It would be hard to argue that the 1980s was a successful decade for British trade unions. Whether one turns one's attention to membership levels, to union density, or to the outcome of several of the larger disputes of the decade, the picture is one of retreat or defeat. Union influence over various aspects of government policy directly or indirectly affecting industrial relations was minimal. Successive pieces of legislation dealing with the rights of trade unions and of their members were criticised and rejected by unions themselves yet enacted, apparently with a level of popular support which must have included that of many union members. In 1983 and 1987, many of those members reaffirmed their rejection of the policies of the Labour Party, the preferred political party of many union leaders, voting instead for the confirmation of policies which, not just pragmatically or occasionally but ideologically and systematically, rejected values and beliefs close to the core of British trade unionism. The latter half of the decade saw a distancing between the previously closely linked institutions of the labour movement. Not only was the Labour Party in opposition seeking to reduce a perceived source of electoral disadvantage by stressing the independence of its policy making from the views of trade union leaders but also, within the TUC, there were splits over both organisational and political matters, resulting in the expulsion of EETPU in 1988, the most serious split within the movement since 1945.

If all was not gloom, the bright spots were scarce, and did not illuminate any clear path to recovery.