ABSTRACT
The findings lend credence to the proposition that there is dividend arising from Labour Party affiliation for trade unions in terms of employment relations outcomes. The centrality of leadership and strategic choice is considered in the context of Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Labour Leader in 2015. The Corbyn leadership has embedded a process of ideological re-convergence with the largest trade unions and resulted in the re-emergence of formal collective decision-making mechanisms inside the Labour Party. The conclusion draws out the strategic implications of the progressive reliance on political action as method of change in the employment relations area. In Britain, the prospect of trade unions revisiting the value of electoral reform, as a means to offsetting environmental constraints, is considered by drawing attention to benefits associated with more proportional representation electoral systems. The chapter concludes by highlighting the value of political action and the importance of strategic choice in the context of new structural pressures, principally the growth of automation, the gig economy and self-employment.
