Analysing the Level of Relevance of Trade Unions in the 21st Century
21st Century has brought numerus changes to the workplace that has affected the relevance of trade unions in UK. The first external change that is discussed is the rise of the gig-economy, which has made trade unions less relevant but still acknowledges that they are active in the workplace. Similarly, another external political change is discussed that has diminished the need for trade unions in the 21st century. This essay takes the last point to reveal that new ideologies in the workplace has replaced the traditional trade unionist beliefs and offers ways in which they can become more relevant. Taking into account all the different ideas, the essay finally concludes whether trade unions are of relevance in the workplace in the 21st century in UK.
A trade union is an organization made up of workers who have memberships and one the main aims is to protect the interest of its members in the workplace. Firstly, one of the prominent changes that UK has witnessed in the 21st century has been the rise of the gig-economy. The entry of the gig -economy also commonly known as on-demand platforms have enabled flexible working arrangements. For example, Uber and Deliveroo workers have the power to set their own schedules and workers have the ultimate capability. The economic shift towards self-employment and freelancing as well as the pressure from competition has led to strikes becoming irrelevant. The main reason for this is the nature of the gig-economy where workers, in the perspective of the firm are making their own rules and schedules. Uber and Deliveroo connects the worker with the customers which puts the firm as a third party behind the scene. The complications arising is that an Uber worker cannot go on strike against themselves or the rules they have created, as this destroys the very concept of a strike. This is further supported by ‘’Office for National Statistics where the number of industrial disputes involving some 33.000 workers, the lowest ever’’. From this it is evident that trade unions are not of relevance to the workplace in the 21st Century as standard employee relationships are now being replaced with gig-economy. Equally, the rise of the gig-economy may in reality make trade unions more relevant in the workplace in the 21st Century. The core function of trade union is to improve the working conditions for the employees, who are for instance paid less than the minimum wage or, are not receiving perks such as retirement. In the case of Uber, the company recently faced a court appeal for labelling the drivers as self-employed. ‘’Meaning that they are not entitled to basic worker’s rights including holiday pay and the National Minimum Wage’’. Although the appeal was made by GMB, a British trade union that represented Uber workers, the case was not successful. This shows the relevance for trade unions in 21st century as workers in the gig-economy need an external agent to represent their interest which they don’t have the power to do independently. To further support them, ‘’the independent Workers’ Union of UK, which is backing co-claimants Aslam and Farrer in the case, has organised a march in London’’.Trade union is still relevant as workers continue to face poor working conditions, despite being self-employed.
Secondly, the rise of neo-liberalism has led to trade unions becoming less relevant in the 21st century. The greatest impact of moving towards neo-liberalism has been the privatisation of many sectors in the UK as well as deregulation, and a move towards free market. The deregulation of markets and the lacking state intervention has led to competition in many industries, where previously there were only monopolies or oligopolies. Competition has led to 2 major changes in managing organizations which has reduced the relevance of trade unions. Predominantly, the intense competition in many sectors has led to the outsourcing of labour, as this human resource cost is among one of the main cash outflows for a business. Outsourcing has led to lower labour cost and less labour employed domestically. This has contributed to trade unions becoming less relevant in UK in the 21st century. Similarly, competition has also led to many firms following a softer HR in managing employees. The shift towards services from manufacturing has led to employees demanding high skilled labour domestically and low skilled labour offshore. The supply of highly skilled labour can be inelastic, referring to the process of gaining these skills and experiences which is possible in the long-term, and is hard to quickly replace workers compared to the manufacturing industry. This has some ways impacted the relevance of trade unions due to the fact that employers are willing to invest in employees and bargain for their interest. These firms aim to nurture their employees so that their investment is rewarded with high productivity. Google, Facebook and LinkedIn are some of the few examples that has successfully become the best employers to work for. The shift towards a softer HR strategy, makes trade unions less relevant in the 21st Century as employers from many firms are willingly bargaining for their employees’ rights through good salaries, fringe benefits, promotions and ensuring that the organizational culture is better than competitors. Through this, productivity increases and the reward for the organization’s investment is high. Nevertheless, the changing external environment and political crisis has led to more conflict between workers and managers, increasing the relevance of trade unions in the 21st century. One of the factors that can cause a shift in demand, based on economic teachings is consumer confidence. UK’s departure from EU without a deal has left consumer confidence at its lowest, and this has impacted many businesses. Maplin and PoundWorld is among many that has faced drastic changes in demand and had no option but to close outlets to survive. Following their footsteps, many businesses are cautious with investing in new workers and most are making redundancies. In many ways, Brexit and the global economy has led to changes in the labour market such as less job security and more short-term contracts. The most common in the 21st century is zero-hour contracts, a popular method for businesses to cut labour costs and meet the unstable demand. Similar to the gig-economy, zero hours contracts have implications that can have negative long-term impacts, such as low pay, changing hours, demanding work and in the long term this can impact the mental and physical health of workers.
Trade union is relevant as the government hasn’t prevented these forms of contracts despite the implications and the workers require a powerful group such as trade unions to represent their interest. The interest of managers wanting to cut cost for the owners to benefit from high profits, conflict with the interest of workers to receive stable hours and be paid in line with inflation. The conflict of interest has increased in the 21st century and trade unions are relevant owing to the fact that the free market hasn’t corrected the conflict. The failure to recognise new workplaces has been an important factor in the unpopularity of trade unions in the 21st Century. The move away from manufacturing in UK and fall in collective agreements ‘’which fell from well over 80 per cent before 1979 to 70 per cent in 1984 and to 41 per cent in 1998, a decline especially in the private sector’’, has been due to the content of bargaining falling. Trade unions are seen in the 21st century negatively by employers and their loss of bargaining has led to lost faith in the unions by workers. Today the dominant method of bargaining is no longer collective i.e. through strikes but more between leave-if-not-happy and newer forms of practises by human resource management. This includes, constant feedback from workers on the current management strategy, better communication between managers and workers as well as support from the workplace. Therefore, it can be concluded that trade unions are less relevant in the workplace in the 21st century as conflict is resolved more effectively between managers and workers. The conflict in the workplace is no longer collective but individuals has their own interests, this is better resolved through bargaining with managers. Mainly because trade unions present the interest of majority and assume conflict is collective. Despite employers being more willing to negotiate and be more generous, there are still many workers from the state and private sector who are trade union members, so their relevance has not completely gone. ‘’in 2017, around 6.2 million employees in the UK were union members’’, and despite the decline for more than 6 million to be members they must still be relevant to some extent. Further statistics also show that women are more likely to be trade union members and from the older proportion of workers. The older age group members can be justified through their familiarity with trade union from a younger age whilst the younger population is exposed to newer work environment and the membership fees are high. Uncertainty is high from the perspective of a consumer as well as a business which makes many workers in the gig-economy and shorter contracts insecure about their jobs. Certainly, they are becoming more relevant today than the start of 21st Century with the global crisis. In the future, they can make a strong presence in the new labour market by being able to change, they need ‘’root-and-branch reinvention to attract new members’’, and they to write fairer laws, as well as changing membership fees that can attract low income workers.
Taking into account all the changes that has led to trade unions becoming less relevant such as the rise of the gig-economy, the privatisation of many sectors and the changes in method of bargaining, it can be concluded that trade unions are less relevant in the 21st Century in comparison to their relevance during the manufacturing period. They have not completely become irrelevant which is shown through their membership statistics and their participation in the workforce. Lastly, there is an opportunity for trade unions to become more relevant and protecting workers whose interest is not presented, by changing their method of bargaining and adjusting their membership fees in accordance with workers income.
