ABSTRACT
One is tempted, looking at the current situation, to make this chapter very short and answer with a simple ‘no!’. The EEC is the sole significant force keeping the issue o f industrial democracy on the UK political agenda. Both the British government and the CBI have indicated their hostility to the European Commission’s draft Fifth Directive on company law, which outlines a minimum Community-wide framework for workers’ participation in enter prise decision-making - and also to the Vredeling proposals on the employee’s right to know.1 Evidence suggests that this dusty response from the government and the employers may not be unpopular or even a matter for concern. This is not simply because of hostility to the EEC or because the Fifth Directive’s proposals are less than radical. Union leaderships have evinced little active support for and a good deal of hostility to previous proposals for industrial democracy. Union memberships are hardly thirsting for social change. A majority of both the general public and trades union members appear to believe that organized labour, in the shape of the unions, already has ‘too much power’ and broadly favours the government’s legislation on trades union rights.2
