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Journal articles on the topic 'Labor unions and democracy'
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1
Friedman, Gerald. "Is Labor Dead?" International Labor and Working-Class History 75, no. 1 (2009): 126–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s014754790900009x.
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AbstractThe Labor Movement has entered a crisis. Declining support for unions and for socialist political movements reflects the exhaustion of a reformist growth strategy where capitalists and state officials accepted unions in exchange for labor peace. While winning real gains for workers, this strategy undermined labor and its broader democratic aspirations by establishing unions and union and party leaders as authorities over the workers themselves. In the upheavals of the late-1960s and the 1970s, dissident movements, directed as much against reformist leaders as against employers and state officials, pushed protest beyond traditional limits toward demands for popular empowerment and democracy. Union decline began then, not because workers had lost interest in collective action but because employers and state officials abandoned collective bargaining to find alternative means of controlling unrest. Capitalism entered a new post-union era, when national leaders like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan used policies of open trade and capital flows and high unemployment to discipline labor. Abandoned by their capitalist bargaining partners, reformist unions and political parties have withered. Now, without social space for reformist movements, the labor movement can only advance by openly avowing its original goals of popular empowerment and the establishment of economic democracy.
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Stern, Andy. "Unions & Civic Engagement: How the Assault on Labor Endangers Civil Society." Daedalus 142, no. 2 (2013): 119–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/daed_a_00208.
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American trade unions are a crucial segment of civil society that enriches our democracy. Union members are stewards of the public good, empowering the individual through collective action and solidarity. While union density has declined, the U.S. labor movement remains a substantial political and economic force. But the relentless attacks by the political right and its corporate allies could lead to an erosion of civic engagement, further economic inequality, and a political imbalance of power that can undermine society. The extreme assault on unions waged by Republicans in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, and at a national level must be countered by a revitalized labor movement and by those who understand that unions are positive civil actors who bring together individuals who alone have little power. Unions need both structural reform and greater boldness; there are moments in which direct action and dramatic militancy can bring about positive social change. The current assault on labor can be rebuffed, and unions can expand their role as stewards for the public good and as defenders of efforts by the 99 percent to reduce inequality and protect democracy.
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Cató, Juan Montes, and Patricia Ventrici. "Labor Union Renewal in Argentina." Latin American Perspectives 38, no. 6 (2011): 38–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0094582x11413863.
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Despite the persecution of labor leaders and activists during the dictatorship of the 1970s and 1980s and the co-optation of the union leadership in the 1990s, in the past few years Argentine labor unions have regained some of the leadership role they lost when they became strategic allies of the government, moderating their wage demands and supporting the government in disputes with other strong social actors. The new landscape created by Néstor Kirchner’s taking office in 2003 provided a favorable context for a revitalization of unions grounded in principles of union democracy. The experience of the subway workers of Buenos Aires, which is paradigmatic for the depth of the changes in internal practices, their persistence over time, and the strong connection between the form of organization and the results achieved, contributes to an understanding of this revitalization. The involvement of members in formulating and implementing policies produces a program more representative of their demands and allows them to acquire experience, skills, knowledge, self-confidence, and a feeling of solidarity that make their organizations stronger for the struggle with capital. Thus union democracy is not an obstacle to but a prerequisite for increasing union power.
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Sinyai, Clayton. "Schools of Democracy." Labor Studies Journal 44, no. 4 (2019): 373–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0160449x19887246.
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In the late 20th century, a wave of democratic transformation swept away dictatorships of the right and left across Europe, Africa and much of Asia; and for the first time in human history most citizens lived under governments they had chosen in free elections. Liberal democracy, characterized by multiparty elections, individual liberties, free enterprise and independent trade unions, seemed poised to dominate the future, but today populist movements challenge the liberal consensus and global public opinion surveys indicate a loss of faith in democratic values. The rapid decline in labor union membership across the developed world may be a contributing factor. Social scientists have documented the function of labor unions as “schools” of democracy where working-class high school graduates learn crucial civic skills, boosting their political participation and reducing the gap between socioeconomic classes. This may explain why AFL President Samuel Gompers’s observation, that “there never yet existed coincident with each other autocracy in the shop and democracy in political life” remains true 125 years later, and highlights a major threat to democracy today.
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Dion, Gérard. "Trade Unions in a Free Society." Relations industrielles 11, no. 4 (2014): 244–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.7202/1022609ar.
