Trade Union Recognition in Britain – An Emerging Crisis for Trade Unions?

Professor Gregor Gall, Centre for Research in Employment RelationsUniversity of Hertfordshire

Introduction 

The statutory provisions for gaining union recognition in Britain, contained in the Employment Relations Act 1999 (ERA), came into force on 6 June 2000 and represent the third such statutory mechanism for gaining union recognition to be introduced (Gall 2003a:15-16). The provisions enable independent trade unions to apply for statutory union recognition where they have at least ten per cent of the proposed bargaining unit in membership, where a majority of workers in the proposed bargaining favour their terms and conditions of employment being determined by collective bargaining (usually evidenced through a petition), and where existing voluntary recognition of another independent union does not exist (see also Gall 2003a:13-14).

The problems/need for representation and participation reported by workers vary across workplaces and by types of jobs. Workers with greater workplace needs are more desirous of unions but their preferences are fine-grained. Workers want unions to negotiate wages and work conditions and for protection but do not see unions as helping them progress in their careers. Many workers see no major workplace problems that would impel them to form or join unions. Unionism raises reported problems while firm-based non-union channels of voice reduce reported problems, but unions that work effectively with management and those that have sufficient strength to be taken seriously by management reduce the number of problems at union workplaces.

by Alex Bryson and Richard Freeman

Workers have responded differently to declining union density in the US and UK. US workers haveunfilled demand for unions whereas many UK workers free-ride at unionized workplaces . To explain this difference, we create a scalar measure of worker needs for representation and relate desire for unionism to this measure and to the choices that the US and UK labor relations systems offer workers. Our measure of needs has similar properties across countries and is the single most important determinant of worker desire for unions and collective representation. Conditional on needs, we find that in both countries workers are more favourable to unions when management is positive toward unions, but also favor them when management strongly opposes unionism, compared to management having a neutral view. Much of the difference in the response of US and UK workers to declining unionism appears to be due to the different institutional arrangements for voice that the countries offer to workers.

Alex Bryson
Richard B. Freeman