The employment relationship has in many instances been transformed into a business contract. Trade unions in developed countries have been in retreat, seeking to reshape their identity and purpose, shore up a diminishing membership base and develop new services. In developing countries political imperatives may strengthen membership and promote solidarity at particular points in time, but they are not immune from the global economy. If anything, they move off a far weaker base of industrialisation and development, are far more vulnerable to the whims of foreign investors as regards employment and are organisationally and financially ill-equipped to tackle the crises of downsizing and transformation which they must face. The balance of power on which collective bargaining systems were founded has been altered.
Employers are no longer as dependent on certain forms of labour.
The new labour conflict Collective bargaining and institutionalised dispute settlement systems are founded on a particular balance of forces in society. Current forces for change have seen the balance of power shift in favour of employers. This does not mean that there is less conflict in places of work. Indeed, the forces for change are, if anything, conflict-generative. As organisations achieve higher levels of performance with fewer resources, there is evidence of increased emotional and physical stress amongst managers and workers alike.