Union Retreat and the Regions

Over the last 15 years, the substantial restructuring of western economies has confronted trade unions with the most intense changes and challenges they have had to face for more than half a century: in many countries union membership has fallen sharply and the power of the trade unions has been considerably weakened. Drawing on the data from a large scale ESRC-funded research project, the authors make a comprehensive analysis of the regional and local dimensions of trade union decline and industrial relations changes of the past 15 years, relating their findings to wider conceptual and empirical issues. Linking regional structure, trends in trade unionism and industrial relations to the more general debate on regional development and regional labour markets, this book is an important synthesis of economic geography and labour relations work.