Trade Union Growth: a Comparison

Abstract

Historically the British trade union movement is characterised by division rather than unity. Workers did not organise ‘en masse’ but at different times and frequently in an atmosphere of antagonism or mistrust towards other elements within the ‘working-class’. There were differing, often incompatible, views of the function of trades unionism. Most skilled craftsmen saw unions as protecting their status from encroachment by employers, new processes or unskilled workers. Many such bodies saw themselves as respectable institutions seeking to preserve the status quo. For most of the unskilled trade unions had little to do with protecting status but rather preventing exploitation by employers or skilled labour. For many unskilled the status quo was not something to be preserved but overthrown.