British Trade Unionism in the Sixties

Abstract

There has been a quickening tempo of change and development in the British trade union movement in the 1960s. It compares strikingly with the relative stagnation of organization, methods, policies and structure in the previous decade and more. To a large extent the changes are the effects of, or a conscious response to, major shifts in the industrial structure and the many elements of crisis that have dogged the economy. Even if some of these shifts in the environment within which the unions work are familiar enough, it is useful to enumerate them briefly.