Abstract
Most of the trade unions that organize health workers are general unions with members in a range of occupations in a range of industries. Most of them existed when the NHS was founded and gave full support to its initial collective bargaining system. These unions, their members and leaders, have been at the heart of most of the campaigns to improve the service and to protect it from cutbacks, undemocratic reorganizations and the contracting out of services. Their basic methods of operation have been similar: recruit members where possible, develop local steward networks, campaign through the media and local politicians when appropriate, and take industrial action when necessary. This broadly common approach does not disguise severe differences between and within the unions, nor does it hide the damage done by competition for members between the unions, but it does provide the ground upon which cooperation has been based often through the TUC health services committee.
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Notes
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Seifert, R. (1992). The trade unions and their members. In: Industrial Relations in the NHS. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-3214-3_3
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