Introduction
The number of strikes in UK has decreased in the last 25 years. This information was released by the office of national statistics in 1999. (Turnbull 2004) noted that the number of dispute that has been recoded has declined. The number of workers who participated in this strikes has also declined. At the same time it has been noted that there has been increase in the number of individual ACAS and cases regarding employment in tribunal courts. In this essay we shall be discussing if this denote increase harmony and cooperation. We will also discuss the kind of strikes taking place and trends of these strikes. The issue of unitary and pluralism perspective in UK business will be evaluated. This is the major perspective that results to minimizing the number of strikes. There is conflict at work in today’s environment, in this essay we shall be interested in knowing if conflicts are the same as strikes.
Types of strikes in UK and the tread of occurrence
The kinds of strikes that occur in UK are short strikes. Majority of these strikes lasts for only one day as argued by (Noon and Turn bull 2002). An example of this is a strike involving council worker over pension, closing schools, libraries and sport centers. During 1980s and 1990s the strikes have shown a decrease. Compared to the number of strikes recorded in 1970s they were only two percent. As shown in (Noon and Brylton 2007) in 2000 records it shows that the strikes have not disappeared. From the year 1995 to 2000 the number of strikes that took place was 145 involving 148000 workers and a loss of 145000 working days. The strikes are mainly concentrated in the motor industries, the docks and mining industry. Other sectors that registered above –average strikes were administration, health and social works.
Some strikes are unofficial. These strikes are known to occur because the workers are rooted to tradition of unionism and use of strikes to defend their jobs. Mostly many strike threats do not result to a strike. In 2001 strikes were expected in the sectors like steel, newspaper and schools but hey did not happen.
Unitary and Pluralism Perspectives
Unitary and pluralism has contributed to industrial action both positively and negatively according to (Hollinshead and Nicholls 2002). Unitary theory believes that the employees are loyal to the employer. Organization is taken as being a single source of authority. It considers trade unions as a major reason for market imperfection. In this perspective work organization are harmonious and have a common purpose. It emphasizes on the organization values and norms and it culture. It is a perspective that is used by many managers. Due to this the management has the power to remove the collective bargain. The result of this is to ensure that the union does not have any power. This is facilitated by the legislative role to curb the strikes and any other industrial action. It is not clear how the unitarist come up with the idea that there is no conflict in the organization. Some of these practices can not be put in practice.
Pluralism is much preferred to unitarilism. Royal commission on employment association in 1964 recommended pluralism. Citing (Leat 2001) pluralism takes conflict between managers and the workers as normal. They imply that reasonable managers should accept that conflict will always occur. They should also be able to anticipate the occurrence and try getting methods of settling such conflict. It is seen as a way of achieving harmony and managing conflict between managers and the workers. Managers should agree on code and policy that will minimize the conflicts with the workers. Some of these policies should include the union acknowledgement, taking workers interest into consideration and discipline procedures among others.
Collective bargain can be used to differences and should be legalized. In the 1960s in UK when unitary was used there was an increase number of strikes. This is because the trade unions were dormant. The management interest was only to make profit and not the interest of the employees. In 1970s onward the UK business gave room for pluralism and union managed policies. In 1990s and 1980s there was competitive pressure that resulted to improvement of the union negations. Managers by this time seemed to have changed their perspective on this matter. The workers rights have been protected by the government. Individuals are now more protected and this has reduced the issue of collective action.
Conflict at work a cause of strikes
It has been proven that strikes cannot occur without the conflict occurring. (John and Graham 2002) there is always a disagreement between the workers and the management. The workers cannot protest without a concrete reason. Strike result due to poor solution to the conflict. This depends on the type of management and their policies. The management also has the power to solve conflicts at work in order to avoid the strikes. They have the duty to consider the workers interest to ensure minimal collective action by the workers union. The workers also need not make unrealistic demands. The conflict at work is the main source of strike.
Conclusion
In conclusion it can be noted that, the decline in union strikes is as result of use of pluralism perspective that the management has adopted. It has contributed to the government also being considerate of workers rights. This agreement has brought harmony and cooperation among the workers. Despite of all this there has been some individual cases in the employment tribunals. This is because the individual rights are now considered at length, the collective action is not very common today due to this factor and these are the major reason for the decline of strikes in UK.
Bibliography
Hollinshead, G et al, 2002, Employee Relation Ship, 2nd edition, Prentice hall, UK.
John, GJ 2002, People and Organization: Employee Relationship. CIPD press, UK.
Leat, M 2001, Exploiting Employee Relationship. Butterworth-Heineman Pess, Canada.
Noon, M and Blyton, P 2007, The Realities of Work, 3rd edition. Palgrave, Basingstoke.
Noon, MT 2002, The Realities of Work 2nd Edition, Palgrave, Basingstoke.
Turnbull, P 2004, The Dynamics of Employee Relations, Macmillan Publishers.