Redefining Public Sector Unionism: UNISON and the Future of Trade Unions

Citation

Corby, S. (2001), "Redefining Public Sector Unionism: UNISON and the Future of Trade Unions", Employee Relations, Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 417-425. https://doi.org/10.1108/er.2001.23.4.417.2

Allan Flanders likened unions to people who share a range of bodily functions while retaining a unique “spirit” or personality that is theirs alone. In these two books, one by Ironside and Seifert on the National and Local Government Officers’ Association (NALGO), the other an edited collection by Terry on UNISON, the personality of the two unions comes over loud and clear. The Ironside and Seifert book is a history of NALGO from 1979, when the Thatcher administration came to power, until 1993. NALGO, radicalised by its experiences in the 1970s, but with a stable membership, developed a strong campaigning profile against Thatcher’s changes to the shape and nature of the public sector and became known for its progressive stance on a wide range of issues.

In 1993 there was a three‐way merger between NALGO, the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) and the Confederation of Health Service Employees (COHSE) to form UNISON. The other book reviewed here, edited by Terry, considers this merger five years on. From the start, i.e. prior to the merger, UNISON concentrated on its “spirit”, enunciating its vision and values that then interacted with structural formulation. These aims and values incorporated into the new union’s rulebook included the promotion of equal opportunities, which was then expressed in self organising groups for women, black members, disabled members and gays and lesbians; fair representation which was then expressed in proportionality e.g. reserved seats for women and low paid workers on the union’s national executive; and the promotion of public services e.g. campaigns against the Private Finance Initiative.

Neither of the two books reviewed here are conventional union histories, focusing on the activities of the leaders, i.e. the senior full‐time officials and members of the national executive. The Ironside and Seifert book concentrates on activists. The authors argue that this reveals more about the nature and purpose of trade unionism, than “the dry academic portrayals of rational economic actors” (p. 283). The Terry book, unusually for a study of a single union, has over 20 contributors. Moreover, these contributors are split in roughly equal numbers between practitioners and academics. They provide different perspectives and insights on the merger process and the challenges that UNISON faces five years on.

Yet despite this similarity, there are differences between these two books. The Ironside and Seifert book has a conceptual underpinning, the significance of activism. The Terry book, as Terry himself says: “reflects different preoccupations, relationships to the union and analytical approaches”.

To take the NALGO book first, the book is in chronological, not thematic order apart from Chapter one, which summarises the literature on trade union role and purpose. Thus, Chapter two reviews the union’s development from its foundation up to 1979. Essentially, the influence of senior local government officers waned as the union’s membership expanded. Chapters three and four cover the first Thatcher Government, 1979 to 1983, and particularly three national disputes: in social work, local government and the NHS and the union’s campaign entitled Put People First. Chapters five and six cover the second Thatcher Government 1983‐1987, looking at union action in the face of the privatisation of British Gas, the plans to privatise water and electricity, compulsory competitive tendering in local government and the NHS, the abolition of the Greater London Council and the largely unsuccessful attempts to halt the rightward shift in the Labour Party and the TUC. Chapters seven to nine cover the period 1987 to 1993, tracing the union’s response to the changes in the structure of utilities and local government and to the reforms in the NHS and education. This included national level industrial action by local government workers in 1989 and by ambulance workers in 1989‐1990 and many local disputes. The final chapter looks at the reasons for the merger with NUPE and COHSE.

The book is a useful work of reference with its 40 tables. It is based on a host of documents including annual reports, the union’s national and regional journals, leaflets, pamphlets, local and national newspapers and contains a wealth of detail. Moreover, the text is supplemented by additional detail on specific events in 15 so‐called “boxes”, which sometimes run to several pages. For instance box three covers the strike in 1981 at Penwith District Council over the disbanding of the architect section and the dismissal of architect Alex Maund, who was also chair of the sub‐branch. Box seven deals with the defence of Muhammad Idrish in 1984‐1985, a social worker and founder member of NALGO’s Barnardo’s branch. Box 15 reviews the regrading claims of medical secretaries, with strikes for instance in 1986 at Luton and Dunstable Hospital and Selly Oak and in 1991 at Royal Oldham Hospital.

