Tarım toplumundan sanayi toplumuna geçişle birlikte, yeni çalışma biçimlerinin ve ilişkilerinin ortaya çıkmasıyla şekillenen ve bu çalışma ilişkilerini düzenleme isteğinin bir sonucu olarak ortaya çıkan endüstri ilişkileri sistemi, 20.yüzyılın son çeyreğinden itibaren küresel bir nitelik kazanan neoliberal politikaların etkisiyle köklü bir dönüşüm süreci içerisine girmiştir. Özellikle yeni teknolojilerin üretim sürecine dahil olması, esnek çalışma biçimlerinin yaygınlaşması ve çokuluslu şirketlerin ortaya çıkmasıyla başlayan süreç, emeğin vasıf düzeyinin artmasına ve küresel bir nitelik kazanmasına neden olmuştur.Sanayi toplumundan bilgi toplumuna geçişe ve tüm Dünya’da işgücünün sanayi sektöründen hizmetler sektörüne doğru hareketliliğine kadar devam eden değişim süreci, geleneksel endüstri ilişkileri sisteminde yapısal bir değişimi zorunlu kılmıştır. Özellikle artık yeni toplumda vasıf düzeyi artan işgücünün, bireysel pazarlık gücünü ele geçirdiği düşüncesiyle; çalışma ilişkilerinin düzenlenmesinde sistemin aktörlerine -özellikle işçi sendikalarına- ihtiyacın olmadığı düşüncesinin yaygınlaşması, yeni bir modelin -İnsan Kaynakları Yönetiminin- doğmasına neden olmuştur. Post-endüstriyel dönüşüm süreciyle birlikte endüstri ilişkilerinin yeni yüzü olarak ortaya çıkan insan kaynakları yönetimi, özellikle çokuluslu şirketlerde, işçi ve işveren arasındaki dolaysız ilişkilerin bir aracı olarak kullanılmakta ve işçi sendikaları miadını doldurmuş, 19.yüzyıla ait örgütler olarak görülmektedir.

Industrial relations system, formed by arising new employment types with transition from agricultural society to industrial society, appearing as a result of desire to arrange labour relations, entered to a radical transformation process with the effect of neoliberal policies which has gained a global characteristic after the last quarter of 20th century. The period starting with especially involvement of new technologies into production process, expanding flexible employment forms and emerging of multinational corporations has led labour’s qualification to increase and gain a global characteristic. The period of change starting in 1970s and on-going in 1990s till work force’s movement from industry sector to services sector and transition from industrial society to information society, necessitated a structural change in traditional industrial relations. Exclusively, in contemplation that the workforce with its increasing qualification, has obtained individual bargaining power in the new society, widespreading of the thought that there is no need for players of the system-especially labour unions- in arranging labour relations, has caused to the birth of a new model –Human Resources Management-. While capital stock, technical equipment and product technology was in the foreground in a major part of 19th and 20th centuries, we saw “human resource” in product organisation as a rising star while we approached to 21st century. Even the other production factors and resources are used efficiently, it was obvious that the enterprises couldn’t reach the same efficiency level and was understood that it was the human resource making a difference. So in the advancing company structures, human resources started playing a much more strategic role that it had not before. As utilisation of information technologies’ in business life became widespread, that developed with the globalisation process, increasing of competence by multinational corporations’ extension in world scale and understanding of enterprises that they can only with investing on information and human resource survive in this competitive environment, caused a structural change in labour force. So a necessity for new personnel policies arose which can also serve to structural change in labour force, which can be expressed with terms like information worker, intellectual capital and human capital. Those changes around and inside the enterprises has caused traditional personnel management to seem inadequate in tensions between employees and managers and especially labour to seem as an important resource for organization and thus let a series of terms under the name of human resources. Human resources management, appearing with post-industrial transformation process as a new face of industrial relations, is used as a tool for indirect relations between employer and employee thus labour unions are seen like outdated organisations, belonging to 19th century, especially in multinational corporations. In the new industry relations that emerged with the transition in traditional industrial relations which expresses the system that employee and employer join as parties and collective negotiation content, it is observed that company managements develop strategies to keep unions away from company and establish indirect relations with employees. It’s been witnessed that the national grade triple structure was collapsed with transformation in industrial relations. As a result, the trend of human resources management’s replacement with industry relations system is an important trend that developed with shrinkage in industry relations system. With the human resources policies practiced mainly firms with a large-scale and a union, firms started using new forms of indirect relations with labours commonly. It’s believed that company-employee integration is established with the human resources applications that involve labours increasingly participation in management and some incentive prizing methods. Thus, company-employee relations are arranged at company level and human resources management policies are introduced as a shocking power that creates new facilities, so a new dimension on industry relations and unionism is brought by the way. Unions’ lose of power with the increasing non-unionization trends and even the spreading ideas that human resources management can be substituted as a result of its strategic characteristic, shows that a union conception based on collectivism can’t be carried on anymore. And this situation has led unions to new pursuits to exist, like business level organizing –business level organizing of unions made them employer-dependant -. But of course, nothing’s like it was before 1970’s in our country where market economy is dominant. Therefore; in today’s world where multinational corporations play an efficient role on world economy, where capitalism gains a global characteristic, where competence is out of borders while unqualified labour is within the borders, labour unions should think once again on their functions with their day-by-day decreasing efficiency. But it’s against the objective and structure of industrial relations system and especially unions to reshape in an individual focused manner just because it has a collective approach in its underground. Trade union movement should be restructured the way it can respond to the needs of new employees, new kind of labour reorganization and new employment relations. For this, unions should also lean on topics like, development of employment, business organization, better working life conditions, education, health, environment, protection of women and children in working life while they lean on their traditional activities like increase of wages and benefits, improvement in working conditions. Unions’ reorganization with broadening their activities, would be much more effective with an international cooperation conception which is a necessity for a global battle against the “global”.