Despite the institutional bias in British industrial relations researc
h, one of the oldest institutions, the Trades Union Congress (TUC), ha
s been neglected by researchers. This article seeks to rectify this de
ficiency through an analysis of the formal relaunch of the TUC since 1
994 under its new General Secretary, John Monks. It reviews the intern
al reforms and innovations in policy that comprise the relaunch and id
entifies two competing visions of the union future that lie at its cen
tre. In the first of these, the TUC's role is to act as an authoritati
ve social partner in relations with government and employers, while in
the second its function is to promote, co-ordinate and support organi
zing activity by its member unions. Each of these perspectives on the
TUC's role is informed by experience overseas in continental Europe in
the one case and in Australia and the United States in the other. The
article concludes that social partnership and the 'organizing model'
are not easily reconciled and that, despite the relaunch, the TUC has
yet to make a key strategic choice: whether to follow the European or
the North American route as it enters the twenty-first century.