EMPLOYABILITY AND SECURITY IN A FLEXIBLE GLOBAL LABOUR MARKET Trade union attitudes in Germany and Britain: discussion Rail guards illustrate the different approaches of German and British trade unions The forum’s first discussion session examined themes, ideas and issues that preoccupied delegates throughout the meeting. These included flexibility, particularly the blurring of demarcation lines between jobs, trade unions’ effectiveness in protecting workers, and the very purpose of trade unions: what actually are they defending their members against? The example of the British rail unions’ fight against an increase in the tasks undertaken by train guards led to an interesting discussion of the different attitudes in the two countries. British rail unions used strike action to protest against the change, arguing, as one delegate put it, that guards should not‘walk up and down the train selling coffee and tea’. German rail unions responded to the same issue in a different way, regarding the change as positive and acknowledging the benefits to the consumer. British delegates pointed out that one possible reason for the British rail union’s reluctance to accept change was a negative reaction against what they regard as the steady and consistent erosion of workers’ rights and service standards across the entire rail network since privatisation. Thus the British attitude to the question of guards’ tasks was not an issue of flexibility versus inflexibility, but reflected a different approach to a political fait accompli with which many other unions in Britain are also grappling. The erosion of its power and influence in both the political arena and the workplace(as witnessed by falling membership levels) has emasculated the trade union movement. One German delegate pointed out that the rail union in her country also faced similar problems, but over the past three to four years has undergone a makeover, including a change of name and new image.‘We do lobby the government and defend the interests of our workers. But we’ve also redefined ourselves. We are trying to find a new equilibrium between various interests. We are looking, for example, at the increasing polarisation of wages in the eastern and western parts of the country. We are also looking at the problem of attracting graduates into the union and at our approach to male and female members. We need to tackle many issues besides wages.’ No caricature please, we’re British British delegates were keen to avoid being trapped by a caricature of the UK trade union movement. As one delegate remarked,‘we need to adopt a number of new management techniques, to change our ways of reacting and responding, and to develop new thinking. 9 © Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Industrial Society