Which one of the following is an exception from the five functional types of unionism identified by Robert Hoxie?

Correct — D, (d) Evolutionary Unionism. Robert Franklin Hoxie, the University of Chicago economist whose study of American trade unions was published in his article ‘Trade Unionism in the United States: General Character and Types’ in the Journal of Political Economy in 1914 and in the volume of his lectures brought out after his death, classified unions by what they were trying to do rather than by whom they enrolled. His functional types are business unionism, uplift or friendly unionism, revolutionary unionism, predatory unionism and dependent unionism. Evolutionary unionism is not among them, and that is the whole of the answer.

Each of the five is a programme of action rather than a description of any particular union, and Hoxie was explicit that a real organisation usually mixes several of them. Business unionism is trade-conscious rather than class-conscious: it takes the existing economic order as it finds it and works within it for better wages, hours and conditions for the members of its own trade, chiefly through collective bargaining. Uplift or friendly unionism is idealistic and aims to elevate the moral, intellectual and social life of the worker, through mutual insurance, education, co-operation and reformist political action. Revolutionary unionism is radical in outlook and in method, class-conscious, and set on changing the structure of society; Hoxie divided it into a socialistic variety that works through political action and a quasi-anarchistic variety that relies on direct action. Predatory unionism has no fixed social programme at all and pursues the immediate object by whatever means seem most appropriate; its varieties are hold-up unionism, which does a secret deal with employers at the expense of the public and of other workers, and guerrilla unionism, which uses force without any such understanding. Dependent unionism is the type that cannot stand on its own and rests on the support of some other group — most obviously the company union, which depends on the employer who sponsored it.

The wrong option is built out of the right one. ‘Evolutionary’ and ‘revolutionary’ differ by two letters and sit next to each other on the list, and a candidate who has learnt the types as a string of words rather than as five programmes can easily take the pair as one item and one distractor without being able to say which is which. The way to hold them apart is to remember that Hoxie's fifth type is dependent unionism — a union that leans on somebody else — and that once the five are known by what they do, a sixth name has nowhere to attach itself.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)Business Unionism — Business unionism is the first of Hoxie's five types and the one that describes the mainstream of the American labour movement of his day. It is trade-conscious rather than class-conscious: it organises the workers of a particular craft or trade, accepts capitalism and the wage system as the framework within which it operates, concentrates on immediate and concrete gains in wages, hours and working conditions, and pursues them mainly through collective bargaining and the trade agreement, with political action used only where it serves those ends. It is a type, so it cannot be the exception.
• (b)Predatory Unionism — Predatory unionism is Hoxie's fourth type. It is defined not by any social philosophy — it has none — but by the ruthless pursuit of the immediate object by whatever means seem most appropriate, without regard to ethics or to the interests of other workers or of the public. Hoxie identified two varieties: hold-up unionism, which enters into a secret understanding with employers so that both profit at the expense of the public and of unorganised workers, and guerrilla unionism, which uses the same methods of force and intimidation against employers with no such collusion. Whatever one thinks of it, it is on the list.
• (c)Revolutionary Unionism — Revolutionary unionism is Hoxie's third type and the one this item is trying to make a candidate confuse with the answer. It is extremely radical in both viewpoint and action, thoroughly class-conscious, and directed at changing the class structure of society rather than at improving terms within it. Hoxie distinguished a socialistic variety, which works through political organisation to capture the machinery of the State, and a quasi-anarchistic variety, which rejects political action in favour of direct action at the point of production. It is one of the five, and the option next to it on the list is not.

Trade unions are classified in two quite different ways and the distinction is worth keeping clear, because papers ask both. A structural classification looks at whom the union enrols: a craft union takes the workers of one skill wherever they work; an industrial union takes all the workers of one industry whatever their skill; a general union takes workers across many industries and occupations; and a white-collar or employees’ union takes clerical and professional staff. A functional classification looks at what the union is for. Hoxie's is the classic functional scheme, dividing unions by the programme of action they pursue — business, uplift or friendly, revolutionary, predatory and dependent. Later writers produced other functional or ideological schemes: Frank Tannenbaum saw the union as a response to the loss of security and status brought by the machine; Selig Perlman explained unionism as a job-conscious reaction of manual workers to the scarcity of opportunity; Karl Marx treated unions as instruments of class struggle and schools of socialism; the Webbs saw them as continuous associations of wage earners seeking to maintain or improve the conditions of their working lives; and Gandhi's trusteeship view treated the union as an instrument of moral persuasion and of partnership rather than of conflict. A question that asks for a type is asking within one of these schemes, and the first thing to fix is which.

Key facts

• Robert F. Hoxie classified trade unions by function — by the programme of action they pursue — not by their structure.
• His functional types are business unionism, uplift or friendly unionism, revolutionary unionism, predatory unionism and dependent unionism.
• His article ‘Trade Unionism in the United States: General Character and Types’ appeared in the Journal of Political Economy in 1914; his lectures were published as a book after his death in 1916.
• Business unionism is trade-conscious rather than class-conscious and works for immediate gains through collective bargaining.
• Uplift or friendly unionism is idealistic and aims to elevate the moral, intellectual and social life of the worker.
• Revolutionary unionism has a socialistic variety working through political action and a quasi-anarchistic variety relying on direct action.
• Predatory unionism has a hold-up variety, which colludes secretly with employers, and a guerrilla variety, which uses force without collusion.
• Dependent unionism rests on the support of some other group, the company union being the clearest instance.
• Hoxie treated the types as alternative programmes of action rather than as descriptions of particular organisations, which usually combine several.

Common traps

• Learning the types as a list of words. Evolutionary and revolutionary are separated only by their content, so the content has to be learnt.
• Forgetting dependent unionism, which is the type most often dropped and therefore the one that leaves room for an invented sixth name.
• Mixing Hoxie's functional scheme with the structural scheme of craft, industrial and general unions. They answer different questions.
• Assuming predatory unionism means violent unionism only. Its hold-up variety works by a secret understanding rather than by force.
• Reading the option list for a name that sounds respectable. Two of Hoxie's five types are frankly pejorative and both are genuine.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In Hoxie's functional classification, the type of unionism that is trade-conscious rather than class-conscious and seeks immediate gains in wages and hours through collective bargaining is

  • (a)Uplift unionism
  • (b)Business unionism
  • (c)Dependent unionism
  • (d)Revolutionary unionism

  Answer(b) Business unionism

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Hoxie's classification of trade unions is based on

  • (a)the industry in which the members are employed
  • (b)the programme of action the union pursues
  • (c)the size of the union's membership
  • (d)the political party with which the union is affiliated

  Answer(b) the programme of action the union pursues