Decentralization of Collective Bargaining: An Analysis of Recent Experience in the UK

After reviewing the rise and decline of the UK system of industry wide collective bargaining, the authors use five detailed case studies to examine the process of decentralising bargaining from industry to single employer level. In each industry management's reasons for withdrawal, the union response, details of the new structures and the experience of operation of the new system are analysed. Finally, the five industries are compared and contrasted and lessons for employers and unions in other industries are drawn.

MICHAEL P. JACKSON is Deputy Principal and Professor of Industrial Relations at Stirling University. He has written widely on industrial relations and employment policy in the UK, North America and Scandinavia. His most recent books are An Introduction to Industrial Relations and Polciy-Making in Trade Unions.

JOHN W. LEOPOLD is Senior Lecturer in Industrial Relations at the University of Stirling and Director of the Centre for Human Resources Management (USDAW). He teaches industrial relations and human resource management at the undergraduate, postgraduate and post-experience levels. Previous research topics include profit-sharing and employee share ownership, and trade union political funds.

KATE TUCK joined the staff of USDAW in 1980, becoming a full-time officer in 1986. She completed her MSc in industrial relations at the University of Stirling in 1990 and then worked as a Research Fellow on the decentralized bargaining project. She is currently working in human resource management in Scottish local government.