Trade Union Growth, Structure and Policy

This work develops the approach of S & B Webb (1897) that labour unions can be categorised along their dimension of 'openness' or 'closure' of membership. The more closed is membership the more likely that the union seeks to impose unilateral job regulation in the place of work. The Webbs saw the tendency towards openness and 'business unions. Turner makes this dependent upon a number of contextual contingencies.