Assessing the principles of partnership

The article examines the attitudes and experiences of senior workplace trade union representatives, from the Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union, against the TUC’s six principles of partnership. The findings suggest some acceptance of the ideological aspects of partnership, such as the need to move away from adversarial cultures and understand the impact of market imperatives and pressures on the firm. The results reveal little support, however, for improvements in job security, transparency and involvement and the quality of working life (the TUC’s so‐called “acid test” of partnership). Against a backdrop of job insecurity and widespread work intensification, the article argues that the material and organisational basis to partnership appears to be undermining various attitudinal changes within the thinking of trade union representatives regarding their roles and relations at work.