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

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.

Focusing on unions' financial status, the authors show that, though most unions are financially flimsy and dependent on the employers they bargain with, successful unions have efficient collection mechanisms, effective budgeting systems, a stable membership, avoid costly strikes, and competition with other unions for members.