The two faces of partnership?

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Abstract
The paper examines the context and characteristics of partnership arrangements currently emerging between employers and unions at the workplace level in Britain. Case studies of 11 firms involving interviews with managers and trade union officials revealed two broad types of arrangement. Those in production sector firms nurtured collective bargaining through informal partnership relationships, while those in the private service sector contained collective bargaining tightly through formalised partnership agreements. We analyse the pressures that underlie relationships, the net benefits to the parties, the scope of relationships, and employer strategies for restricting union influence. A key finding is that partnership relationships can be characterised by a “continuum” of union involvement in the workplace, with unions having greater rights where they have informal relationships backed up with high levels of workforce unionisation.

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