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Summary In an industrial and democratic civilization, labor unionism appears as a normal and essential institution. Born of democracy, it helps to preserve and develop democratic life. There is, however, an essential condition. It must be itself an institution that really represents the workers and gives them the opportunity of expressing their aspirations while safeguarding their economic and professional interests. Union democracy is a necessity for the national welfare. But, above all, democracy in the labor movement is the direct responsability of union leaders who must ensure its maintenance and survival through good institutions and also by their cooperation in the civic education of the rank-and-file members.
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조효래. "Internal Politics of Labor Unions and Deliberative Democracy." Korean Journal of Labor Studies 13, no. 1 (2007): 209–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.17005/kals.2007.13.1.209.
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Gruenberg, Gladys W. "Papal pronouncements on labor unions and workplace democracy." International Journal of Social Economics 25, no. 11/12 (1998): 1711–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03068299810233385.
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Flavin, Patrick. "Labor Union Strength and the Equality of Political Representation." British Journal of Political Science 48, no. 4 (2016): 1075–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0007123416000302.
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Amid growing evidence of ‘unequal democracy’ in the United States, labor unions can play a potentially important role by ensuring that low-income citizens’ opinions receive more equal consideration when elected officials make policy decisions. To investigate this possibility, this article evaluates the relationship between labor union strength and representational equality across states and finds evidence that states with higher levels of union membership weigh citizens’ opinions more equally in the policy-making process. In contrast, there is no relationship between the volume of labor union contributions to political campaigns in a state and the equality of its political representation. These findings suggest that labor unions promote greater political equality primarily by mobilizing their working-class members to political action and, more broadly, underscore the important role that organized labor continues to play in shaping the distribution of political power across American society.
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Gumbrell-McCormick, Rebecca, and Richard Hyman. "Democracy in trade unions, democracy through trade unions?" Economic and Industrial Democracy 40, no. 1 (2018): 91–110. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0143831x18780327.
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Since the Webbs published Industrial Democracy at the end of the nineteenth century, the principle that workers have a legitimate voice in decision-making in the world of work – in some versions through trade unions, in others at least formally through separate representative structures – has become widely accepted in most West European countries. There is now a vast literature on the strengths and weaknesses of such mechanisms, and we review briefly some of the key interpretations of the rise (and fall) of policies and structures for workplace and board-level representation. We also discuss the mainly failed attempts to establish broader processes of economic democracy, which the eclipse of nationally specific mechanisms of class compromise makes again a salient demand. Economic globalization also highlights the need for transnational mechanisms to achieve worker voice (or more radically, control) in the dynamics of capital–labour relations. We therefore examine the role of trade unions in coordinating pressure for a countervailing force at European and global levels, and in the construction of (emergent?) supranational industrial relations. However, many would argue that unions cannot win legitimacy as a democratizing force unless manifestly democratic internally. Therefore we revisit debates on and dilemmas of democracy within trade unions, and examine recent initiatives to enhance democratization.
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Erne, Roland, and Markus Blaser. "Direct democracy and trade union action." Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research 24, no. 2 (2018): 217–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1024258918764079.
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Until recently, the political influence of trade unions primarily relied on ties to labour-friendly political parties. Since the 1990s, however, party-union relations have deteriorated, forcing unions to consider complementary political strategies. This article reviews different direct democratic instruments at local, national and EU levels. We distinguish popular consultations initiated by government from above from citizens’ initiatives initiated from below and discuss corresponding trade union experiences in Germany, Italy, Ireland, Slovenia and Switzerland. We also analyse the successful right2water European Citizens Initiative (ECI) of the European Federation of Public Service Unions and the failed fair transport ECI of the European Transport Workers’ Federation at EU level. Whereas unions have successfully used direct democratic instruments to (i) defend social achievements or (ii) as a lever to extract policy concessions, direct democracy is also challenging. Successful direct democratic campaigns require unions that are able to mobilise their own rank-and-file and to inspire larger sections of society.
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Fudge, Judy. "Trade unions, democracy and power." International Journal of Law in Context 7, no. 1 (2011): 95–105. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s174455231000042x.
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Should the law support union recognition by employers? If so, what form should this legal support take? These are the questions that Alan Bogg addresses in his excellent monograph,The Democratic Aspects of Trade Union Recognition. His focus is New Labour's 1999 statutory recognition procedure for trade unions, which he situates within the historical context of the United Kingdom's distinctive approach to the relationship between labour law and the social practice of collective bargaining – aptly (and famously) named collective laissez-faire by Otto Kahn-Freund (1972). Combining political philosophy and legal analysis, Bogg argues for robust legal support for trade union recognition that preserves the autonomy of trade unions to determine their own constituency and recognises their distinctive power to strike. Inspired by the idea of deliberative democracy and an ethical commitment to freedom as non-domination, he argues that civic republicanism provides the best normative basis for trade union recognition procedures. He contrasts this normative framework with the rights-based individualism and state neutrality characteristic of the liberal approach, which, he argues, is embodied in the United States and Canadian versions of industrial pluralism. Bogg also demonstrates the ‘yawning chasm between New Labour's civic rhetoric and New Labour's liberal legal reform agenda’ (pp. 118–19) when it comes to trade union recognition procedures. He concludes by offering a series of proposals that would enhance union recognition and further the values of freedom as non-domination, democratic participation through deliberative democracy, and community.
