TUC conference: what is trade unionism for?


by Dave Osler    
2:30 pm - September 14th 2009

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I don’t know if Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson are particularly up on Søren Kierkegaard.  But as the annual Trades Union Congress conference kicks off in Liverpool today, I reckon many union leaders could do worse than dust off their copies of Fear and Trembling.

The labour movement today is clearly facing what the Danish founder of existentialism would recognise as an existential crisis, a process said to occur when someone undergoes a deep questioning of the very foundations of his or her existence.

Now, I’m not sure if organisations as opposed to individuals can be so afflicted. But Britain’s trade union leaders really do need to ponder an obvious conundrum; what is the point of what they are doing? What, in short, is trade unionism for?

At bottom, unions are there to defend jobs and keep wages as high as possible. Over the last three decades, the ravages of first Thatcherism and then Blairism have seen them become increasingly ineffective at such core tasks.

Since the start of the recession, company after company has introduced savage mass lay-offs; whether there is symbolic consultation or not, unions have repeatedly been unable to extract even minor concessions.

A public sector pay cap has meant real-terms reduction in pay for millions of workers, many of them earning very little to begin with. Token stoppages will do nothing to challenge that.

By tradition, British unions have also promoted a social democratic agenda, using the Labour Party as their primary vehicle. Even that has not been possible since the rise of New Labour.

I have had a trade union card since I was 16, as much because of my upbringing as because of my political convictions, and have made a point of joining the relevant union in any job  , whether recognised or not.

But trade union tribalism like that is dying out. Union members make up less than one in five of all workers aged under 30, and just 15% of private sector employees. Union leaders wonder why such people won’t join up; what is really at issue is, why on earth would they?

To add to the irrelevance problem, Labour is about to find itself out of office, in all likelihood for at least a decade. It’s all very well pointing out that unions get 30% of the votes when deciding who will replace Brown, but a one-third say in who gets to be leader of the opposition is hardly much of a return for the millions of pounds spent keeping Labour afloat.

Many on the left pin their hopes on the emergence of some electoral alliance around Bob Crow and the RMT. This is likely to happen, and Labour has little right to complain.

But whatever the merits of the idea, it is clear that such a formation does not enjoy good prospects in first past the post contests. The single figure in percentage points it is likely to poll in most Westminster constituencies could be enough to gift a number of seats to Cameron.

If it is to have a worthwhile future, trade unionism needs to reassert itself, both in the workplace and through political channels. That will entail greater militancy, and even a willingness to challenge the anti-union laws on occasion.

It is also going to mean actually using the Labour link, to the point where there are enough policy gains involved to sell the set up to a membership whose automatic support for Labourism cannot be taken for granted.

The alternative is continued drift, continued failure to recruit, and the fragmentation of labour movement political input in a manner that could keep the Tories in power for even longer than last time round.

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About the author
Dave Osler is a regular contributor. He is a British journalist and author, ex-punk and ex-Trot. Also at: Dave's Part
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Story Filed Under: Blog ,Labour party ,Trade Unions ,Westminster


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Reader comments


1. Answer

To represent workers and improve their conditions.

2. Charlie2

To employ trade union leaders on salaries far in excess of those of many of their members.

3. Dick the Prick

To call for a strike if someone changes the biscuits

4. Marcus Warner

You leave off another real and genuine way forward, particularly in Wales where I am from.

Unions are starting to work more formally with Plaid, who chime far more with the Trade Union’s viewpoint than New Labour. You sense that Union’s accept that the link with the Labour party is beginning to break, in tune with the wider break with the political duopoly in Westminster.

Consider the fact that devolution has radically altered unions political outlook, the nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales are actually in power, actually promoting similar policies to the trade unions.

5. Diversity

Big businesses usually treat a part of the bisiness that they see as in slow but terminal decline as a ‘cash cow’; a cow which they milk for the benefit of other parts of the business. This seems to be what New Labour sees as the function of the Trade Unions. Or have I missed something?

6. Alisdair Cameron

They cut their own throats by continuing to back New Labour and fund them so bloody handsomely: or rather the union leaders cut the union’s throats, getting into bed with New Lab, while members were lukewarm at best. Indeed the disconnect between some large union leaders and the grass-roots members is profoundly disturbing (including the not-insignificant measures of lifestyle and remuneration), and that’s before we get to the overbearing, narrowly partisan manner and intolerable behaviour of some of the specific individuals.

7. ad

At bottom, unions are there to defend jobs and keep wages as high as possible.

No. They were founded keep their members employed and keep their members wages as high as possible*.

And for the last thirteen years they have been able to do this by bribing the governing party to pay their public sector workers with someone else’s money.

Thie problem is that they will probably not be able to do that after the next election, at exactly the moment when any government will be desperate to find some way of saving money.

*Although most organisations, if left alone long enough, generally find themselves acting to benefit the organisation itself, and its leaders.

8. Gen

I think there is a difference to be made between the purpose of trade unionism and the purpose of the TUC and trade unions in the UK. In terms of trade unionism in the UK, I find that the ideological (and financial) link between New Labour and the TUC no longer has its purpose. Breaking this link might help readjust their goals and strategies.

Globally, most trade unions have seen their membership decline, especially in the private sector. However, some countries are doing better than others in preserving what has been gained in the past. I would hope that british trade unions are already looking at other countries for ideas on trade union revitalisation.

Despite trade unions having the same issues as other types of organisations, their purpose is still to promote equality and help workers.


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