Trade Union Mergers, rationalisation or opportunism
February 18th
5.00pm - 7.00pm
London Metropolitan University
Room JS2-75
31 Jewry Street
London EC3N 2EY
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Roger Undy (Emeritus Reader and Emeritus Fellow Said Business School and Templeton College, University of Oxford)
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Tom Wilson (Head of Organisation Dept., TUC)
Trade Union mergers are in the news as a new category of ‘super unions’ has been created which in one case at least, straddles both sides of the Atlantic. It looks like more massive union accretions are on the way with two unions now comprising nearly a half of the TUC affiliated membership. Is this a positive development? Does it benefit the membership of those unions? How is the growing multiplicity of trade groups/industries catered for in the new structures? Do such mergers pose a challenge to the democratic structure of the TUC by undermining the rights of smaller affiliates? Or, are such mergers inevitable and part of the long process of trade union consolidation which has seen the number of trade union dwindle from over 300 in the early 20th century to around 56 today. This seminar will throw a light on these and other contested issues and in so doing project the future course of trade union development in the 21st century.
