DID THE RETREAT OF UK TRADE-UNIONISM ACCELERATE DURING THE 1990-1993 RECESSION

It is widely believed that recessions are periods of accelerated struc tural change, with major reorganizations or adjustments being made und er intense pressure. These changes are made to ensure the survival of firms, exploit opportunities created by difficulties facing other firm s, or take advantage of temporary falls in the opportunity cost of ini tiating and carrying out changes. This line of argument suggests that we should expect to see firms making major changes in their investment s in human capital, and in their industrial relations practices. Our r esults are only partially consistent with this view. What seems to be clear from the data generated by our surveys is that firms are not rel uctant to make changes in their bargaining strategies and industrial r elations systems. This should be no surprise. Unlike investments in pl ant and equipment, these changes do not require much cash, and the opp ortunity cost of making them is much lower in recessions than in booms . However, the observed changes in union recognition have not occurred primarily in firms that were severely affected by the recession. Incr eases in pay decentralization and reorganization of work-force arrange ments were no more likely to be initiated by distressed firms than by firms only moderately affected by the recession. It follows, then, tha t the retreat of UK unionism observed during the 1990-3 recession was, in the main, a continuation of existing secular trends. The mild acce leration in the pace of change revealed by our survey may be cyclical, but the trend is unlikely to be reversed as recovery gathers pace.