Power in industrial relations research

Abstract

Power is a concept which is much discussed but seldom properly understood, not least in industrial relations theorising. Here the author outlines the role of power in the context of several recent studies which have focused explicitly on the concept of power in industrial relations.

Trade Unions Through The Recession 1980–1984

“…These findings generally confirm the earlier data of Batstone (1984), though the much larger and more representative sample of Millward and Stevens (1986) inspires more confidence in the findings. There is disagreement however, over the incidence of the closed shop, and Batstone's (1984) claim that it was more widespread in manufacturing in 1983 as compared to 1978 is almost certainly wrong.…”

“…On the simplest definition power entails the capacity of one party to coerce a second party to pursue a course of action other than the one it originally intended, or would have preferred (see Kirkbride, 1985 for more complex definitions). In the case of unions in recession, the simplest prediction would be that the growth of unemployment would reduce trade union bargaining power, by reducing trade union membership and increasing the supply of labour.…”

“…Consequently a rational employer might be expected to take advantage of trade union weakness in a number of different ways: wages might be held down, productivity might be raised, union facilities reduced, and the scope of bargaining contracted. Empirical evidence on these questions is now readily available, but the findings are not easy to interpret (Batstone, 1984;Batstone and Gourlay, 1986;Millward and Stevens, 1986;Terry, 1986).…”

“…This type of data then would appear to contradict the thesis of declining union power, yet other data show a different picture. The decline in strike frequency since 1980; the reportedly widespread implementation of flexibility and productivity agreements in manufacturing (eg, Young, 1986) and the attack on union-maintained job demarcations and controls; the widespread reduction in the scope of non-pay issues regulated by collective bargaining (Millward and Stevens, 1986;Tables 9.19, 9.20); and the lack of effective resistance to the conservative anti-union Trade Unions Through Recession 1 9 8 w 984 279 legislation: these indices appear to corroborate the expectation of a decline in union power.…”

“…There is disagreement however, over the incidence of the closed shop, and Batstone's (1984) claim that it was more widespread in manufacturing in 1983 as compared to 1978 is almost certainly wrong. According to Millward and Stevens (1986) both the proportion of plants with closed shop agreements and the number of workers covered by them significantly declined between 1980 and 1984.…”