Political Unionism and Political Exchange in New Labour’s Second Term

Abstract

The limitations of the Trades Union Congress’s (TUC’s) ‘insider’ strategy became apparent during New Labour’s second term in office. The TUC’s strategy shifted to attempting to influence the UK government indirectly by pushing for European Union (EU) social legislation on conditions and worker representation via the EU. However, this route also gained limited traction and this was a period when disaffection with the TUC’s opaque insider strategy grew among its left-wing member unions. These began to push for more direct confrontation with the government, culminating in the 2004 Warwick Agreement in which party leaders agreed a series of policy concessions in exchange for continued guarantees of trade union funding. However, this was a largely ineffective strategy, producing few genuine concessions and further damaging the party-union relationship.