Comparative Employee Relations
Author: Yvonne Miller
QUESTION ONE:
COMPARE AND CONTRAST THE POLITICAL ORIENTATION OF TRADE UNIONS FROM ANY TWO COUNTRIES. EVALUATE THE
DIFFERENTIAL IMPACT OF THIS ON THEIR INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS SYSTEMS.
INTRODUCTION:
A trade union is similar in character to a labor union. Generally, a trade union can be defined as an organization or grouping of persons
who are closely associated due to their mode of employment or the nature of labor they provide to an economy. These organizations
exist for both casual and formal employees, as well as the unemployed. Trade unions may be founded by individual workers, past
workers or professionals in a certain field of work.
The major but not the only objective of trade unions is the improvement or maintenance of the working or employment conditions of
workers.
HISTORY:
Trade unions have been evolving for the last 100 years. Many trade unions arose during the period of the rise of the industrial revolution
in Western Europe.
During this period, much of Western Europe was revolutionizing from an agrarian mode of production to an industrial mode of
production. The rise of trade unionism was because of the introduction of new work techniques as well as an increasing downward
pressure the then existing structures of traditional wage
On top of this, the expanding industrial society was drawing more children, women, immigrants as well as rural workers in to the urban
culture. This pool of semi skilled labor as well as unskilled labor started to organize themselves in small groups in order to articulate their
plight collectively. This marked the onset of trade unionism.
POLITICAL ORIENTATION OF TRADE UNIONS:
The political dimensions or political orientations of trade unions have always been determined by the nature and type of political regimes
existent in their economies all over the world. Due to this reason, many trade unions especially in former colonial states ended up
forming themselves into political parties. In other democracies these trade unions co