Trade Unions in Great Britain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Trade Unions in Great Britain - Essay ExampleThus, by the end up of 2005 the public figure of those, who take part in the activity of British trade pairings, has reduced from 14 to 8 million people. One of the main reasons for such subtle reduction was in the fact, that British workers didnt see whatever benefits of collective representation. If the numbers of trade unions members are compared, it will be seen that 35.5% of the UK workers were trade unions members in 1993, while their number has duskd to almost 28.8% in 2004. (Howe, 2004) This decline is reflected through both absolute numbers and relative percentage of the labour force, presented in the private sector. The number of those, who participate in trade unions in public sector, has nominally increased due to the general increase of this sector labour force, but as a percentage this rank and file has also fallen. The general profile of trade union members has also changed during this period, with women leaving them and middle-income earners becoming the main force of trade unions nowadays.The main reason for the constant decline in the trade union membership in the UK lies in general decline of the manufacturing base within the UK and the fragmentation of the workplace, linked to outsourcing and private sector make for in the public sector (Beaumont, 1992) The bigger portion of those, who are occupied in private sector, has refused from such membership, seeing no use and no protection in trade unions activity, with 58.8% of public sector workers being members of trade unions at present time. The total number of days devoted to strikes has also reduced, which is connected with the fact, that trade unions like devoting less time to strikes, but solving the major problems, without going into details. It is also forecast, that the amount of time, devoted to the strikes, and thus to breaks in working process, will continue to decrease. language about the other reasons membership decline, the fol lowing reasons should be taken into account- a considerable portion of those who represent labour force in the UK is accomplished by migrants, who look for jobs on temporary basis and thus have the following reasons not to join the unionsa. the temporary nature of jobs these people prevents them from joining any trade union on the constant basisb. such workers mostly work for the agencies, and not directly for their employers, which also prevents them from joining a trade unionc. the wages these workers earn are often so low, that the subscriptions they have to pay appear to be excessive for them. Migrants often move from one factory to some other and thus they are difficult to be organized. Moreover, together with those, who work on a constant basis, they become very skeptical as for the possible cocksure role of trade unions in their employment relations. (Howe, 2004)Thus, it is clear that nowadays workers underestimate the role of trade unions in protecting their rights, refus ing from membership. As Gall (1994) writes,Unions are painfully aware of the need to recruit new and younger members to reverse the decline in membership that has continued for over a decade. The changing nature of the workplace, with a decline in manufacturing and an increasingly fragmented and globalized workforce, is creating difficulties for trade unions which they are finding hard to meet. The sustained declining trend is a little surprising given order passed in recent years