The TUC and New Labour’s ‘Regional Fix’

By Peter O’Brien, Andy Pike and John Tomaney

An exploration of trade union engagement with regional development and governance.

New Labour has talked about the 'rescaling' of governance and has encouraged so called socio-instituional partnerships, networks and coalitions to deliver local and regional policy. This article illusrtaes how labour movement traditions and heritage act as enablers and constraints on these initiatives. The authors suggest that the TUC will have to sanction further re-scaling of union structures and activities if trade unions are to have an influential role in the redrawn UK economy and polity.

(Labour and Industry; vol. 13, no 2, December 2002)