat to democracy in the same way as extreme concentrations of wealth and large-scale monopolies threaten democracy. The role ascribed to trade unions in democracy has so far been unrelated to the state of the trade-union organization itself. Only one condition has been attached--that trade union should be voluntary societies. It is contended here, however, that trade-union organization is not based on theoretical concepts prior to it that is on some concept of democracy, but in the end, it serves.

The Administration Of Trade Unions
Trade Unions, apart from the State and the Churches and in terms of size and the diversity of interests of their members, are the largest single units of organization in the country. At the end of 1951, there were 704 trade unions with an aggregate membership of 9,480,000.