Union Business
Trade Union Organisation and Financial Reform in the Thatcher Years

A study of the impact of financial organisation on trades unions during the Thatcher years.

Paul Willman (Author), Tim Morris (Author), Beverly Aston (Author)

9780521417259, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 February 1993

268 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2 cm, 0.508 kg

Review of the hardback: ' … fascinating analysis of trade union finances during the Thatcher years … The book provides a wealth of topical data on union finances with chapters on more interesting cases such as the Mineworkers, the Engineers and the Electricians. But its more general interest lies in its focus on an important and neglected issue: the reliance of trade unions for their very survival on the goodwill of employers.' Robert Taylor, Independent

It is fashionable to speak of trades unions in the UK as organisations in decline. However, it is their organisation and, in particular, their financial status, which ultimately dictates unions' ability to survive, recruit, and influence employers. This book provides the first systematic picture of union financial status for thirty years, and reveals a dramatic picture. Though, overall, unions have become financially less healthy in the post-war period, many unions experienced an improved financial position during the membership contraction of the Thatcher years. It also shows that the long term financial decline of unions has been more affected by competition between unions for membership than by the effects of traumatic industrial disputes.

1. Introduction: unions in the 1980s
2. The financial status of British trade unions 1950–1989
3. Financial differences between unions
4. The role of financial matters in union organisation
5. The politics of union finances
6. Union size, growth and financial performance
7. Strike activity and union finances
8. The National Union of Mineworkers: strikes and financial disaster
9. The GMB: merger and financial reform
10. The Amalgamated Engineering Union: back from the brink
11. The Banking, Insurance and Finance Union: competitive unionism and financial survival
12. The Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Trade Union: accountability and financial control
13. Conclusions: union business and business unionism
Appendices
References.

Subject Areas: Business & management [KJ]