"This book is a study of the relationship between full-time union officials and shop stewards across the whole of British industry (public and private, manufacturing and services) in 1986 and 1987. It is the first major study of union officials for 20 years, and one of the most detailed studies of workplace collective bargaining and union organization following the recession of the early 1980s. In the wake of recession, union decline, industrial restructuring, anti-union legislation, and changes in union policies (towards a "new realism"), Britain is said by some commentators to be entering "a new industrial relations". This book provides a unique body of evidence that throws new light on this claim, and casts serious doubt on its validity. It combines survey, interview, questionnnaire and observation data and this overcomes the well known limitations of both the large-scale surveys and the individual case studies."

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