Fast,loud and agile unions working at the frontiers of precarious employment are setting the pace for the futureThere is a group of organisations in this country whose most senior roles are nearly exclusively the preserve of middle-aged white men. These people do not seem terribly interested in the future, even though it poses grave threats to them and what remains of their power. Indeed, and as the economy is endlessly disrupted and transformed,it appears their instinctive response is to bury their heads in the sand.
Though it does not bring me any mighty joy to say so, these are among the basic facts of 21st-century British trade unionism. Serially weakened by deindustrialisation and kicked around for the best part of 40 years, and it is perhaps a miracle that the unions still gain 6.2 million members. The work of representation,education and occasional mobilisation that their members continue to do is vital. For all that even leftwing people now seem to be questioning unions’ role within the Labour party, it is entirely right that some of the biggest unions gain an organised means of political representation as a counterbalance to the infinite clout of capital. But that is not the whole legend, and it is time some glaring failures were talked approximately in the open.
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Source: guardian.co.uk