ABSTRACT
Trade union behaviour is determined by an ideology which receives its most visible expression in the concept of voluntarism, or ‘free collective bargaining’. Voluntarism provides the rationale for the divergence of the unions and Labour but the logic of collective bargaining in a market society provides the dynamic for divergence. Voluntarism, British unionism’s motive force, is the reason why the interests of the unions and Labour inevitably diverge. The irresistible pressure of voluntarism, the anomalies generated by pay policy and the collapse of the Keynesian economic consensus presaged a clash during the 1978–1979 pay round. Reconciling free collective bargaining with support for the government was jeopardised by the cash limits policy which was a public sector pay policy. On 24 January the General Council welcomed the Liaison Committee’s proposal and produced a joint statement with the government. This sought the institutionalisation of industrial conflict, the maintenance of traditional union freedoms and the avoidance of widespread social and economic dislocation.
