Public sector restructuring and the re‐regulation of industrial relations: the three‐decade project of privatisation, liberalisation and marketisation in Royal Mail

Abstract

The British postal service, Royal Mail, was privatised in 2013, following failed attempts at divestiture in 1994 and 2009. This article analyses processes of marketisation, liberalisation and privatisation, highlighting how strong workplace‐centred union presence allowed for considerable influence and bargaining gains within such highly sensitive political projects of restructuring.

Down but not out: Union strategies and power resources in response to liberalization and changes in national postal services – The cases of Spain and Belgium

“…Cornered into a defensive position, unions have had to take a pragmatic approach and make major concessions in terms of both quantity and quality of employment. With regard to this issue, our conclusions are in line with the findings of a study focussing on the British national postal operator, the Royal Mail (Mustchin, 2017): the pressures resulting from a liberalized market dominated by competition based on labour costs make it very difficult for unions to attain their main strategic objectives, the preservation of traditional public sector work and employment conditions. Nevertheless, their strategies of building and mobilizing their restricted (or diminished) power resources have succeeded in keeping union influence strong in both companies, especially when compared with other companies and productive sectors in their respective countries.…”

“…In both settings, trade unions have made smart use of their (scarce) power resources to achieve their strategic goals. By making this remark, this study adds to existing research in highlighting the relevance of the agency of unions in mediating the impact of profound company transformation (Mustchin, 2017).…”

“…The first of these arguments points to the convenience of considering the agency of trade unions and their capacity to resist, influence and gain concessions (Mustchin, 2017) when accounting for the impact of liberalization and restructuring processes on working and employment conditions. This assertion is consistent with the central focus of the power resources approach: the analysis of the ability of trade union organizations to successfully achieve their objectives as a direct outcome of their own strategies (Schmalz et al, 2018).…”

“…We ask, first, what strategic capacity national postal operators’ unions deploy in response to liberalization and competition; and we investigate, second, how and how far industrial relations institutions influence the variation in union strategies between Correos and bpost. We expect, from the power resource approach discussed above, that despite the management’s confrontational approach that is common in enterprises subject to liberalization processes (Flecker and Hermann, 2011; Greer and Doellgast, 2017; Schulten et al, 2008), unions can maintain a strategic capacity to disrupt and resist (Beale and Mustchin, 2014; Mustchin, 2017).…”

“…There is plenty of international research evidence on the impact of these changes on employment, working conditions and labour relations, coming mainly from comparative studies at the European level (Flecker and Hermann, 2011; Schulten et al, 2008). However, little research has explored how trade unions have responded to these changing circumstances and to what extent they have been able to modulate its effects (for a notable exception, see Beale and Mustchin, 2014; Mustchin, 2017).…”