The institutions of industrial relations

Abstract

Some aspects of the institutions and processes of industrial relations have already been discussed — in particular collective bargaining and consultation, involvement and participation — in the context of employer strategy (Chapter 6) and in terms of trade union reaction (Chapter 8). In this chapter we concentrate more on the implications of the changes that have, and are still, unfolding. In the early post-war decades there had been, particularly in much of manufacturing industry, a great growth in informal and fragmented workplace bargaining, in the importance of custom and practice, in the power of workgroups and shop stewards, and in wage drift (see Chapters 1 and 2).