Paul Nowak
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Re:Whatever happened to "new unionism" in the UK? - 03/11/2006 20:35
Perhaps a lot of this comes down to how you define 'partnership'.
Trade unions have always reached agreements with employers. I've seen a lot of partnership agreements which are virtually indistinguishable from the standard sort of agreement that any employer and union would sign. Likewise I've seen other agreements which don't mention the word 'partnership' but which go beyond the normal collective bargaining framework. There are some pretty good and some pretty awful partnership agreements out there - what's clear is that their merits or otherwise have little to do with how they are labelled.
If the role of trade unions is to 'reduce exploitation' the question then is how is this achieved? Most workers and union members do not want their union to be in a state of perpetual conflict with their employer; for the vast majority of union members, struggle (and organising) is a means to an end rather than an end in itself.
What they do want is strong, effective unions that the employer has to bargain with meaningfully (and beyond this, that Governments have to take seriously).
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