ABSTRACT
The different positions occupied by trade unions in German and British capitalism, compounded by the wide variation in the regulatory regimes, necessitated that trade unionists adopt different approaches to trade union organisation. This chapter outlines these approaches and identifies some of the specific features of the unions involved in the four merger processes at the core of this study. It thus examines two further relationships integral to the politics of bargaining: the relationship between unions and that between factions within unions. From the outset, it should be acknowledged that two features differentiate approaches to trade union organisation in the two countries.