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Buhlungu, Sakhela. "The Rise and Decline of the Democratic Organizational Culture in the South African Labor Movement, 1973 to 2000." Labor Studies Journal 34, no. 1 (2008): 91–111. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0160449x07308522.
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From 1973 to 2000, the emerging black union movement in South Africa made efforts to construct a collectivist and democratic organizational culture. The development and decline of this culture correspond with three phases in the history of the black trade union movement. Political and economic changes in the past fifteen years have affected this culture, specifically the unions' political engagement and new pressures arising out of globalization. However, although it is true that union democracy in the South African labor movement is under stress, it is premature to conclude that this labor movement has become oligarchic.
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Pitcher, M. Anne. "What Has Happened to Organized Labor in Southern Africa?" International Labor and Working-Class History 72, no. 1 (2007): 134–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0147547907000579.
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AbstractWhy have labor movements in Mozambique, Zambia, and South Africa increasingly been marginalized from the economic debates that are taking place in their countries, even though they have supported ruling parties? Policy reforms such as trade liberalization, privatization, and revisions to labor legislation in all three countries partially account for the loss of power by organized labor as many scholars have claimed. Yet, these policy “adjustments” have also interacted with long-run, structural changes in production, distribution, and trade of goods as well as with processes of democratization to undermine the position of trade unions across much of southern Africa. The article explores this puzzle by first examining the different historical trajectories of organized labor in Mozambique, Zambia, and South Africa. It then analyzes how policy reforms, global restructuring, and democracy had similar consequences across all three cases; collectively, they produced declines in trade-union membership and weakened the influence of organized labor. Although trade unions face a number of daunting challenges, the conclusion traces emerging opportunities for labor to recover from its current malaise.
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Chambers-Ju, Christopher. "Adjustment Policies, Union Structures, and Strategies of Mobilization: Teacher Politics in Mexico and Argentina." Comparative Politics 53, no. 2 (2021): 185–207. http://dx.doi.org/10.5129/001041521x15918883398085.
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This article analyzes the evolving mobilizational strategies of robust unions in contemporary Latin America. The origins of these strategies are rooted in the neoliberal adjustment policies in the early 1990s that compensated and reshaped power relations in labor organizations. With union compensation, a dominant faction concentrated power and embraced instrumentalism; the union exchanged electoral support with various parties for particularistic benefits. When adjustment policies were adopted without compensation, power was dispersed in an archipelago of activists. Unions then relied on movementism, which centered on contentious demand making and resistance to partisan alliances. Comparing teachers in Mexico and Argentina, this article contributes to broader debates about the effects of democracy on contentious politics and the changing partisan identities of workers.
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Honey, Michael. "Norway’s Democratic Challenge." Labor 17, no. 4 (2020): 34–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/15476715-8643472.
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This article provides an overview of Norwegian labor history and social democracy, which challenges American capitalism and the labor movement to consider Martin Luther King, Jr.’s call for a “third way,” a more humane system mixing highly regulated and taxed capitalism with a strong social system powered by strong unions and a truce between workers and capitalists. The Nordic model flies in the face of American avaricious capitalism and challenges us to consider how a better society might exist even within capitalism. The author, a specialist in southern labor and civil rights history and Martin Luther King studies, urges historians to explore Norwegian and Scandinavian labor history and social democracy to see what it can teach us.
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Anderson, Karen M., and Traute Meyer. "Social Democracy, Unions, and Pension Politics in Germany and Sweden." Journal of Public Policy 23, no. 1 (2003): 23–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0143814x03003027.
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This article investigates the politics of reforming mature, pay-as-you-go pensions in the context of austerity. In both Sweden and Germany the Social Democratic party leadership advocated reform in response to similar financial and demographic pressures, but the Swedish reform was more successful in correcting perceived program weaknesses and in defending social democratic values. To explain this difference in outcomes, we focus on policy legacies and the organizational and political capacities of labor movements. We argue that existing pension policies in Germany were more constraining than in Sweden, narrowing the range of politically feasible strategies. By contrast, in Sweden, existing pension policy provided opportunities for turning vices into virtues and financing the transition to a new system. In addition, the narrow interests of German unions and the absence of institutionalized cooperation with the Social Democratic Party hindered reform. By contrast, the Swedish Social Democrats' bargaining position in pension reform negotiations with non-socialist parties was formulated with blue collar union interests in mind. The encompassing interests of Swedish unions and their close links with the Social Democrats facilitated a reform compromise.
