British Trade Unions and European Union Integration in the 1990s: Politics versus Political Economy

Abstract

This article evaluates the changing assessments within the British trade union movement of the efficacy of European Union integration from the viewpoint of labour interests. It argues that there has been a marked further 'Europeanisation' of British trade unionism during the 1990s, consolidating an on-going process which previous research shows began in earnest in the mid 1980s. A shift in trade union economic policy assessments has seen the decisive abandonment of the previously dominant 'naive' or national Keynesianism. While there remain important differences in economic perspective between unions, these are not such as would create significant divisions over the question of European integration per se, the net benefits of which are now generally, though perhaps not universally, accepted. The absence of fundamental divisions is evident from a careful assessment of the debates about economic and monetary union at TUC Congress. The Europeanisation of British trade unionism needs to be seen within the context of an emergent regionalism, in Europe and elsewhere. It can best be understood as a rational response by an important corporate actor (albeit one whose national influence has been considerably diminished in recent decades) to globalisation and a significantly changing political economy environment.

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Brexit: EU social policy and the UK employment model

“…Since the mid‐90s, a lot of work has been done within British trade unions to develop a more nuanced policy approach towards the EU (Strange, ). While some unions have maintained a strongly anti‐EU approach, they are considerably in the minority, with only two, the rail workers' and the bakers' union, strongly supporting Brexit.…”

Britain and Europe: Class, state and the politics of integration

“…However, the crude instrumentalism of the ruling stance towards Europe led the moderate left of the Labour Party, and especially the tuc, to look more closely at the potential of the ec as a defense against Thatcherism. Beset by electoral failure, declining membership and the steady march of anti-union legislation and privatisation, they saw Jacques Delors's ec presidency, and eventually and especially his promotion of the 1989 Social Charter, as offering them a potential lifeline (Strange, 2002a). By the time the Blair-Brown Labour leadership took over in 1995, only a few isolated elements on the left still called for British withdrawal from the eu, while the great majority both within and outside the Labour Party saw the eu as part of their normal arena of political struggle.…”

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