Text 2 Trade associations and trade unions

In most industries, there are trade associations, like the British Clothing Industry Association (BCIA), which represent employers, and trade unions, like the GMB, which represent employees.

Trade associations have three main functions:

• They negotiate national rates of pay and conditions of employment with' trade unions in some industries

• They present the industry's views to the European Union, the government and the public.

• They provide advice and information, and sometimes carry out industrial research, for member firms.

There are 114 main employers' associ­ations in Britain. Many of the other trade associations are small and cover only part of an industry.

Employers as a whole are represented by the Confederation of British I Industry (CBI). More than 200 trade associations and employers' organiza­tions and more than 250,000 public and private companies are members. About half of the members are small- and medium-sized firms with less than 200 employees.

The CBI's main task is to state the views of British business to the gov­ernment, the public and the European Commission in Brussels, where the CBI has a permanent office. In addition, it has regional offices in Britain and provides information and research services for its members.

The main functions of trade unions are to:

• negotiate rates of pay and

• conditions of work with employers, including health and safety matters

• give members legal advice about problems at work and provide lawyers to represent members in courts or at industrial tribunals

• support members financially during strikes and lock-outs by employers and after accidents at work

• provide a range of other services for members, such as mortgages, insur­ance, personal loans and discounted holidays.

There are 256 trade unions. Many of them are very small craft unions formed in the last century for skilled workers in one trade, such as the Pattern Weavers Society with its 58 members! Some kinds of employees still have their own separate union, such as the National Union of Journalists or the British Airline Pilots Association. In recent years, however, there have been many mergers of smaller unions. Bigger general unions have been formed to represent skilled, semiskilled and unskilled workers in a variety of industries. One of the most striking changes in recent years has been the growth of white-collar unions, such as the Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union, for clerical workers, managers and professionals in different industries.

The largest union is Unison with 1,400,000 members. It was formed in 1993 by a merger of three unions: the Confederation of Health Service Employees, the National Union of Public Employees and the National and Local Government Officers' Union. Other big unions include:

• Transport and General Workers' Union, 900,000 members.

• GMB (formerly the General, Municipal, Boilermakers and Allied Trades Union), 790,000 members.

• Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union, 750,000 members.

• Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union, 452,000 members.

Most unions have a president, general-secretary and national executive, who have to be elected by members in a secret ballot. They have paid officials to assist them. Bigger unions have region­al or district committees, also elected by members. There are usually paid officials in the regions. Most negotia­tions in the workplace are carried out by shop stewards, who are unpaid union representatives elected by their workmates.

Most of the bigger unions, 67 in all, are attached to the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which represents the union movement as a whole, as the CBI represents business.

Trade union membership has fallen dramatically in recent years. It reached a peak of 13.3 million in 1979. It is now about 7 million, the lowest since 1946. This represents about 40 per cent of people in employment.

The main reasons for the decline are an increase in the number of unem­ployed and part-time workers who are less likely to be trade union members.

From 1979, Conservative govern­ments passed a series of laws to reduce the power of trade unions. Strikes were one of the unions' main weapons. As a result of the new laws, a strike can only be called after there has been a secret postal ballot of members. The result has to be checked by inde­pendent persons. Employers must be given seven days' notice of any indus­trial action. If a strike takes place, peaceful picketing is allowed, but there must be no more than six persons at each entrance to the workplace. Secondary picketing by workers from other firms is illegal, as are all unoffi­cial strikes. Under the Trade Union Reform and Employment Rights Act of 1993, anyone deprived of goods or ser­vices by illegal industrial action can apply to a court for it to be stopped. The Act also made it more difficult for unions to collect subscriptions auto­matically from members' pay. Other laws have made it almost impossible to set up a closed shop where only union members can be employed.