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Cook, María Lorena. "Labor Reform and Dual Transitions in Brazil and the Southern Cone." Latin American Politics and Society 44, no. 1 (2002): 1–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-2456.2002.tb00195.x.
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AbstractThe sequencing of transitions to democracy and to a market economy shaped the outcome of labor law reform and prospects for expanded labor rights in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. Argentina and Brazil experienced democratic transitions before market economic reforms were consolidated in the 1990s. During the transition, unions obtained prolabor reforms and secured rights that were enshrined in labor law. In posttransition democratic governments, market reforms coincided with efforts to reverse earlier labor protections. Unable to block many harmful reforms, organized labor in Argentina and Brazil did conserve core interests linked to organizational survival and hence to future bargaining leverage. In Chile this sequence was reversed. Market economic policies and labor reform were consolidated under military dictatorship. During democratic transition, employers successfully resisted reforms that would expand labor rights. This produced a limited scope of organizational resources for Chilean unions and reduced prospects for future improvements.
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Maranto, Cheryl L., and Jack Fiorito. "The Effect of Union Characteristics on the Outcome of NLRB Certification Elections." ILR Review 40, no. 2 (1987): 225–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001979398704000205.
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This paper examines the determinants of National Labor Relations Board certification election outcomes in individual election units between 1972 and 1980. Particular emphasis is given to the role of national union characteristics in determining union success or failure. The authors find that union success in organizing both blue- and white-collar workers is influenced positively by union size and internal democracy and negatively by strike activity and the centralization of its decision making. Benefits provided directly to members by unions significantly increase, and higher dues significantly reduce, white-collar organizing success, whereas the same factors have no significant effect on blue-collar organizing.
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Herrigel, Gary, and Lowell Turner. "Democracy at Work: Changing World Markets and the Future of Labor Unions." Industrial and Labor Relations Review 46, no. 4 (1993): 742. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2524336.
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Jackson, Joseph M. "Democracy at work: changing world markets and the future of labor unions." International Affairs 68, no. 4 (1992): 745–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2622766.
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Black, Naomi. "Book Review: Labor-Management Relations: Women Challenging Unions: Feminism, Democracy, and Militancy." ILR Review 49, no. 1 (1995): 171–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001979399504900112.
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Rosen, Sumner M., and Lowell Turner. "Democracy at Work: Changing World Markets and the Future of Labor Unions." Political Science Quarterly 107, no. 3 (1992): 561. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2152462.
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BRICKNER, RACHEL K. "Feminist Activism, Union Democracy and Gender Equity Rights in Mexico." Journal of Latin American Studies 42, no. 4 (2010): 749–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022216x10001355.
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AbstractBeyond competitive elections, democratisation should include a transformation of the institutions of state and civil society into spaces that recognise the rights of citizens and allow for their participation. This study explores the question of how Mexican labour unions are transformed into institutions with a commitment to the rights and participation of women workers. Drawing on evidence from five unions, the paper shows that compared to their corporatist counterparts, unions with a ‘democratic ethos’ provide a context within which gender equity rights are more readily recognised. However, recognition of gender equity is primarily dependent on feminist activism and union leadership. The paper argues that women's efforts to transform their unions into spaces that reflect and advocate for gender equity rights are critical to strengthening democratic citizenship in Mexico.
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Renshaw, Patrick. "Why Shouldn't a Union Man Be a Union Man? The ILGWU and FOUR." Journal of American Studies 29, no. 2 (1995): 185–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0021875800020818.
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Historians generally agree that in the 1950s and 1960s organized labour in the United States had become thoroughly bureaucratized. This is often explained as part of a general process of growth and maturity. In their lean, radical youth in the 1930s, those American unions which had launched the Congress of Industrial Organizations had aimed at two targets: to organize and bargain collectively, as promised by the 1935 National Labor Relations Act; and then to use this power to press for wider industrial democracy and social reform. By the time the CIO was reunited with the American Federation of Labor in 1955, this picture had been substantially changed. Increasingly labour cooperated with management and had become part of the white, male, liberal corporate power structure which ran the American capitalist industrial and political system. This military-industrial complex was the indispensable basis, not just for American prosperity but the whole Cold War strategy of containment of communism through the Pax Americana.
