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Managing under Pressure pp 1–20Cite as

Industrial Relations in Local Government

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Part of the book series: Public Policy and Politics

Abstract

Industrial relations in the public services has been a neglected field. Historically public service organisations have not been characterised by smouldering industrial discontent but by harmonious and well-ordered relations between employers and unions. This situation has now changed completely. In Britain ‘by 1980 it had become commonplace to consider the major source of instability in British industrial relations as lying in the relationship between governments and other public sector trade unions’.1 In a similar vein another commentator has described the British public sector unions as ‘the most dynamic section of British organised labour’.2 A similar growth in public service union militancy has been noted in other countries such as the United States and Australia.3

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Notes and References

  1. David Winchester, ‘Industrial Relations in the Public Sector’, in G. S. Bain (ed.), Industrial Relations in Britain (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1983) p. 155.

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  2. Richard Parry, ‘Britain: Stable Aggregates, Changing Composition’, in Richard Rose (ed.), Public Employment in Western Nations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985) p. 79.

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  3. See, for example, A. L. Chickering (ed.), Public Employee Unions: A Study of the Crisis in Public Sector Labour Relations (Lexington: Lexington Books, 1976)

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  4. Mary Dickenson and Don Rawson, Trends in Public Sector Unionism’, Australian Journal of Public Administration, 2, XLIV (June 1985) pp. 118–30.

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  5. This discussion is intended just as a basic introduction to the main theoretical debates, for a good, comprehensive survey of the differing authors see Michael Poole, Theories of Trade Unionism (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, revised ed, 1984).

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  6. For a thorough analysis of the origins of pluralism in industrial relations see Richard Hyman, ‘Pluralism, Procedural Consensus and Collective Bargaining’, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 1, 16 (1978) pp. 16–40.

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  7. Quoted by Alan Fox, Industrial Sociology and Industrial Relations, Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers’ Associations, Research Paper No 3 (London, HMSO, 1966) p. 4.

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  8. Alan Flanders, Management and Unions: The Theory and Reform of Industrial Relations (London: Faber, 1970) p. 86.

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  9. G. S. Bain and H. S. Clegg, ‘A Strategy for Industrial Relations Research in Great Britain’, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 1, 12 (1974) p. 95.

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  10. For an example of the pluralist approach see Robert A. Dahl, Modern Political Analysis (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, second ed., 1970).

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  11. Alan Flanders, Management and Unions: The Theory and Reform of Industrial Relations (London: Faber, 1970) p. 205.

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  12. Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers’ Associations, Report, Cmnd 3623 (London: HMSO, 1968).

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  13. Harry H. Wellington and Ralph K. Winter Jr., The Unions and the Cities (Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1971).

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  14. Colin Crouch, Trade Unions: The Logic of Collective Action (London: Fontana, 1982) p. 104.

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  15. Terry Nichols Clark and Lorna Crowley Ferguson, City Money — Political Processes, Fiscal Strain and Retrenchment (New York: Columbia University Press, 1983) p. 171.

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  16. For example A. W. J. Thomson and P. B. Beaumont, Public Sector Bargaining: A Study of Relative Gain (Farnborough: Saxon House, 1978) p. 146.

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  17. Hugh Clegg, Trade Unionism under Collective Bargaining: A Theory Based on Comparisons of Six Countries (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1976).

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  18. Richard Hyman, Industrial Relations: A Marxist Introduction (London: Macmillan, 1972).

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  19. J. H. Goldthorpe, ‘Industrial Relations in Britain: A Critique of Reformism’, Politics and Society, 4 (1974) p. 442.

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  20. For a trenchant defence of his position see Hugh Clegg, ‘Pluralism in Industrial Relations’, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 13, (1975), pp. 309–16.

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  21. For example one study of white collar unionism shows that the low level of white collar unionism is better explained in terms of the obstacles to union organisation rather than class and status, G. S. Bain, D. Coates and V. Ellis, Social Stratification and Unionism (London: Heinemann, 1973).

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  22. John Purcell and Robin Smith, ‘Introduction’ in Purcell and Smith (ed.), The Control of Work (London: Macmillan, 1979) p. x.

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  23. John Purcell, Good Industrial Relations in Theory and Practice (London: Macmillan, 1981)

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  24. Alan Fox, Beyond Contract: Work, Power and Trust Relations (London: Faber, 1974).

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  25. J. H. Goldthorpe, D. Lockwood, F. Bechofer and J. Platt, The Affluent Worker: Industrial Attitudes and Behaviour (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968)

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  26. Richard Hyman, Strikes (London: Fontana, 1972) p. 72.

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  27. Colin Crouch, ‘The Changing Role of the State — Industrial Relations in Western Europe’ in C. Crouch and A. Pizzorno (ed.), The Resurgence of Class Conflict in Western Europe Since 1968 (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1978) Vol. 2, pp. 197–220.

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  28. A good introduction to corporatism is Reginald J. Harrison, Pluralism and Corporatism: The Political Evolution of modern Democracies (London: Allen & Unwin, 1980)

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  29. Alan Cawson’s, Corporatism and Political Theory (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986)

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  30. For a pluralist critique of corporatism see R. M. Martin, ‘Pluralism and the New Corporatism’, Political Studies, 1, 31 (March 1983) pp. 86–102.

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  31. Though see R. Rhodes, ‘Corporatism, Pay Negotiation and Local Government’, Public Administration, 3, 63 (Autumn 1985) pp. 287–307.

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  32. James O’Connor, The Fiscal Crisis of the State (New York: St Martin’s Press, 1973).

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  33. See Eric Lichten, Class, Power and Austerity: The New York Fiscal Crisis (South Hadley, Mass.: Bergin & Harvey, 1986).

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  34. Colin Crouch, Trade Unions: The Logic of Collective Action (London: Fontana, 1982) p. 39.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sydney, Australia

    Martin Laffin

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  1. Martin Laffin
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© 1989 Martin Laffin

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Laffin, M. (1989). Industrial Relations in Local Government. In: Managing under Pressure. Public Policy and Politics. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20022-1_1

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