Meaning of Militancy? Postal Workers and Industrial Relations, The

Capital & Class, Summer 2004 by Darlington, Ralph

Gregor Gall The Meaning of Militancy? Postal Workers and Industrial Relations Ashgate, Aldershot and Burlington, 2003, pp. 348 ISBN 0-7546-1902-8 (hbk) £55.00

Given the continuing, laborious over-preoccupation with human resource management and social partnership among many industrial relations academics, this monograph is a refreshing alternative, representing a new and important contribution to an understanding of the dynamics of 'militant' trade -union organisation, activity and consciousness within what is undoubtedly Britain's most strike-prone industry. No doubt it will become a standard text, not only specifically in terms of Royal Mail, but also in literature on trade unionism generally. Alas, from the point of view of this reviewer, the book is marred by serious limitations, which result in a very mixed bag overall.

To begin with, on the basis that the term 'militancy' is often a loosely and imprecisely used characterisation of worker or union behaviour, simply equated with a high propensity to strike, Gall attempts to provide a more explicitly elaborated definition, constructed across a multiplicity of levels of analysis. he acknowledges the merits of Kelly's conceptualisation (1998) that militancy is characterised by tendencies towards extensive goal-setting, resistance and membership mobilisation, underpinned by an ideology of conflicting interests between workers and employers. But he also criticises Kelly's approach for its alleged focus on institutional and organisational (national) union militancy, and for its exclusion of what are termed 'labour militancy' (behaviour of a subnational form, mainly workplace-based) and 'worker militancy' (encompassing rather wider and more 'political' attitudes and action). In addition, Gall is concerned to integrate into the conceptualisation intra-union differences between union leaderships and sections of the membership, which often play a crucial role, as well as an historical dimension that evaluates the significance of these differences at different points in time. The book then proceeds to examine whether, and to what extent, the popular conception of Royal Mail (RM) workers' industrial and political behaviour over the last fifteen to twenty years as 'militant' is justified, hence the question mark in the book's title. Evidence is provided from research which involved semi-structured interviews with forty full-time Communications Workers Union (cwu) officials and activists, drawn from across the country; observation of some union meetings; and the use of material from official documents and newspaper reports. What follows is a detailed-if, at around 180,000 words, rather overdetailed-and illuminating descriptive and analytical account.

An historical overview of RM'S business, industrial and political environment is provided, which examines the way the Post Office, faced with greater commercial pressures, threats of privatisation and the ending of its monopoly under the Conservatives, combined a managerial efficiency drive to introduce new technology, productivity agreements and labour flexibility in the 1980s with a major structural and business reorganisation in the 1990s. The latter had the effect of creating autonomous business units such as RM, each with distinct bargaining arrangements, decentralisation and divisionalisation across functional lines, which in turn required the complete restructuring of the industrial relations system and trade union organisation, in order to match those of the employer. Gall proceeds by documenting the way RM'S ability to transform the employment relationship to one of marginalised and cooperative unionism has met with little success because of postal workers' collective resistance, mainly expressed through strikes.

Significantly, there have only been two national postal strikes in recent times, and neither was concerned solely with pay rises. One chapter explores the 1988 national strike, which began as an official one-day dispute and then escalated into a series of unofficial walk-outs. Gall argues that because the strike was not defeated, postal workers were insulated, to some extent, against the deep sense of disorganisation and demoralisation affecting the British union movement generally in the 1990s. Another chapter looks at the linked series of eight one-day national strikes in 1996, centred on the attempt to introduce team working. Other chapters document the way in which, although strike levels generally have fallen (albeit with some fluctuation) within RM since the late 1980s, postal workers have been involved in relatively much higher levels of strike action than any other section of the British workforce. Most strikes tend to be of short duration, take place in delivery offices (rather than in processing or distribution), are unofficial (because since 1990 they have had to be repudiated by the union), and are usually effective from the workers' point of view. The spreading of strikes from their original source to other offices and a high level of solidarity action are common features. A number of examples of such action in different parts of the country are provided by way of illustration.