UK strike action, should we expect another winter of discontent?
Union bosses have delivered on their promise of a summer of discontent and seem set to make industrial action a familiar situation during the autumn and winter too.
With strikes happening and being planned for most sectors, including the national transport and ports disarray, the rubbish across the streets of Edinburgh now set to spread across the rest of Scotland, journalists threatening walkout, planned strikes by barristers, postal workers, education staff, junior doctors and potentially the first ever nurse’s strike, it would be quicker to say which sectors are not considering industrial action.
STRIKE ACTION - unchartered territory for a generation of HR professionals
For a generation of HR professionals, this is unchartered territory. The 1980s and 90s saw privatisation of many industries, increasing use of private contractors, openly hostile government legislating against trade unions and a workforce with decreased interest in representation. Those decades also saw a sharp drop in the number of union members, meaning many current senior HR professionals have yet to experience the aggression and hostility that marked relations back in the 1970s.
BFI - HR specialists with over 25-year in industrial relations training
As HR specialists, we have observed these changes, running an annual trade union conference for the past fifteen years which until recently, focussed on new social media platforms and current academic analysis, rather than nuts and bolts case studies of disputes and how to manage conflict. We ran the odd preventative in house training course, often sitting down with union reps and HR to look at ways of communicating and working to resolve potential areas of conflict before any action was discussed.
Post-Covid, Cost-of-Living Crisis an Autumn of Discontent Looms
Post-Covid and heading into a cost-of-living crisis, relations are now far from cosy. Employers report increasingly aggressive and centralised union demands, and most organisations are bracing for at least the spectre of strikes and action before the crisis is over.
Is your HR department fully-equipped to forge strong relations with their Trade Unions?
We are being increasingly approached to organise training for inexperienced staff and to look at ways of resolving what has become openly hostile relations across all industries, working with experts in negotiation and dispute resolution.
The key messages for employers are:
- Take the union demands seriously and, if you are not yet in negotiation, be proactive and prepare
- Share the dilemmas you’re facing: adult conversation and transparency will go a long way to diffusing tricky situations. Communicating with your workforce has never been more important
- Bring your TU in as early as possibly for joint discussions before the dilemma becomes a problem