Is Trade Unionism Necessary In The 21St Century?

Alberto Saviolo Greggio
University of Salford Manchester UK

People Management
Essay 2012


Is trade unionism necessary in the 21st century?

Trade unionism is a complex subject that has been discussed by many since its first appearance in Europe. “How relevant are trade unionism in the early twenty-first century?” and “What are they for”? These are the mains questions that maycome out from anyone when we are talking about trade union. However, to get more involved with the subject it essential to discover the importance that Trade Union perform in industrial relations, being necessary to define and to understand the purpose of trade unionism, not forgetting the variety of functions. At the same time, it is require understanding why the union membership decline since1979 and the factors that might influence the membership to increase. It is indispensable to learn the benefits that the members can get from the trade union. According to the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, trade union is “an organization, whether temporary or permanent, that consists wholly or mainly of workers whose main purpose is the regulation of relations betweenthese workers and employers or employers’ associations“.
Trade unions has an important role being ready to create and develop an impressive communication and relationship between the workers and the management, providing support to guarantee that the differences of ideas doesn’t become into a big conflict. Although, trade unionism was created in order to promote and defend the interest oflabourers against any discrimination or unfair labour performance (e.g. low salary) and to improve a fair and secure working environment. In fact, it is necessary to recognise different types of Trade Unions such as: (i) Craft Unions (where in a small union skilled workers can perform the same craft in different industries; e.g. Musicians); (ii) General Unions (where it is a group of various types ofworkers in different industries; e.g. cleaners, transport workers); (iii) Industrial Unions (where it is organized all different workers in the same industry; e.g. The National Union of Miners or N.U.M); (iv) Occupational or Non-manual Unions ( where the ‘white-collar’ workers, known as professional, can execute same craft and are organised together in different industries.) However, trade unionhas numerous different functions, which are classified as Militant and Fraternal functions. Militant or fighting functions, is one of the functions which organize a group of different activities in order to guarantee an decent salary/wages, to ensure an amended and healthier environment where the workers can be well treated by employers, to decrease works hours, to assure trust some share in theprofit, contributing for a better management and control of industry. But in case if the unions cannot achieve those functions trough collective bargaining (negotiation between the employers and employees) it might result in a fight with the management, hence these functions are knows as militant or fighting functions, through “go-slow tactics, strike, boycott, etc”. On the other side, there arefraternal functions, where the unions are especially formed to create friendly and informal industrial relations being able to transmit education or culture to their members, helping them improve the morale and developing their self-confidence between them. Unions also committed to help works realize their objectives in terms of welfare, such as children’s education, library, reading rooms andother leisure facilities. In point of fact, fraternal function, to support theirs members, it will depend on the available finance, which are collected from the number of subscribers and donations helping the increasing the welfare of their members. Fraternal functions also provide opportunities for promotion and/or growth and also defend female workers.
Although it is manageable to identify...