Dilemmas of union democracy, national and international
Rebecca Gumbrell-McCormick, Birkbeck College, University of London
Richard Hyman, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
There is a broad consensus across European countries (and indeed more widely) that trade unions should be, and to a large extent are, democratic organisations. To be taken seriously by their interlocutors (employers and governments), unions require democratic legitimacy; and must be able to harness their members’ ‘willingness to act in order to mobilise collectively in support of their demands. But ever since Michels (if not earlier), it has often been argued that unions are not, and perhaps cannot be, democratic. There is also an influential thesis that ‘too much’ democracy inhibits unions effectiveness by obstructing the strategic leadership necessary to coordinate and prioritise diverse membership interests and to frame long-term policy objectives. We examine some of the different factors influencing the degree and type of union democracy, including the relation between national centres and industrial unions; the role of full time officials as opposed to lay officers and activists; and differences of power and interest within unions and how these are resolved. In our paper we will review some of these debates and examine the very different ways in which union democracy is understood cross-nationally.
Bearing in mind the increased importance of the international level in trade union action, we also examine the distinctive issues involved in applying theories of union democracy to supranational union organisations, with specific reference to the ETUC and to the ITUC (where the issue of internal democracy was a dominant theme at its December 2018 Congress). If democracy is difficult to practise at the national level, it is even more so at the international level, where the organisation is one step further away from the individual member and activist. Further, for historical and structural reasons, the international union bodies have tended to be dominated by a multi-lingual elite who, with the best will in the world, are largely remote from the concerns of the ordinary trade unionist.
This paper will build on the authors’ recent work on union democracy and on international trade unionism to present a fresh perspective on the current practice and future perspectives for trade union democracy, at both the national and international levels.
