Article Abstract:
The Banking, Insurance and Finance Union (Bifu) has adopted several strategies to face the large scale layoffs in the United Kingdom's finance sector. The union, which estimates that 100,000 people have lost their jobs since 1990, has focussed on defending staff levels and advocated redundancy managed on a voluntary basis. This has meant creating job security agreements based on 'best practice' ideas, fighting compulsory layoffs, supporting training and education efforts and furthering statutory redundancy arrangements. Industrial action, legal action and public and parliamentary lobbying have been used to face the situation.
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Article Abstract:
The Barclays Group Staff Union voted at its March 1995 conference to adopt a more aggressive posture and a new name (UNiFI) in response to pressures in the UK finance industry. From 1989 to 1991 finance and banking lost 100,000 jobs and will shed another 60,000 by 2000. Barclays, with 60,000 employees, lost 18,000. The revamped union hopes to form a network with others in the industry that may follow its lead, and will probably reject a merger offer from banking and finance union BIFU.
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Article Abstract:
The decision by Unifi, the Barclays' Bank staff union, to affiliate with the Trade Union Congress (TUC) is an unprecedented break with the traditional approach taken by the bank unions. Other unions could follow suit as changed economic conditions continue to reshape the financial industry job market in the UK. The events preceding Unifi's TUC affiliation, including the Towards 2000 surveys and the Cressey report, are discussed and analyzed.
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