Professional Engineers' Attitudes to Trade Unions

Abstract

The unionisation of professional, scientific and technical employees has attracted considerable attention in recent years. Much of the debate has concerned the issue of whether unionism and professionalism are compatible. During the 1970s, established white‐collar unions and a new breed of “professionals‐only” unions sought to recruit in this area on the assumption that they were. However, the early 1980s saw a decline in the rate of recruitment and a fall in the membership of some “professionals‐only” unions. Subsequently, a period of consolidation and reorganisation has taken place, with the established white‐collar unions leading the way in devising new organisational arrangements. These entailed absorbing some of the “professionals‐only” unions into their ranks. How far, though, is trade union membership regarded as compatible with professional status by individual engineers?

Citation

McLoughlin, I. (1985), "Professional Engineers' Attitudes to Trade Unions", Employee Relations, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 27-31. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb055055