15 - The rationality and limitations of labour union bureaucracy

Summary

ABSTRACT

The idea that unions are bureaucratic organizations is an old one. However, there is no consensus on what bureaucracy is, why unions are so often bureaucratic, what the interests of full-time officials are and whether the union officialdom is inevitably a conservative influence within unions. This chapter provides an overview of efforts to answer these questions and attempts to advance thinking about the union officialdom. It considers the ideas of both academic writers and political thinkers committed to working-class movements. It begins by considering why workers create, maintain and join formal organizations and what generates bureaucracy in them. It then examines efforts to explain what bureaucracy is and why workers’ organizations are so often bureaucratic, before turning to the much-debated question of whether the interests of full-time union officials are different from those of the workers they represent and whether the officialdom is always a conservative force within unions.

Keywords: Union organization; union democracy; union bureaucracy; challenges for unions

INTRODUCTION

Union activists and academic analysts of unions have long thought about unions as bureaucratic organizations. However, there is no consensus on what exactly bureaucracy is, why unions are so often bureaucratic, what the interests of full-time union officials – as the personnel of the bureaucracy – are and whether the union officialdom is inevitably a conservative influence within unions. This chapter provides an overview of efforts to answer these questions and seeks to advance thinking about the union officialdom. It considers answers proposed by both a range of academic writers and by political thinkers committed to working-class movements. It begins by considering why workers create, maintain and join formal organizations and where bureaucracy arises from in these circumstances. It then examines efforts to explain what bureaucracy is and why workers’ organizations are so often bureaucratic before turning to the much-debated question of whether the interests of full-time union officials are different from those of the workers they represent and whether the officialdom is always a conservative force within unions.

FORMALITY AND ORGANIZATION

Bureaucracy is a feature of formal organizations (Beetham 1987). While workers have long created and sustained unions and other formal organizations of one kind or another, it is worth pausing to examine why this is the case before considering the phenomenon of bureaucracy itself. Clarity about why workers create, maintain and join formal organizations is helpful for the study of bureaucracy.