Trade Unions: Voluntary Associations and Individual Rights

Abstract

This essay explores the role of trade unions and the relationship between the individual and collective organizations in a liberal political system. In twentieth-century Britain trade unions had an accepted place in national life amongst other associations. The ties between the members and their unions are assessed, particularly in connection with the shop steward movement, which revived in the post-war boom after 1945. But the unions’ status underwent a dramatic decline at the end of the 1970s when Margaret Thatcher’s distinctive political rhetoric about the importance of the individual was directed particularly forcibly against them. Although trade unions have been valuable in defending people’s interests at work, a persistent line of thought has always questioned their impact on individual freedom.