ABSTRACT
If employees in the industrialised world are becoming more insecure, then surely this reflects, at least in part, the decline of trade unionism, the primary institution upon which employees have relied for protective regulation at work. As union membership and coverage by collective bargaining have fallen in Britain, Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Germany and other countries, so worker vulnerability to offensive action by employers and exposure to hostile market forces has increased. In Britain, available evidence indicates that episodes of employer derecognition of trade unions have been followed by a decline in relative wages, greater use of contingent contracts and the imposition of a managerial regime characterised by tighter discipline, work intensification and closer scrutiny of individual employee performance (cf. Bacon 1999; Casey et al. 1997; Evans and Hudson 1994; Gall 1998; Metcalf 1994; Saundry and Turnbull 1996). Insecurity in its various manifestations, it seems, increases when the protective shield of trade unionism is removed.
