an exploration of the ideolody of Hyman
reduced their power. As Jefferys (1966, p. 183) noted, unions need to introduce some ‘bilateral’ content into the unilaterally imposed management-led employment relationship. Hyman believes that unions can achieve that by trying to address the issues of time sovereignty and reduced power. He also feels that this policy would appeal to a wide range of workers with differing interests.
Security: The increasing power of the market has led to a growth in worker insecurity. However tackling this issue could prove divisive because improving the security of insiders necessarily reduces the security of outsiders. Hyman stated that if unions try to increase security by seeking improved entitlements to education and training, encouraging the provision of more effective education and training and trying to improve ‘up skilled’ workers’ opportunities, then they should be able to promote greater security for workers in a non-divisive manner.
Opportunity: The issue of opportunity relates to that of empowerment. The idea behind the empowerment of workers is that it reduces workers’ ties to their existing job and existing employer. However the concept is merely an illusion if there is no realistic and preferable alternative available to the existing ties. If unions concentrate their efforts on ensuring that an alternative does exist, then they should be able to cater for the diverse interests of members. As Waddington and Whitson (1996 pp. 153-67) observed, unions should strive to create “a fair and equitable framework” within which individual aspects of the employment relationship can be negotiated.
We agree with Hyman that if unions are to survive they need to vastly expand their membership. However we are not convinced that the policies proposed by Hyman will achieve this aim. We believe that while these policies will attract the winners from globalisation and post-Fordism; the most disadvantaged, who are most in need of union protection, are still neglected both in unions’ plant level policies and their national agendas. Workers on the minimum wage with little job security will not be tempted to join a union that, at plant level, only pursues issues such as time sovereignty and empowerment. On a national level, the only forum to address these workers’ needs is within the scope of the partnership agreements. However unions merely pursue issues such as the protection of the lower paid, and tax reductions and improved social benefits for workers on the minimum wage, as a periphery to the main issue of securing wage increases for the mass worker. Additionally trade unions seem increasingly unsupportive of collective bargaining as shown by their reluctance to sign an agreement for a period longer than eighteen months. If this trend continues, unions’ power to influence areas of importance to the most disadvantaged will be reduced. Representation at a national level of the most disadvantaged would effectively end if unions carry out their threat of withdrawing from this process.
Conclusion
The reinvention of trade unions sought by Hyman is not going to be an easy task. There will be many problems faced in the expansion of membership and the [next page]