The future of trade unionism: injustice, identity and attribution

Abstract

States that the future of trade unionism depends partly on structural factors such as the level of unemployment and also on workers coming to believe that unionism is essential to protect their interests. Draws from the literature on social movements to analyse the ways in which workers arrive at such a viewpoint. According to theory workers must feel a sense of injustice, they must believe management is responsible and they must hold negative views of management. Data from the British Social Attitudes surveys suggest that a growing number of employees have indeed come to share such views. Posits that this encouraging news for trade unions is somewhat offset by the fact that a growing proportion of employees also believes unions may be too weak to make a difference at the workplace, but if this perception could be overcome then the future for unionism is very encouraging.