Negotiating Amalgamations: Territorial and Political Consolidation and Administrative Reform in Public Sector Service Unions in the UK

Since 1990 there has been a series of union amalgamations among Britain’s public-sector unions. This study examines three amalgamations and one aborted amalgamation. Each was initiated by union leaders reacting to government-sponsored reforms of the public sector, and all involved unions with either defensive or consolidatory merger motivations. The complex negotiations are presented as resolving issues of political, democratic and administrative concerns. It is argued that the balance of power on critical constitutional issues lay with the leaders of the consolidatory unions, particularly the dominant activist groups within such unions. As a consequence, success in amalgamation negotiations lay in satisfying such group’s interests in sustaining the existing political ethos and democratic system, while securing agreement on the desired administrative reforms.