IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v8y1994i3p339-356.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Privatisation and Local Trade Unionism

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Fairbrother

    (Centre for Comparative Labour Studies in the Department of Sociology of the University of Warwick)

Abstract

The argument in this paper is that, while privatization creates difficulties for traditional forms of unionism, it also opens up the possibility of union renewal. Drawing on detailed case study evidence from telecommunications, gas and water, three related issues are examined. Managerial decentralisation and devolution have created opportunities for managements to pursue policies aimed at achieving more direct forms of control over their workforces, specifically through the individualisation of work relations, thereby threatening the continued operation of unions in these industries. With these developments it has become clear that the traditional forms of unionism no longer suffice, precipitating debates within these unions as to how best to deal with these changes. In the face of these developments, local unions have attempted to either maintain past forms of organisation and activity to accommodate this process of restructuring or they have begun a process of union renewal, broadening their bases of union concern and activity. Thus, the paradox of privatization is that some unions may be able to take the opportunity provided by this restructuring to reorganise and lay the foundations for their renewal in more participative and active ways.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Fairbrother, 1994. "Privatisation and Local Trade Unionism," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 8(3), pages 339-356, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:8:y:1994:i:3:p:339-356
    DOI: 10.1177/095001709483002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/095001709483002
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/095001709483002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Smith & Gary Morton, 1993. "Union Exclusion and the Decollectivization of Industrial Relations in Contemporary Britain," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 31(1), pages 97-114, March.
    2. Teresa Rees & David Owens, 1993. "The Computerisation of Trade Union Membership Records: A Research Note," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 7(1), pages 121-133, March.
    3. Anthony Ferner & Trevor Colling, 1991. "Privatization, Regulation and Industrial Relations," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 29(3), pages 391-409, September.
    4. Peter Fairbrother, 1990. "The Contours of Local Trade Unionism in a Period of Restructuring," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Patricia Fosh & Edmund Heery (ed.), Trade Unions and their Members, chapter 6, pages 147-176, Palgrave Macmillan.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stephen Machin, 2000. "Union Decline in Britain," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 38(4), pages 631-645, December.
    2. Pat Walsh & Kurt Wetzel, 1993. "Preparing for Privatization: Corporate Strategy and Industrial Relations in New Zealand's State-owned Enterprises," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 31(1), pages 57-74, March.
    3. Stephen Bach & David Winchester, 1994. "Opting Out of Pay Devolution? The Prospects for Local Pay Bargaining in UK Public Services," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 32(2), pages 263-282, June.
    4. Robert MacKenzie, 2002. "The Migration of Bureaucracy: Contracting and the Regulation of Labour in the Telecommunications Industry," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 16(4), pages 599-616, December.
    5. Ralph Darlington, 1995. "Restructuring and Workplace Unionism at Manchester Airport," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 33(1), pages 93-115, March.
    6. Anna Pollert & Andy Charlwood, 2009. "The vulnerable worker in Britain and problems at work," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 23(2), pages 343-362, June.
    7. William Brown & Paul Ryan, 2003. "The Irrelevance of Trade Union Recognition? A Comparison of Two Matched Companies," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 6(3), pages 383-408, September.
    8. Michael Poole & Roger Mansfield, 1993. "Patterns of Continuity and Change in Managerial Attitudes and Behaviour in Industrial Relations, 1980-1990," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 31(1), pages 11-35, March.
    9. Richard Disney & Amanda Gosling & Stephen Machin, 1994. "British Unions in Decline: An Examination of the 1980s Fall in Trade Union Recognition," NBER Working Papers 4733, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Caroline Lloyd & Roger Seifert, 1995. "Restructuring in the NHS: The Impact of the 1990 Reforms on the Management of Labour," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 9(2), pages 359-378, June.
    11. Diane M. Sinclair, 1995. "The Importance of Sex for the Propensity to Unionize," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 33(2), pages 173-190, June.
    12. Jörg Flecker & Franz Schultheis & Berthold Vogel, 2016. "A ‘Problem of Fairness’ in the Making: The Transformation of Public Services from the Perspective of Postal Workers," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 54(4), pages 768-789, December.
    13. Gregor Gall & Sonia McKay, 1994. "Trade Union Derecognition in Britain, 1988–1994," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 32(3), pages 433-448, September.
    14. Damian Grimshaw & Kevin G. Ward & Jill Rubery & Huw Beynon, 2001. "Organisations and the Transformation of the Internal Labour Market," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 15(1), pages 25-54, March.
    15. Dermot McCarthy & Eoin Reeves & Tom Turner, 2010. "The impact of privatization and employee share ownership on employee commitment and citizen behaviour," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 31(3), pages 307-326, August.
    16. Paul Smith & Gary Morton, 1993. "Union Exclusion and the Decollectivization of Industrial Relations in Contemporary Britain," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 31(1), pages 97-114, March.
    17. Stuart Ogden, 1994. "The Reconstruction of Industrial Relations in the Privatized Water Industry," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 32(1), pages 67-84, March.
    18. Darren McCabe, 1999. "Total Quality Management: Anti-Union Trojan Horse or Management Albatross?," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 13(4), pages 665-691, December.
    19. Stephen Mustchin, 2017. "Public sector restructuring and the re-regulation of industrial relations: the three-decade project of privatisation, liberalisation and marketisation in Royal Mail," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(4), pages 294-309, July.
    20. David Parker, 2004. "Editorial: Lessons From Privatisation," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 2-8, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:8:y:1994:i:3:p:339-356. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.