Since the introduction of the statutory recognition procedure the vast majority of new agreements have been voluntary in nature, yet increasingly employers are using this ambiguous state regulation as a means of avoiding recognition.The legislation allows for the game of voluntarism to be enshrined within the micro level politics and social relationships of work and employment: it crystallizes the culture and history of voluntarism in the regulation itself. It is, in effect, ironic in how it balances change with tradition. It makes the new regulation pliable and difficult to see as a step to a state-led approach.There is a resistant trend to unions generally even if recognition cases may vary in terms of employer orientations.This article focuses on such issues by addressing a broader understanding of regulation through an ethnographic case study analysis.
Bacon, N. and Storey, J. (1996) `Individualism and Collectivism and the Changing Role of Trade Unions', in P. Ackers et al. (eds) The New Workplace and Trade Unionism, pp. 41—76. London: Routledge.
2.
Bain, G.S. and Price, R. (1983) `Union Growth: Dimensions, Determinants and Destiny ', in G.S. Bain (ed.) Industrial Relations in Britain, pp 3—34. Oxford: Blackwell.
3.
Brown, W., Deakin, S., Hudson, M. and Pratten, C. (2001) `The Limits of Statutory Trade Union Recognition ', Industrial Relations Journal32(3): 180—94.
4.
Clegg, H.A. (1979) The Changing Systems of Industrial Relations in Great Britain. Oxford: Blackwell .
5.
Crouch, C. (1986) `Sharing Public Space: States and Organised Interests in Western Europe', in J. Hall (ed.) States in History, pp. 177—210. Oxford: Blackwell.
6.
Crouch, C. (1993) Industrial Relations and European State Traditions . New York: Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press.
7.
D'Art, D. and Turner, T. (2005) `Union Recognition and Partnership at Work: A New Legitimacy for Irish Trade Unions?', Industrial Relations Journal36(2): 121—39.
8.
Fairbrother, P. (2000) `British Trade Unions Facing the Future', Capital and Class71(Summer): 47—79.
9.
Gall, G. (2004a) `Trade Union Recognition in Britain, 1995—2002: Turning a Corner', Industrial Relations Journal35(3): 249—70.
10.
Gall, G. (2004b) British Employer Resistance to Trade Union Recognition , Human Resource Management Journal14(2): 36—53.
11.
Gall, G. and McKay, S. (2001) `Facing Fairness at Work: Union Perception of Employer Opposition and Response to Union Recognition', Industrial Relations Journal32(2): 94—113.
12.
Gennard, J. (1990) A History of the National Graphical Association . London: Unwin Hyman.
13.
Gennard, J. and Bain, P. (1995) A History of the Society of Graphical and Allied Trades. London: Routledge.
14.
Hancher, L. and Moran, M. (1989) `Organising Regulatory Space', in L. Hancher and M. Moran (eds) Capitalism, Culture and Economic Regulation, pp. 271—99. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
15.
Heery, E. and Frege, C. (2006) `New Actors in Industrial Relations', British Journal of Industrial Relations44(4): 601—4.
16.
Heery, E., Simms, M., Delbridge, R., Salmon, J. and Simpson, D. (2000) `Union Organising in Britain: a Survey of Policy and Practice', International Journal of Human Resource Management11(5): 986—1007.
17.
Holgate, J. (2005) `Organizing Migrant Workers: A Case Study of Working Conditions and Unionization in a LondonSandwich Factory', Work, Employment and Society19(3): 463—80.
18.
Howell, C. (2006) Trade Unions and the State: The Construction of Industrial Relations Institutions in Britain, 1890—2000. Princeton : University Presses of California, Columbia and Princeton.
19.
Kelly, J. and Badigannavar, V. (2004) `Union Organising', in J. Kelly and P. Willman (eds) (2004) Union Organization and Activity, pp. 32—50. London: Routledge. [The Future of Trade Unions in Britain series]
20.
Kelly, J. and Willman, P. (eds) (2004) Union Organization and Activity , pp. London: Routledge. [The Future of Trade Unions in Britain series]
21.
