Pearson, Ian (1987) Power and participation in a general union : patterns of organisation and democracy in three GMB regions. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This study is about the organisation and government of the
General Municipal and Boilermakers' from 1970 to 1985. Its
focus is, as far as is known, unique in that it concentrates
primarily on government at the regional level, examining the
GMB's Birmingham, Liverpool and Northern regions. Rather
than focusing explicitly on the policy issues related to
recent legislation, it analyses the wider issues of power and
participation relevant to the debate on union democracy.
The thesis adopts an eclectic approach to union democracy,
synthesising previous approaches within the framework of the
vertical and horizontal dispersion of decision making
developed by Undy et al, which is given a prescriptive
dimension. The regional focus, and secondary focuses on
intervening variables within the framework, are principally
examined through conducting structured interviews with
members and officers at all levels of the union.
The research work is divided into four chapters, which follow
chapters reviewing the literature and presenting the research
focus, and giving an historical overview of the union up
until the research period commences. The first examines the
national level changes since 1970 and membership
participation in the national political system. The other
three chapters have a specific regional focus analysing
regional variations in membership growth and participation at
the local level; the locus of regional power and variations
in participation in regional government; and membership
participation in collective bargaining.
The research contributes to knowledge of trade union
government at the regional level; an almost completely
explored and, it is argued, an important area which requires
further research. It demonstrates the significant extent of
regional variations within a single union and shows how these
have led to markedly different levels of membership
participation in decision making structures in the three
regions. It shows that the commonly held view that GMB
regional secretaries are barons of their own area is
misplaced, noting constraints which prevent oligarchic
domination of regions. It also highlights the pervasive, but
long since neglected, influence of union constitutional
provisions as a factor affecting union democracy. Finally,
it suggests that the eclectic framework could be usefully
adopted by future contributions to union democracy research.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	General, Municipal, Boilermakers, and Allied Trades Union, Labor unions -- Great Britain -- History -- 20th century, Labor union rules -- Great Britain -- History -- 20th century, Labor union democracy -- Great Britain -- History -- 20th century
Official Date:	September 1987
Dates:	Date Event September 1987 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	School of Industrial and Business Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Winchester, David
Extent:	388 p.
Language:	eng

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