Contesting partnership? evaluating the demise of a national training agreement

Abstract

It is often argued that training and development offer the potential for trade unions to develop modern, cooperative bargaining strategies, far removed from the traditional adversarial agenda of the past. The article explores such concerns through a case study of training policies and practices in the United Kingdom printing industry. Until very recently, training standards and provision in printing were underpinned by a national agreement for recruitment, training and retraining. Whilst this agreement was relatively innovative it proved unable to maintain training levels within the industry and, in late 1998, it was replaced by a ‘training charter’. The analysis reveals the way that training and development issues are often highly contested.