Kitay, J. and Callus, R. (1998) `The Role and Challenge of Case Study Design in Industrial Relations Research', in K. Whitfield and G. Strauss (eds) Researching the World of Work: Strategies and Methods in Studying Industrial Relations, pp. 101—13. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
22.
Kochan, T. and Osterman, P. (1994) The Mutual GainsEnterprise : Forging a Winning Partnership Among Labor, Management and the Government. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
23.
McKay, S., Moore, S. and Wood, H. (2005) `The Nature of Collective Bargaining Achieved Through the Statutory Procedure', in G. Gall (ed.) Union Recognition: Organising and Bargaining Outcomes, pp. 98—114. London: Routledge.
24.
MacKenzie, R. and Martínez Lucio, M. (2004) `The Realities and Diversity of “Re-regulation”: Accommodation, Negotiation and Colonisation ', paper presented at the Work, Employment and Society Conference, September 2004, Manchester .
25.
MacKenzie, R. and Martínez Lucio, M. (2005) `The Realities of Regulatory Change: Beyond the Fetish of Regulation', Sociology39(3): 499—517.
26.
Markowitz, L. (2000) Worker Activism After Successful Union 0rganizing . New York: Sharpe.
27.
Martínez Lucio, M. and Perrett, R. (2007) Social Inclusion and Representation Strategies in the Workplace and Community: Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Workers and Innovative Trade Union Responses, Report 2. Leeds: TUC.
28.
Martínez Lucio, M. and Stuart, M. (2004) `Swimming Against the Tide: Social Partnership, Mutual Gains and the Revival of “Tired” HRM', International Journal of Human Resource Management15(2): 410—24.
29.
Martínez Lucio, M., Noon, M. and Jenkins, S. (2000) `The Flexible—Rigid Paradox of the Employment Relationship at Royal Mail', British Journal of Industrial Relations38(2): 277—98.
30.
Moore, S., McKay, S. and Bewley, H. (2005) The Content of New Voluntary Recognition Agreements, 1998—2002, Volume 2: Findings from the Survey of Employers. London: DTI. [Employment Relations Research Series, 43]
31.
Morris, T. and Wood, S. (1991) `Testing the Survey Method: Continuity and Change in the British Survey Tradition', Work, Employment and Society5(2): 259—82.
32.
Oxenbridge, S. and Brown, W. (2004) `Achieving a New Equilibrium? The Stability of Cooperative Employer—Union Relationships', Industrial Relations Journal35(5): 388—402.
33.
Oxenbridge, S. and Brown, W. (2005) `Developing Partnership Relations: A Case of Leveraging Power', in M. Stuart and M. Martínez Lucio (eds) Partnership and Modernisation in Employment Relations, pp. 83—100. London: Routledge.
34.
Perrett, R. and Martínez Lucio, M. (2006) Trade Unions and Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Communities in Yorkshire and the Humber: Employment Representation and Community Organisations in the Context of Change, Report 1. Leeds: TUC.
35.
Simms, M. (2006) `The Transition from Organizing to Recognition: A Case Study', in G. Gall (ed.) Union Recognition: Organising and Bargaining Outcomes, pp. 167—80. London: Routledge.
36.
Smith, P. and Morton, G. (2001) `New Labour's Reform of Britain's Employment Law: The Devil is not in the Detail but in the Values and Policy Too', British Journal of Industrial Relations39(1): 119—38.
37.
Stuart, M. and Martínez Lucio, M. (eds) (2004) Partnership and the Modernisation of Employment Relations. London: Routledge. [Employment Relations Series]
38.
TUC (1999—2003) Trade Union Trends: Focus on Recognition. London : TUC. [Annual publication]
39.
Whipp, R. (1998) `Qualitative Methods: Technique or Size?', in K. Whitfield and G. Strauss (eds) Researching the World of Work: Strategies and Methods in Studying Industrial Relations, pp. 51—64. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
40.
Wood, S., Moore, S. and Willman, P. (2002) `Third Time Lucky for Statutory Union Recognition in the UK?', Industrial Relations Journal33(3): 215—33.
