QUESTION ONE:
COMPARE AND CONTRAST THE POLITICAL ORIENTATION OF TRADE UNIONS FROM ANY TWO COUNTRIES. EVALUATE THE DIFFERENTIAL IMPACT OF THIS ON THEIR INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS SYSTEMS.
INTRODUCTION:
A trade union is similar in character to a labor union. Generally, a trade union can be defined as an organization or grouping of persons who are closely associated due to their mode of employment or the nature of labor they provide to an economy. These organizations exist for both casual and formal employees, as well as the unemployed. Trade unions may be founded by individual workers, past workers or professionals in a certain field of work.
The major but not the only objective of trade unions is the improvement or maintenance of the working or employment conditions of workers.
HISTORY:
Trade unions have been evolving for the last 100 years. Many trade unions arose during the period of the rise of the industrial revolution in Western Europe.
During this period, much of Western Europe was revolutionizing from an agrarian mode of production to an industrial mode of production. The rise of trade unionism was because of the introduction of new work techniques as well as an increasing downward pressure the then existing structures of traditional wage
On top of this, the expanding industrial society was drawing more children, women, immigrants as well as rural workers in to the urban culture. This pool of semi skilled labor as well as unskilled labor started to organize themselves in small groups in order to articulate their plight collectively. This marked the onset of trade unionism.
POLITICAL ORIENTATION OF TRADE UNIONS:
The political dimensions or political orientations of trade unions have always been determined by the nature and type of political regimes existent in their economies all over the world. Due to this reason, many trade unions especially in former colonial states ended up forming themselves into political parties. In other democracies these trade unions concentrated only in their field of specialization and only rarely did they form themselves into political parties.
For the purposes of this paper, I will look at the political orientation of trade unions in one developed western country and one developing African country (Britain and Kenya).
The rise of trade unionism in Britain could be best analyzed on a modernization theory perspective. On the other hand, in order to understand the rise of trade unionism in Kenya, which happens to be a former British colony can only be best understood from a dependency theory perspective.
Trade unions both in Britain and in Kenya have a long history of getting overly involved in political affairs. Surprisingly in both countries, there are instances where certain trade unions have turned into political parties and contested for national elections. Trade unions in Kenya have always had a political dimension ever since the struggle for independence from Britain began. Many trade unions were on the front line in advocating for the release of detained freedom fighters and ever since, they have always been very political.
Trade unions in both countries have been highly involved in political campaigns, especially for political parties that Boston Bruins #37 jersey they consider to be of importance to them. The British labor union was one of the driving forces of bringing the labor party to power. Likewise, the Kenya federation of labor was supportive of bringing the current NARC regime in to power in Kenya. Additionally these trade unions have always been keen on criticizing bad legislation or poor government policies in all sectors of the economy.
In almost all countries of the world there is no country where trade unions have failed to conflict with the ruling regimes. This is in no exception to trade unions in Britain and Kenya. Kenya having been a former colony of Britain and given the fact that it is still a member of the commonwealth countries it shares a lot in common with not only Britain but with almost all of the commonwealth countries. On the field of trade unionism, the extent of political radicalism evident within the British trade unions is still rife and rampant within Kenyan trade unions as well.
Additionally trade unions in both Kenya and Britain have always been politically associated with the ruling elite, or a certain class of the bourgeoisie. This
DIFFERENCES:
Although many trade unions in Kenya are relatively young as compared to their British counterparts, they still do have the above similarities in their operations. However, there are some very significant differences between trade unions in the two countries. Some of these differences include the following.
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