The Future of Unions

For some twenty years now, it has been common to refer to a crisis of trade unionism. What the future holds for labour movements – or indeed, whether they even have a future – seems increasingly uncertain. For many trade unionists as well as academics, unions in most countries appear as victims of external forces outside their control, and often also of their own conservative inertia. But unions hold the capacity to shape their own future. In all countries, they possess powerful traditions and inherited structures; these all too frequently constitute a straitjacket, but can also provide a resource for creative initiative. Envisaging the future is, in large measure, a matter of interpreting and projecting the path from past to present. Fascination with history can be dangerous: it is all too easy to contrast a largely mythical golden age of commitment and solidarity with the troubles of the present. But learning from history can open up new options; and times of crisis can encourage us to abandon once comfortable routines and search for new directions. It is for this reason that I start by considering trade unionism in the past.