Kettling the Unions? A guide to the 2016 Trade Union ActAlan Tuckman (2018), Nottingham: Spokesman Books. 204 pages. £14.99

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12138
• Author: Steven Daniels
• Date: 01 November 2019
• Published date: 01 November 2019

New Technology, Work and Employment 34:3

ISSN 0268-1072

Review Article

Kettling the Unions? A guide to the 2016 Trade Union Act

Alan Tuckman (2018), Nottingham: Spokesman Books. 204 pages. £14.99

When academics of all disciplines across the UK took part in the Universities

and Colleges Union (UCU) backed strike over pensions in spring 2018, they very

quickly had to familiarise themselves with the modern reality of strikes, and all

of the various hurdles and restrictions that come with modern industrial action:

‘draconian’ (Serwotka, in Tuckman 2018:7) roadblocks put in place almost entirely

by one piece of legislation, the 2016 Trade Union Act (the Act). Tuckman’s Kettling

the Unions serves as an excellent introductory guide to the Act, providing a com-

prehensive historical and political account of how British industrial relations arrived

at its current juncture. For those interested in the current climate and landscape

of trade unionism and its implications for modern strikes, it is a strong read.

As Tuckman acknowledges (2018:204), Kettling began life as a campaign against

the Trade Union Bill 2015, the Bill that would eventually become the 2016 Act,

and the focus of this book. The book is split into four distinct chapters, with the

rst two exploring the history and politics that informed the Act, the third chapter

exploring the rules and implications of the Act, and the nal chapter exploring

the Act in practice using various case studies. The tone of the book is consistent

with the exception of the nal chapter, when the language used becomes more

colloquial, and the reader could be forgiven for believing this chapter was written

by a different author. Given the politically charged origins of Kettling, this reviewer

wonders if the book was written in reverse.

With Kettling coming in at a satisfyingly digestible 204 pages, it provides suf-

cient content and detail so as to be informative, but not overwhelming for the

reader, certainly a plus for casual audiences. Kettling also positions itself well as

to be suitable to various audiences, and not just academic ones, as casual readers

will nd this book engaging and informative. Among academic audiences, it would

serve as a useful primer for students or researchers of industrial relations, the

sociology of work, politics or history; and to a lesser extent law, or management

studies.

The rst chapter explores and recaps the emergence of professional trade unions

within the United Kingdom, and the struggles they endured to receive both rec-

ognition and legal protections for their members. Notable events such as the Taff

Vale judgement (Tuckman, 2018:39–44) are recapped, and their signicance for

the wider trade union movement is explained well. The second chapter focuses

on the post war political dimension, exploring how both trade unions and in-

dustrial relations have thrived and struggled under various governments.

In doing this, Tuckman takes a chronological approach, framing the changes

in political stance well. For example, by exploring the Social Contract under Labour,

designed to ‘bring harmony to industrial relations’ followed by the efforts of the

Thatcher and Major governments to ‘shift the balance of power between labour

and capital decisively towards capital’ through a ‘salami slicing’ of reforms de-

signed to attack and reduce trade union immunities. This is followed by a recap

of Blair and Brown’s refusal to ‘repeal or reverse any of the [Thatcherite] con-

straints on unions’ or halt the rise of zero hour contracts, whilst also offering

workers greater protection in other ways, such as the introduction of the National

Minimum Wage (Tuckerman, 2018:64, 72–3, 78, 82).

© 2019 Brian Towers (BRITOW) and Review article 305

John Wiley & Sons Ltd.