“A trade union is an independant self-regulating organization of workers created to protect and advance the interests of its members through collective action.” Over recent years, it has become fashionable in many quarters to write off Britain’s trade unions, to label them as obsolete institutions out of touch with new realities and incapable of change. In today’s world of individual employment contracts, performance-related pay schemes, Human Resource and Total Quality Management and all …showed first 75 words of 1437 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1437 total…lost in the transition from village societies to urban anonymity. In reality, their role has been more modest. In the early 1980's they enrolled in their ranks only one of five members of the labor force, down from one of four in the 1950's and 1960's. These workers had a somewhat greater say in their work lives and in the halls of Congress and state legislatures. They received somewhat greater pay and were more productive.