Trading Units and The Government at the UK Essay

Trading Units and The Government at the UK - Essay Example The development of UK trade unions after 1970 is marked by the ascendance to power of Margaret Thatcher, in 1979, and the subsequent period of Conservative rule in Britain referred to as Thatcherism. 1979 can be considered the culminating point of trade union influence and power in the UK. According to sources, by that time, more than half of all British employees belonged to unions, with more than 4/5 included in different mechanisms of collective bargaining1. Margaret Thatcher and her three consecutive Conservative governments from 1979 to 1990 introduced a series of measures to liberalize and decentralize the economy, measures that relied on the role of the market in creating business rules. The market required competitiveness, both in terms of efficiency and cost issues, so the role of the trade unions was fought off and marginalized in the 80s. The accession to power of the Labour Party, with Tony Blair as Prime Minister, in 1997, had rekindled some of the trade unions hopefuls, given the history of tight relations between the Party and the trade unions. However, many of the reforms that Margaret Thatcher had adopted during the 80s remained and the results saw the trade union movement in one of the weakest positions in its history: trade union density has halved and collective bargaining mechanisms are at the lowest levels in trade union history2. In many cases, individual industrial relations have developed. Collective disputes can take several forms, differentiation following the severity of the dispute in question. They can take any form, from "silent or indirect protest (absenteeism, lack of motivation, rejects) to open strikes"3. Obviously, the most radical of these measures refer to the collective stoppage of work in an organization. Nevertheless, this is always a head-on game and will turn out on the side of whoever of the two parties involved will be able to hold its position. The management will look out to force union members back to work with punitive measures, such as salary deductions for each period of time that is not spent on the job. On the other hand, it is to be discussed how long the management can support an organization that is not properly functioning due to the strike. It is probably best that this type of recommendation from the UK union will come only after negotiations have not proven useful and after other forms of tacit disputes have been tried beforehand. Following the definition of International Labour Organization Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining Convention in 1949, collective bargaining is a "voluntary negotiation between employers or employers' organizations and workers' organizations, with a view to the regulation of terms and conditions of employment by collective agreements"4. In terms of scope, we can refer to several important advantages that the collective bargaining mechanism brings about. First of all, it aims to level a differing position of two parties (management vs. work organization) through "dialogue and consensus"5 rather than a conflicting situation.

HIS 342 question set 2 Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

HIS 342 question set 2 - Research Proposal Example Primary education, conscription head tax, and military service were to be applied to non-Muslims and Muslims alike. However as Gelvin (2005) notes, "for all its good intentions a policy that attempted to establish equality among Ottoman citizens satisfied few Muslims or Christians" (p. 100). In summary, Osmanlilik ensured that all communities were considered equal in rights and responsibilities regardless of religious background. The Young Turks rebelled against the Sultan by drawing on sentiment among primarily the intellegentsia whom they were a part of as well as public mass sentiment of Turks and thereby leading to the successful overthrow of his power. Similar to the Osmanlilik the young Turks were interested in maintaining the Ottoman Empire's control which was rapidly diminishing. Unlike the Osmanlilik, the Young Turks combined a previously unlikely union of reform-minded pluralists, Turkish nationalists and Western-oriented secularists and indeed anyone who accorded the Sultan political blame for the weakening state of the Empire. The Young Turks had outlined four core reasons for their disgruntlement: a) a thirty year increasingly centralized government, b) increasing surveillance of all aspects of life leading to c) the assassination and exile of anyone who opposed the powers of the Sultan, and d) the consciousness that foreign dominance was increasingly a threat to the entire empire and that this would inevitable lead to the demise of the empire a responsibility that the Young Turks believed to be on the hands of the Sultan (Oktem, 2003). The Young Turks tried to employ Osmanlilik, which saw a revival during this time. This was done to strengthen the Empire however they were unsuccessful in doing so, making Turkish ethnicity dominant and overbearing and thereby straining relations with the ethnic minorities of the region (Oktem, 2003; Gelvin, 2005). 3. Future As discussed in response #1 the fact that the pioneers of Turkish nationalism the Osmanlilik and Young Turks had borrowed ideas from the French Revolutionaries and European Enlightenment illustrates that they were somewhat eager to transcend religious involvement in the State thereby laying the foundations for the modernization of Turkey in the 20th century. Enlightenment policies rejected the role of religion or tradition in society and especially the governing of that society. The rationale for this being that a traditional society in which religion predominated was not only locked within an archaic framework of thinking but that it would inevitably prejudice the rights of those who were either non-followers or non-religious. As such, and according to Oktem (2003) the modernizing of Turkey really was well seasoned upon the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923 by Officer Mustafa Kemal. Kemal, wishing to reach the level of Enllightenment of contemporary civilization broke away f rom the Turkish/Islamist past. The modernization of Turkey during this time included reforms such as secular/republican forms of government, European legal codes, the emancipation of women and the abolition of Arabic script all of which were looked upon favorably and all of which were previously embraced by Osmamlilik and the Young Turks (Gelvin, 2005; Khater, 2004). 4. 1870s The world wide economic downturn of the 1870s otherwise known as the Long Depression ran from