Trade Unions

Sue Fernie is Lecturer in Industrial Relations at the London School of Economics.

Can private sector unions survive in Great Britain? How can unions respond to the challenges posted by performace-related pay, public-private partnerships and the internet? What lessons can be learned from trade unions' experience in Germany and the US? "Trade Unions: Resurgence or Decline? is the third book in the innovative "Trade Unions in Britain series. Featuring substantial and original research, this book takes a hard disciplinary approach--economics, organizational theory, history and social psychology--to offer readers a comprehensive analysis of unions' prospects in the new millenium. Case studies deal with such topical issues such as unions and the gender pay gap, the private finance initiative, performance-related pay and the unions' use of the internet. Written by many of the leading scholars on British unions, this book highlights union prospects--survival or resurgence?--and has important policy implications for all parties to industrial relations: unions, employers and government.

Introduction 2. Markets, Firms, and Unions: A Historical-Institutionalist Perspective on the Future of Unions in Britain 3. Circling the Wagons; Endogeneity in Union Decline 4. Social Movement Theory and Union Revitalization in Britain 5. British Unions: Resurgence or Perdition? 6. Union Responses to Public-Private Partnerships in the National Health Service 7. Unions and Performance-Related Pay: What Chance of a Procedural Justice Role? 8. From the Webbs to the Web: The Contribution of the Internet to Reviving Union Fortunes 9. The Public Policy Face of Trade Unionism 10. Follow the Leader: Are British Trade Unions Tracking the US Decline? 11. Trade Unions in Germany: On the Road to Perdition?