Thatcher政策對勞雇關係和就業的影響

The Impacts of Thatcher's Policies on Labor Relations and Employment

臺灣流行的觀點是Thatcher的自由市場經濟政策和壓制工會挽救了英國的經濟。本文的目的是反省這種說法。本文從榮工法修正來看工資、工會發展、勞資爭議、人力資源管理、公營事業民營化和失業的改變，探討Thatcher對受雇者的影響。筆者認為她的改革只是以現有受雇者為代價，降低了勞動成本。英國經濟問題錯綜複雜，把工會當做英國病的病源和犧牲勞工，並不能使得英國製造業就獲得競爭力。同時在全球化之下，大企業的利得，也不能期待能分霑於社會大眾。

According to conventional wisdom in Taiwan, Thatcher's supply-side economic policy and anti-labor union measures renovated the declining British economy. This paper questions the wisdom and examines the impacts Thatcher's policies on seven areas: wages, union membership, labor dispute, adoption of human resource management, privatization and unemployment. Thatcher's measures did reduce labor cost. However, labor union is not the sole source of the British disease. Labor cost is only one factor, among many others, for the competitiveness of British goods. Furthermore, under globalization, it is also quite doubtful that profit of British transnational can trickle down to the British masses.