Any trade union wishing to alter the conditions of its members will have to address the question of growth and numbers. For unions, whose primary membership comprises highly replaceable semi-skilled and unskilled workers, the question of growth is pivotal because they cannot rely on the scarcity of their members’ skills as a bargaining weapon.

In order to advance workers’ interests it is necessary for unions to challenge both management control and the power of the state. The only weapon they have in this uneven contest is the wielding of power in order to secure a hearing and, at times, to force the hand of powerful forces in opposition to their interests. If unions represent a sizeable proportion of their constituency who are vociferous in their own interests it becomes difficult for organs of power to ignore them.

The acquisition of power is not simply a question of numbers – strategic selection of companies; the strength of workplace structures; the strength of internal organisational cohesion; the unity of membership's goals; the strategic use of conflict; and the overall strategies and policies the union adopts will all affect its access to power. Yet without numbers to champion these strategic visions there can be no implementation of demands. Union growth in itself is multifaceted, governed by economic, social, political and organisational factors which embrace questions of leadership, union structure, unity, mergers, alliances, legal reforms and so on.

Growth posed a dilemma for the emerging metal unions, and especially for Mawu. As a survival strategy it had opted to build power in selected factories and thereby concentrate its resources, but the challenge now was how to grow rapidly and build industrial power without losing organisational coherence.

As the 1980s dawned, unions faced a new constraint on growth: the economy was entering one of its longest and deepest downswings. The immediate trigger was a world recession precipitated by the 1979 revolution in Iran and a huge jump in the oil price.