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The strengths of British trade unions.

In this talk I would like to deal with the sources of the strengths of the trade union movement in Britain.
Trade unions in Britain are generally believed nowadays to be in a position of great political strength. What is this strength based on? I am going to suggest that it is based on three things: political power, economic power and the protection of the law.

Well, firstly, through the influence on the labour Party they have political power. Their influence over the Labour Party is demonstrated by the following three facts. One is that about one-third of the labour Party MP's are sponsored by the trade unions. This means that a trade union who sponsors a successful candidate will, among other things, provide the bulk of the expenses and in some cases even pay him allowance.

The second relevant fact is that the unions are the main source of finance for the Labour Party. In 1966, the Party received seven times as much in affiliation fees (that is roughly, membership fees) from the trade unions as from the CONSTITUENCY associations.

The third fact is that the unions are in a position to dominate decisions at the Labour Party Conference for they control five and a half million votes as against 800,000 from the constituencies. Through their domination of the Party Conference they are able to influence both the policy and the administration of the Party.

So much for the Unions' political power.
Secondly, of course, the trade unions have economic power, in that they can take industrial action. There has been no general strike in Britain since 1926, but certain unions are in a position to paralyse key industries and thus bring great pressure to bear on the government.

Thirdly, the unions have some degree of legal protection. This takes two forms. The first one is the protection of the labour laws. By this we are referring to the Trade Disputes Acts of 1906 and 1965. The act of 1996 states that " no action against a trade ... in respect of any tort (that is, roughly, any offence) alleged to have been committed ... shall be entertained by any court". This puts the unions, in a sense, outside the law.

Another kind of legal immunity is that trade unions are excluded from MONOPOLY legislation. If a manufacturer uses total control over certain goods or services to push up prices, that is an offence. But it is not an offence for unions to use monopoly over the work-force to push up wages, and, consequently prices

So we therefore have three sources of strength for the unions: political power through their influence on the Labour Party; economic power based on their right to strike; and legal protection.

Adapted from: Wallace, M. J. (1980) Study skill in English


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