The future of trade unions

Text of Brendan Barber's (TUC General Secretary) City University Vice Chancellor's Lecture

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The legal changes made by the Conservative government were damaging to unions and to people at work, but our membership fell more because of their economic policies than their legal changes.

Many of these trends have continued unabated since the 1980s. In particular in recent years there have been huge losses of manufacturing jobs - and often in the older unionised sectors such as textiles. Yet our membership has now stopped falling. That is a significant achievement. Something must be going right for us.

And indeed there is. There are a number of factors working in our favour.

The change in government was crucial, and for three reasons. It both reflected and resulted in a significant change in public attitudes. For all new Labour's desire to be close to business, the cult of the macho manager who felt a failure without downsizing something each day now looks very dated. Of course some employers remain ideologically opposed to trade unions, but more, while hardly enthusiastic, will respect workforce wishes.

Changes in the law have given unions a fairer chance. New recognition laws have helped us tackle the hard line employers, and encouraged voluntary deals with others. New rights at work have made it more worthwhile to be in a union as we are more able to provide help and assistance.

And of course the public sector has rightly grown as a new government has begun to rebuild our public services. More teachers and more health service staff means more union members. Secondly it needed unions to make something of those new opportunities. And they have, with the full support of the TUC.

The steady stream of new recognitions - usually on a voluntary basis - shows that many unions have grasped the organising nettle.

There were 50 per cent more recognition deals in the two years following the introduction of statutory recognition (770), than the total number of deals made in the five years before it came into force (513).

Part of the impetus for this has come from the TUC itself. Our Organising Academy is now five years old, and has now trained 150 mainly young organisers often with non-traditional union backgrounds.

Each has been sponsored by one of our affiliated unions through their training, and spend much of their time with their sponsor. That has helped spread the message among a wide range of unions, and brought a new diversity and enthusiasm to spreading the union message.

A further important factor in helping spread the union message has been the growth of the partnership approach to industrial relations.

You might think that this is a strange message when no media story about trade unions fails to include the phrase 'awkward squad' and disputes such as the fire service dispute attract considerable coverage. But industrial relations in this country are actually remarkably good.

The number of days lost through industrial action has fallen sharply since the late 70s and early 1980s, and while it may have risen very slightly in the last year, the graph puts that rise in historical perspective. I'm not the slightest bit defensive about strikes. The right to withdraw your labour is a fundamental human right. It would be a strange sort of right if it were never exercised.

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