DEMOCRACY WITHIN TRADE UNIONS

‘There is widespread concern in the country about the way in which trade unions are run” said Mr. Norman Tebbitt when introducing the Government's Green Paper on democracy in trade unions. He went on to say that “… public opinion have clearly shown the strong feeling that trade unions ought to be democratic institutions responsive to the views and wishes of their members.” He explained these statements by showing that in many cases the union executive fails to ballot its members on such major decisions as the choice of the leadership and the calling of industrial action. He talked of “… dubious decisions” being taken on a show of hands at mass meetings of workers “sometimes packed with outsiders;” of “… secret meetings at which unrepresentative minorities plot the trade union elections…” so that positions of power are held by persons who are unrepresentative of the majority.