Business Studies – 2.2.5 The role of trade unions | e-Consult

Trade unions employ a variety of activities to achieve their aims of improving workers' rights and conditions. These activities can be broadly categorised as:

• Collective Bargaining: This involves negotiating with employers on behalf of members to reach agreements on wages, benefits, and working conditions.
• Industrial Action: This refers to actions taken by trade unions to pressure employers to meet their demands. This can include:

  • Strikes: A work stoppage undertaken by employees to exert pressure on employers.
  • Picketing: Employees gather outside a workplace to inform the public and dissuade customers from doing business with the employer.
  • Boycotts: Refusing to buy goods or services from a particular company.

• Lobbying: Trade unions engage in lobbying activities to influence government policy in areas affecting workers' rights, such as legislation on minimum wage, working hours, and health and safety.

Two examples of activities are:

1. Organising a strike to protest against proposed pay cuts. This is a direct form of industrial action to put pressure on the employer.
2. Lobbying government officials to introduce legislation that strengthens workers' rights to fair dismissal. This is an attempt to influence policy and improve the legal framework for employees.