ABSTRACT
The chapter discusses the economic, industrial and political shifts, which have detrimentally affected the ability of trade unions to influence the employment relations framework to the present day in contemporary Britain. In this context, the role of powerful trade unions to support the Labour Party reform programme post-1983 as a channel to offset environmental constraints is examined. Due to the progressive dilution of formal party mechanisms, which correspondingly facilitated the progressive centralisation of power in the Labour leadership, informal processes became more important. However, in the successive transition of Labour leaders to Tony Blair, the informal processes involving the leaders of the labour movement came under significant strain. Weak coordination mechanisms inside the Labour Party’s structures in conjunction with frayed personal relationships set the scene to New Labour entering power in 1997. The chapter also outlines the role of the Trade Union and Labour Party Liaison Organisation (TULO) and its antecedents, which coordinated trade union electoral support for the Labour Party. The role of these organisations is presented to illustrate the shift towards political action by trade unions in a liberal market.
