Introduction: The Reshaping of Workplace Representation in the United Kingdom and the Development of Focused Trade Union Roles

The chapter introduces the book and reviews some of the historical context of workplace representation and discusses change and renewal in relation to more focused representatives and how we can understand shifting workplace priorities. The chapter locates these general shifts in worker representation in terms of the broader economic, social, political, and structural changes that are framing them. The chapter focuses on these imperatives for change by engaging with the more explicit drivers behind new forms of workplace representation and considers how deliberate, or conscious, these developments are and whether they represent a a new form or pattern of trade unionism. The final and concluding part of the chapter introduces the contributions to the edited volume and brings together some of the findings and reflections of the empirical chapters on different types of worker representatives.