another area of government which was about to undergo a radical change. During the mid 1980s, the government under went a great change with relation to the Private Sector, having a great impact on Trade Unionism within organisations. By 1991, the government had sold off the telecommunications industry, gas, buses, electricity, water, airlines, airports and steel. They then went onto making government bodies, for example, benefits and tax collection departments into agencies which were managed out of control of the government as individual business. The hospitals were made into trusts. The government succeeded in reducing the power of Trade Unions, through this, as with unemployment, it meant that the Trade Unions had reduced their bargaining power.One of the main factors of decentralisation meant that pay deals were no longer central arrangements and were changed to local arrangements giving the new managers more bargaining power with unions.ConclusionThe Conservative government had great impact on the Trade Union movement of Great Britain, through the powers of legislation they managed to initiate some form of control. There are also many other reasons for the fall, which are explored by many other writers, for example, Metcalf, who believes the fall of Trade Unionism to be due to a number of complex factors WIS data points to a decrease in recognition, from 1984-1990 Trade Union recognition fell from 66% in 1984, to 53% in 1990. Karen Legge Rhetorics and Realities, P252Till the early 1970s Trade Unions had always been followers of the Labour party, yet by 1979 this was no longer the case and a proportion of Labour Trade Union voters had become Conservative voters. This is often linked to taxation policies as the Conservative government had introduced reduced income tax policy. The reduction in income tax meant that anyone money earned more under the Conservative government, increasing popularity of the party and persua...