The book’s weakness is a tendency to purple prose. For instance on p. 246 the authors mention the TUC women’s conference in 1988 and then say that “this groundswell of resistance was not apparent among the craven and crestfallen leaders of the TUC and the Labour Party” (my emphasis). These adjectives could have been omitted, without losing the gist. Similarly, on p. 317 the authors say “the campaign swept the country, with battles in Leeds, Sheffield…” A less “purple” rendition might have been to say that “there was acampaign in various parts of the country, with resistance in Leeds, Sheffield…”

The Terry book’s 18 chapters are divided into two parts. The first part, structures and processes, centres on the internal workings of UNISON and its employees, for instance the management of the merger process, organisation development, the new union’s relationship with the Labour Party and its two political funds, a general one and an affiliated one. The second part, the UNISON agenda, centres on the union’s approach to its key activities and the general reader is more likely to prefer this less navel gazing part. Clearly in an edited book the quality of the contributions vary , but overall the quality is high and it is, therefore, unfortunate that potential purchasers may be deterred by the book’s price of £60.

There is a particularly useful chapter on the trade union’s membership strategy by Waddington and Kerr. This chapter is based on evidence from two surveys conducted by the authors. In the first survey in 1995 UNISON members were asked to rank their reasons for remaining members of the union. In the second survey in 1996 those who had just left UNISON were asked about their reasons for leaving. The findings suggest that members felt inadequately supported and isolated from other levels in the union. To counteract this, resources have been shifted from the centre to branches, branch recruitment targets have been introduced with UNISON supporting and sponsoring trainees from the TUCs Organising Academy and UNISON “direct”, a call centre service, is being developed. To what extent this will lead to an increase in membership is an open question and a fertile area for research.

Other useful chapters include one by Thornley et al. on collective bargaining in health and local government and another on low pay by Morris. He argues that the union’s successful campaign, originally initiated by NUPE in the 1960s to secure a statutory minimum wage has provided a foundation for collective bargaining on UNISONs low pay target.

Also of interest in throwing light on an often‐neglected area, trade union training and education, is the chapter by Munro and Rainbird. The authors point out that UNISON is an unusual trade union on three counts. First, it is a significant provider of learning opportunities to members as well as to activists. Second, it does not only provide training that is directly work related, it also provides personal development. Third, it has established partnerships with employers for the provision of learning and development opportunities and such courses are not limited to UNISON members. Monro and Rainbird argue that instead of education and training being an additional demand on the bargaining agenda, there is “a ‘new learning agenda’ in which the union provides solutions rather than simply makes demands”.

The Terry book ends with some words of caution from TUC general secretary, John Monks. He argues that a union the size of UNISON cannot afford the “luxury of opposition”. In other words it has to eschew the policies and practices adopted by NALGO from the 1980s and chronicled by Ironside and Seifert, a viewpoint with which some both inside and outside UNISON might take issue.

UNISON as the largest union in the UK symbolises the fact that union strength lies in the public sector. Its current position as the largest union, however, may be temporary. Hot on its heels are the AEEU and MSF that are set to merge and UNISON may lose health service members to the Royal College of Nursing that has changed its rules so that it can recruit healthcare assistants as associate members.

Membership recruitment and retention apart, UNISON faces a number of unresolved issues. Fryer, who was the chief academic advisor to the three partner unions in the merger discussions, points out in this book that these include the balance of influence, resources and membership identity between the union as a whole and those concerned with particular services or occupations and between the union centrally and the regions and branches. Other important unresolved issues are the relationship between full‐time officials and elected lay representatives and the balance between the traditional activities of the union in collective bargaining and representing members at work and the newer agendas that include services to members and the emphasis on learning. As Fryer says, however:

There are no absolutely right or wrong answers … Matters such as these are rarely, if ever, finally settled in trade unions… To a degree, even regarding them as “unresolved” is itself somewhat misleading: there is a very real sense in which these matters are intrinsic to UNISON, part of its lifeblood.

Despite many unresolved issues and challenges, UNISON has come a long‐way in a short time. The overall message from this book is that it has largely discarded the characters of the three partner unions and is successfully forging a new spirit and personality.