Strategy, Structure and Resourcing in UK Trades Unions

Paper presented at the 2016 LERA Conference, San Francisco, 4th January 2016.

This paper updates the empirical literature on trade union resources in the UK. We argue that British unions lack resources effectively to manage first and second order collective action problems, and that the resource requirements to manage such problems have been increasing. The symptoms of decline may be endogenous, but the triggers exogenous; we examine the relationship between exogenous triggers and endogenous consequences by reference to the Trade Union Bill 2015-16.