Trade Union Merger Strategies: Purpose, Process, and Performance

As Trade Union membership has declined, merger and amalgamation have been prominent features in strategies of revitalization discussed and implemented. Yet, there is very little systematic and empirical research into the effects of union mergers on the unions actually merging or of their impact on the wider union movement. This ground-breaking study fills this gap with its in-depth analysis of British unions' mergers since 1978: the point at which British unions moved from growth into decline, primarily due to adverse and damaging changes in the British industrial relations climate.

Roger Undy is an Emeritus Reader and Emeritus Fellow, respectively, of the Saïd Business School and Templeton College, University of Oxford. He has written widely on trade unions and industrial relations, including four books and over 50 articles. His last book Managing the Unions (1996, OUP), was included in Princeton University's 'distinguished books' in industrial relations and labour economics 1997.

Roger studied at Ruskin College, Oxford on a TUC Scholarship and at Wadham College, Oxford on a State Scholarship, after working as a skilled maintenance fitter in Nottingham. He has acted as occasional consultant to a number of unions and is presently Vice-President of the Oxford branch of the University and College Union. In 1995-7 he co-directed a programme 'Preparing for the Management of Change in Government', for the Labour Party's Shadow Cabinet and was a member of two related 'Implementation Groups' planning the National Minimum Wage and changes in Employment Legislation.