The Labor Month in Review

SINCE WORLD WAR II, union membership has been resting upon a plateau in the United Kingdom as well as in the United States. In the United Kingdom, according to a recent Political and Economic Planning report,' there were nearly 10 million union members among 22 million employees in 1960.

Historically, British trade union membership has at least kept pace with growth in employment during times of high employment. However, in the 1948-58 decade, which is the focus of the PEP study, total employment increased by 1,320,000 or 6 percent, while membership grew by 3 percent. The percentage of workers organized, or union penetration, was stable during the decade and dropped about 1 percent between 1958 and 1960.

AS IN THE UNITED STATES, the two largest unorganized sections of the labor force in the United Kingdom are white-collar workers and womento a large extent overlapping categories. They are also the sections expanding most rapidly, and the following discussion relates primarily to those portions of the PEP report devoted to them.

About one-third of the British workers were estimated to be in nonmanual work in 1958. (In the United States, white-collar workers constituted 46 percent of the nonfarm labor force in 1960.) From 1948 to 1958, membership among nonmanual workers increased 20 percent, from 1.5 million to 1.8 million, but nonmanual employment is expanding approximately twice as fast as manual employment. With the density of membership much lower among the white-collar occupations in the earlier year, only 1 in 5 nonmanual workers is a union member now, while 1 in 2 manual workers is a member.

As these figures show, membership among white-collar and "white-coat" workers (technicians, draftsmen, etc.) has responded dynamically to changes in employment. The growing propensity of women workers and public employees to organize is the major factor in this growth.

attitude against white-collar organizations does not prevail, 80 percent of the nonmanual workers are union members. In contrast to the United States, the salaries of all but the top civil servants in the United Kingdom are determined by negotiations between the Treasury or other Government agencies and the representatives of the workers, with access to arbitration if necessary. On the other hand, no private employer is under legal obligation to negotiate, although he can be forced to observe the terms of any national agreement negotiated in his industry, and only 20 percent of the nonmanual workers in private industry are union members.

Between 1948 and 1958, local government unions increased their membership by a greater percentage than all unions except those in finance and printing, at the same time raising their density of membership by 16 percent. In 1960, they had a membership rate of 84 percent of their potential, about the same as the railway unions and exceeded only by the miners. In national government, unions retained almost the same number of members, although the number of employees fell 163,000. Membership in the local government classification grew 135,000 even though employment remained static. Indeed, the PEP report concludes that density of organization in national and local government has increased to a point where these areas must be regarded as two of the main centers of trade unionism.

The three major local government unions have markedly different characteristics and organizational policies. Since the 1920's, the National Union of General and Municipal Workers (NUGMW), which organizes only manual workers, has had special stewards responsible only for dues collection and has paid its branch secretaries on a commission basis according to the cash collected. However, since World War II, its total membership has fallen-from 152,000 in 1948 to 137,000 in 1961.

The National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) operates in local government and the health service, endeavoring to be an industrial union and recruiting types of employees previously neglected as well as dissatisfied members of other

1 Keith Hindell, "Trade Union Membership," Planning, Vol. XXVIII, No. 463, London, July 1962, pp. 153-200. This publication is part of a 3-year study entitled "Trade Unions in a Changing Society."

"Salary Determination for White-Collar Civil Servants in Great Britain," Monthly Labor Review, November 1960, p. 1159.

unions. Since the war its greatest success has been with women, between 1952 and 1960, women members increased from 47,000 to 94,000. According to the PEP study, much of the membership increase is due to the vigorous leadership of the NUPE's General Secretary.

The National and Local Government Officers Association (NALGO) is an exclusively whitecollar organization not affiliated with either the Labor Party or the Trades Union Congress (TUC). Although it does not organize in the usual sense of the term, its membership has increased faster than that of its rivals. According to the report, "its major advantage is that as most senior local government employees are members of NALGO, new staff are introduced immediately to NALGO by their 'employers.' NALGO, whose membership increased from 100,000 in 1938 to 252,000 in 1958, is now the seventh largest union in the United Kingdom. The National Union of Teachers, which held seventh place in 1938, grew from 155,000 to 215,000, but it dropped to ninth place in 1958.

AS MENTIONED EARLIER, the PEP report attributes the high rate of organization in British government to favorable governmental policies on union recognition. In the United States, less than 6 percent of the government workers (including those in manual occupations) were union members in 1960. In 1960, there were slightly more than 1 million members divided among 41 international unions representing Federal, State, and local government workers. Twenty-two of these unions had membership density of less than 40 percent, while 19 had 90 percent. The unions which organize Federal employees are now attempting to capitalize on the boost given by President John F. Kennedy's Executive Order of January 7, 1962, on the recognition of Government unions. The order declares, as a policy of good government, that "orderly and constructive relationships be maintained between employee organizations and management officials."

INDICATIVE of the growing influence of women in British trade unions, Dame Anne Godwin, general secretary of the Clerical and Administrative Workers Union, chaired the annual Trades Union Congress held the first week in September, as she had in 1961. Women now constitute about a third of the work force in both the United King

dom and the United States. Less than a quarter of British working women are union members, compared with nearly half of the working men. (In the United States, 1 out of 7 members of the female labor force, and 1 out of 3 of the male labor force are union members.) However, the rate of organization for British women over the last 20 years has been much faster than that for men. Between 1948 and 1958, women's union membership grew by 10 percent-the same rate as their growth in employment. The largest increase was in white-collar occupations. The main reason for the increase in women members has been the steady expansion of the female labor force, but the PEP study also indicates that with smaller families, improved health, and longer life, women are becoming more permanently committed to employment and may, perhaps, take more interest in improving conditions through union activity.

IN CONTRAST To nonmanual union membership, overall membership of manual workers hardly increased at all from 1948 to 1958. As in the United States, changes in the distribution of the labor force have been working more to the disadvantage of the union movement than otherwise. Coal mining, railways, cotton, and footwear, which have had long traditions of union activity and a high percentage of organization, are declining industries and membership is following suit.

Although the PEP report repeatedly emphasizes that total employment is the basic factor affecting union membership, it suggests that membership growth would be encouraged by some internal changes in the labor movement.

As has been recommended by others, PEP proposes that the health of the British trade union movement would be improved by cutting down the number of unions and restricting them to industry boundaries, thus reducing interunion competition. It also points out the need for some method of keeping members currently paid up to replace the old method of requiring members to pay their dues individually at the branch offices. Finally, it criticizes the failure of the TUC General Council to become more responsive to the shifts in the balance of membership. However, if there is a favorable vote in a NALGO referendum on affiliation with the TUC which is currently underway, some changes in the General Council may be expected.