Compare and Contrast Industrial Relations in Uk and Usa

1764 Words8 Pages
HISTORY OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS “Great Britain has over 59 million populations with an employment rate of 80%, whereas USA has a 313 million population with an employment rate of 93%. UK was the first country to be industrialized which was in the 1780s, however in USA Industrialisation began in the 1800s. There has been much change in employment and industrial relations in Britain over the last two decades. Successive conservative governments over the period 1979-1997 set the tone with their radical step-by-step reform of industrial relations law, labour market deregulation and attempts to foster a competitive enterprise culture. Likewise, historically US were a former colony of the UK and it gained independence from Britain in 1776. The USA has had a dual political system, with 50 states and a Federal government based in Washington DC. Both the UK and USA have three parties of employment and Industrial relations. They are; Trade unions, Employers and the State (government).” (Greg J Bamber, 2011) TRADE UNIONS “In UK Trade Unions were formed around 19th century and the first unions to be formed were the craft unions. Frank Burchill has also mentioned other various types of trade unions in the UK which include Craft unions, General unions, Industrial unions and Labour relations. (Burchill, 1992) Similarly the first trade unions to emerge in USA were also craft unions. Craft unions were formed by skilled craft workers such as carpenters, wood workers and other skilled workers. (Greg J Bamber, 2011). Trade unions in the USA were much weaker than those in the UK. In almost all countries individual trade unions form a national trade union organisation, also known as the umbrella organisation. In UK the umbrella organisation was formed in 1886 and was known as Trade Union Congress (TUC). The main functions of TUC were; to coordinate the activities of member unions
Open Document