politics of New Labour.
As argued in Chapter 2, the 2010 coalition government welfare reforms actually display many continuities. At the time of writing, the roll-out of UC is taking place accompanied by unprecedented criticism from sections of the media, trade unions, and social and welfare movements because of its wholescale assault on benefits and social protection. Understanding the nature of response from the trade unions is extremely important. Trade unions are the single largest voluntary organisation in the UK, with over 4 million members; after successive onslaughts by neoliberalism they are still capable of innovation and providing a voice for disadvantaged groups and the working class as a whole in the face of a sustained attack on living standards. They have strengths and weaknesses which this book will explore. Strengths lie in their bargaining activities and capacity to resist austerity and the cuts in the public and welfare services and which are so important for supporting disadvantaged groups. The weaknesses are their low level of presence and activity in large parts of the service sector where poor working conditions and insecure work predominate.
Geography plays an important part of the book’s analysis. As a geographer and researcher on labour market policy, I have been interested in the spatial dimension to state restructuring. Between 2005 and 2007, I was involved with a major two-year Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) project, Devolution and Regional Governance and the Economic Needs of Deprived Localities (North et al, 2007), which examined the extent to which policies and governance structures in national jurisdictions and regional bodies across the UK linked economic development activity to the needs of deprived areas. A key finding of the research was the extent of deprivation and large proportion of people claiming out-of-work and sickness benefits in deindustrialised areas. The uneven geographies of welfare reform and austerity play a key role in shaping territorial politics within the regions. The chapter on Greater Manchester is based on earlier research on the impact of austerity on devolution and welfare undertaken with Martin Jones in 2017 (Etherington and Jones, 2017). Greater Manchester is chosen as a case study as it represents the flagship devolution initiative where welfare reform is a key element of the devolution process.
The book’s focus on insecure work and ‘precarious’ economies arises from my interest in the way welfare reform impacts on insecure work. This is an important lens under which to tease out the links and relationships between the industrial relations system and welfare policies. From this, the book explores weakness in terms of the lack of employment rights and workplace trade union representation in certain sectors of the economy, and how this has been reinforced by work-first policies, which tend to ‘feed’ workplaces where exploitation and oppressive working practices exist. My involvement with Sheffield Needs a Pay Rise Campaign (SNAP) provided an opportunity to explore these links (Etherington et al, 2018). Many workers in low-paid and insecure work places have travelled the welfare–work system, often cycling between the two, and the research – involving interviews with workers, benefit claimants and trade union officials/ activists – provides insights into how trade unions negotiate and resist insecurity and relate (or do not) to the organisations (community, non-government organisations) and other social movements who act on behalf of the disenfranchised. Sheffield, in common with a number of post-industrial cities, has undergone considerable cuts to social protection and services which are essential to the reproduction of labour. The SNAP research provides a useful case study in terms of the relationship between austerity and labour market insecurity.
My longstanding collaboration with Martin Jones (and later with Jo Ingold) has spawned several comparative publications on Denmark and the UK which have contributed to ideas about the inclusive labour market. Given the plethora of excellent critiques on welfare and work, there is a question of what alternative and progressive strategies may look like. I will make some attempt at this towards the end of the book drawing on previous work on Denmark and the UK (see Chapter 7).
Objectives and structure of the book
Summary
The book provides fresh perspectives on the link between welfare policy and employment relations, and their fundamental impact on social inequalities. This analysis is set in a wider context of austerity and the current employment crisis. Work-first policies, specifically UC, undermines employment rights as welfare claimants are pressured under threat of sanctions into low-paid and precarious work. The book analyses the role and strategies of trade unions and civil society organisations in contesting the reform agenda demonstrating the importance of union organisation and bargaining for welfare policies. The geographies of austerity play a central role in the politics of welfare, with the ‘left behind’ regions bearing the brunt of public expenditure cuts. In the case studies of Greater Manchester, as England’s flagship devolution initiative, and trade unions and civil society organising against precarious work in Sheffield, a more detailed insight into the struggles against austerity and labour market inequalities is provided. A central argument of the book is that an industrial relations model based on coordinated collective bargaining and enhanced employment rights will underpin an inclusive welfare agenda. The final two chapters are devoted to exploring alternatives, including lessons that can be drawn from Denmark’s more redistributive welfare and industrial relations system, and the importance of challenging the austerity narrative where there is an emphasis on the importance of investing in public services and local government as a basis of building a democratic and accountable labour market.
Outline of chapters
Chapter 2 develops a conceptual framework and theoretical concepts on austerity welfare and the employment relationship in two parts. Drawing on theories of class and power resources, I will construct a framework for drawing out the links between welfare and industrial relations regimes in the context of broader class politics and relations. The second part of the chapter provides a more rigorous theoretical analysis of neoliberalism, austerity and uneven development and the changing nature of the state in the context of the global economic crisis. A key element of state intervention in this respect is the way industrial relations policies underpin changing relationships between capital and labour through the attack on employment rights and representation, and the intensifying conditionality within the welfare system. The chapter situates agency and class struggle by exploring the role of actors (trade unions, social movements) and struggles which are involved in negotiating and contesting neoliberalism. Chapters 1 and 2 should be viewed as providing the conceptual and theoretical context to the book.
Austerity, in the form of attacks on public services and the welfare state has underpinned Thatcher’s and New Labour’s radical transformation of industrial relations, social security and the benefits system. This is the focus of Chapter 3, which briefly analyses the political and economic basis to neoliberal policies and how these have placed greater emphasis on the attack and reduction of labour rights, with a brief explanation of the impact of the 2008 crisis and ensuing austerity policies. The election of the New Labour (NL) government in 1997 promised a break from the neoliberal policies of Thatcherism. I will explore in this chapter the argument that while there were important policy shifts, the continuities with the Thatcher economics and social policy reflected neoliberal politics pursued by the NL government led by Tony Blair. In other words, this brand of neoliberalism has paved the way to the market fundamentalism and austerity politics of the current 2019 Conservative administration. The examination of the NL legacy is critical to understanding what I term the embedding of neoliberalism in welfare and employment policy. The chapter starts with an analysis of NL employment and welfare policies and then an overview of the coalition/Conservative government’s reforms. As well as tracking key policy changes, the chapter will cover responses and engagements of key actors in relation to welfare and work including trade unions and social movements
Chapter 4 focuses on challenging austerity and, in particular, analyses the nature of resistance to welfare reform and UC, exploring the critical voices and discourses of trade unions and welfare rights organisations. The UC policy of in-work conditionality puts into critical focus the way austerity and cuts to personal support and skills funding have placed considerable barriers for people to progress in work. The TUC,