Reflexions on trade union leadership

Citation

Monks, L.J. (2012), "Reflexions on trade union leadership", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 33 No. 8. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj.2012.02233haa.002

Reflexions on trade union leadership

Reflexions on trade union leadership

Article Type: Foreword From: Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Volume 33, Issue 8.

Foreword by Lord John Monks General Secretary, TUC 1993-2003; General Secretary ETUC 2003-2011

Trade union leadership is an under-researched area and the studies which follow aim to illuminate what is a complex and sometimes controversial subject. When asked by an exasperated employer about a group of unofficial strikers, Vic Feather, then General Secretary of the TUC, replied “remember, they work for you and I work for them”. I have always remembered that wise remark which expresses an eternal truth for any union leader at any level. Forget it at your peril! That employer thought that a union leader can order a certain course of action, be the boss of an obedient flock, command the troops. It has never been quite like that although some leaders have seen their role that way.

Sometimes, for example in the 1970s, the pendulum swung the other way with some leaders seeing themselves as the mouthpiece of the members, the loudhailer to shout out the grievances and claims, the tribunes of the people. Indeed it was not until the late 1980s that the concept of union leadership began to embrace some management techniques like appraisal, development and professional financial controls.

For me, the ideal union leader needs imagination to see the scope for improvements in the condition and skills of the members, the personality to weld a strong body of opinion together, the pragmatism to judge what is practical and what is unrealisable, the ability in negotiations to squeeze out a bit more than the employer wants to concede, the ability to make deals which stick and are respected by members and employers alike.

In addition, a fine leader will see more widely than particular workplaces and see that the country's economy needs to be in good shape if gains are to be possible; that productivity, quality and smart working are a key to growth and that social policies like education, welfare and health are crucial to well-being and progress. He or she will take a social democratic view of society with its emphasis on equality, high skills and productivity. Openness to fresh ideas and new developments especially from the trade union movements in the advanced societies of northern Europe is also important. The wise leader will also support actions internationally to help fledgling, free trade unions struggle against dictatorships.

In truth, few, if any, of us have come near my ideal standards of leadership. But we have had many who have been exceptional people. Ernest Bevin stands out as perhaps coming closest to the ideal as he progressed from the “Dockers QC” to founding the TGWU, to early Keynesian in the slump of the early 1930s, to solid anchor of pragmatism in the Labour Party, to promoter of the International Labour Organisation, to successful Minister of Labour in the wartime coalition, and to Foreign Secretary after the war when he was instrumental in setting up the much admired system of collective bargaining and co-determination in west Germany, as well as being a principal founder of NATO. What a list – beautifully recounted in Alan Bullock's three biographies. Only Jack Jones since has come close to emulating his predecessor's achievements.

I have been privileged to know a rich array of impressive union leaders in this country, Europe and beyond – convenors as well as general secretaries, shop stewards and full timers. When you see a good one, they lift the spirits and renew my hope for the trade union renaissance that we all need. The UK's shaky, unequal and unsustainable economic model has been shown up as being built on credit, imports and debt. The trade unions “central mission” must be to change it and move us in the direction of our North Sea neighbours, especially Germany but others too – savers not debtors, manufacturers not financiers, more, not less equal, skills, not second class learning. I could go on but these are the key challenges facing the trade union leaders at all levels in our society today.