ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses upon two aspects of the relationship between the trade union movement and society in Great Britain. It deals with the effect of recent social and economic change upon and within the trade unions themselves. The underlying assumption is that such opposition as unions have sought to exercise against government policy has been prompted more by the desire to resist the impact of change, than to bring change about. The chapter concerns the relationship between the trade unions and governments since World War II. The underlying question here is whether the trade union movement has been anything other than a pressure group competing with other interests in society for the allocation of scarce social and economic resources. The white-collar workers' lack of class cohesiveness in the traditional sense and their instrumental view of politics need not mean that they will constitute less of a political opposition.
