Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian
Thanks to Margaret Thatcher, Britain is no longer, as Martin Kettle points out (Opinion, 7 August), a nation based on factories, coal mines and engineering, in which the world hangs on the result of votes at the TUC. But there is still the same profound difference between the interests of employers and their employees. The former need to keep salaries and wages as low as possible so they can pay dividends to the shareholders, and the latter need their pay and working conditions to be such that they can enjoy their lives.
Of course some employers are generous (and sensible) and keep their workforce happy, and some employees are happy to rely on their own negotiating skills without help from unions. But the difference in interests of the two sides remains, and the unions still have an important role in the 21st century. Unlike the present government, Jeremy Corbyn sees the unions as having a legitimate place in the nation’s affairs, as the Conservative prime minister Ted Heath did in the 1970s.
Chris Birch
London
• Chapter 10 of the Bullock report, which Martin Kettle describes as “a tantalising might-have-been” for the governance of British companies, argues the rationale of democratic representation through the union channel. It quotes an ILO worldwide survey demonstrating the impotence of many works councils as vehicles of decision-making. Too often works councils bypassing union representation were (and still are) purely advisory bodies, where workers receive information, express an opinion, but wield no influence or power.
Kettle is impressed by the German system of co-determination, which operates at supervisory board level and through works councils at the workplace. Works councillors in Germany are in practice overwhelmingly trade unionists.
Kettle is correct to note the weakness of UK unions (expressed in the decline of collective bargaining, especially in the private sector). We need policies and legislation to encourage union membership and recognition, rather than an impotent form of worker representation that is essentially based on a failure to recognise that worker representation with teeth requires systematic arrangements for reporting back and accountability. Unions can do this. Atomised workers cannot.
Michael Somerton
Hull
• Martin Kettle asks trade unions to focus on more co-operative models of industrial democracy, rather than party politics and the battle for the Labour leadership. But there are closer ties and collaboration between the co-operative and mutual business sector and trade unions now than for many decades – from new co-ops of music teachers and award-winning worker co-ops through to shared policy guidelines on co-operative schools and wider public sector mutuals. Co-operatives UK has published a strategy for economic democracy, Co-operative Advantage, focusing on participatory enterprise and innovation across 15 sectors of the economy, representing over two-thirds of UK employment.
Changes in technology and business make democratic enterprise a more hopeful option than ever before.
Ed Mayo
Secretary General, Co-operatives UK
• If Labour is to get into government, one important issue that needs to be resolved is the conflict between its democratic and its centrist political leanings. Both positions, of course, have some validity. This understanding is nothing new in the co-operative movement.
Adam Hart
Executive director (1996-2010), Hackney Co-operative Developments CIC
• There is enormous scope for cooperation between responsibly led unions like Usdaw and the government through expanding the unionlearn scheme and tackling the antics of irresponsible unions that detract from both the economy and good name of unions.
On the issue of “check-off” for union fees (Report, 7 August), it works perfectly well in the private sector. Tesco and J Sainsbury deduct subscriptions from employees’ pay and charge the union an admin fee, which makes them a profit. If costs over check-off really are an issue in the pubic sector why not just charge the unions a fee, and make a profit?
The government’s unnecessary proposal detracts from its proposed reforms to strike ballots and political levy; arguments that deserve to be heard. As does the union case for making it easier to secure recognition from irrationally anti-union employers. Cooperation would also be helped by withdrawing unnecessary and counter-productive proposals for longer Sunday trading hours.
John Barstow
Member, Usdaw executive council
• Is it time to revisit the idea of an incomes policy? A decent minimum wage automatically puts pressure on any corporate venture, whatever its purpose. Economies will have to be made elsewhere in the organisation. Union cooperation, and restraint, is needed. A mindless call for the restoration of differentials will merely restart the 1970s.
Malcolm Cookson
Barrow-in-Furness