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Szakats, Alexander. "Industrial Democracy in Hungary." Victoria University of Wellington Law Review 31, no. 2 (2000): 459. http://dx.doi.org/10.26686/vuwlr.v31i2.5949.
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Biyanwila, Janaka. "Union Strategies in the Sri Lankan Tea Plantations: Rediscovering the Movement Dimension." Economic and Labour Relations Review 14, no. 1 (2003): 64–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/103530460301400106.
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With the launch of export-oriented industrialisation policies in 1977, trade unions in Sri Lanka entered a new set of challenges. The state promotion of labour market deregulation and privatisation has directly undermined union strategies based on bureaucratic modes of organising worker solidarity. Nevertheless, among the gamut of union strategies are tendencies characterising what is described as social movement unionism (SMU). The SMU approach focuses on strategies of independent unions combining participatory democracy internally with structured alliances externally. This paper looks at the case of a union in the tea plantations and its potential towards developing a SMU strategic orientation. In particular, the discussion focuses on the deepening of democratic tendencies within the unions which may be capable of reinforcing the movement dimension of unions.
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Navarro, Vicente. "A Critique of Social Capital." International Journal of Health Services 32, no. 3 (2002): 423–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.2190/6u6r-ltvn-fhu6-kcnu.
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This article critiques the concepts of communitarianism and social capital as used in the United States and in Europe. For the United States, the author focuses on Robert Putnam's understanding of both concepts, showing that the apolitical analysis of the Progressive Era, of the progressive developments in Northern Italy, and of the situation of labor unions in the United States is not only insufficient but wrong. The critique also includes the difference between U.S. communitarianism and its European versions, Christian democracy and New Labour, and the limitations of both approaches. The uses and misuses of these concepts in the political debate are discussed.
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Eaton, Jonathan. "Union Democracy and Union Renewal." Articles 61, no. 2 (2006): 201–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.7202/014168ar.
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Unions in the current environment are facing renewed pressures to demonstrate internal democracy and accountability. In this context, the Public Review Board (PRB) of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) deserves attention. The PRB is a unique institution within the Canadian labour movement: a body outside the union which has the power to make final and binding decisions on issues raised by union members. This paper considers the contribution of the PRB as a support for democratic renewal. The evolution of the PRB, from its origin in 1950s America to its current Canadian embodiment, is described. The decisions of the PRB over its two-decade history in Canada are analyzed and assessed. While recognizing the lasting influence of the narrow, procedural vision charted by the PRB early in its history, the author concludes that the CAW’s PRB is an innovation that merits wider recognition.
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Webster, Edward C. "Book Review: Labor-Management Relations: Trade Unions and the Coming of Democracy in Africa." ILR Review 62, no. 3 (2009): 431–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001979390906200311.
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Kwon, Jaok. "Forging feminism within labor unions and the legacy of democracy movements in South Korea." Labor History 59, no. 5 (2018): 639–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0023656x.2018.1470142.
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Wood, Geoffrey, and Pauline Dibben. "The Challenges Facing the South African Labour Movement." Articles 63, no. 4 (2008): 671–93. http://dx.doi.org/10.7202/019542ar.
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There is a growing body of literature on the role and impact of unions in the developing world, and on their ability to mobilize members against a background of neo-liberal reforms. The South African trade union movement represents a source of inspiration to organized labour worldwide, but has faced many challenges over the years. This article engages with debates on union solidarity and worker democracy, and draws on the findings of a nationwide survey of members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) to explore the extent of fragmentation according to gender, age, skill level and ethnicity. The survey reveals regular participation in union affairs, democratic accountability, participation in collective action, and a strong commitment to the labour movement, but variation in levels of engagement between categories of union members indicates significant implications for union policy and practice.
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Muñoz Sánchez, Antonio. "La socialdemocracia alemana y el movimiento sindical ibérico durante las transiciones a la democracia (1974-1979) = The German Social Democracy and the Iberian Trade Union Movement during the Transition to Democracy (1974-1979)." Espacio Tiempo y Forma. Serie V, Historia Contemporánea, no. 32 (June 23, 2020): 133. http://dx.doi.org/10.5944/etfv.32.2020.26052.
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El texto trata de la dimensión internacional de la transición sindical en Portugal y España. En concreto, analiza la contribución de la socialdemocracia alemana a la reconstrucción del movimiento sindical socialista, muy débil en ambos países al iniciarse el proceso de transición. Muestra cómo el temor a que el predominio comunista en las dos grandes centrales ibéricas, Intersindical y Comisiones Obreras, significase un factor de inestabilidad permanente en las nacientes democracias, movió a la DGB y la Fundación Ebert a implicarse masivamente en apoyo de las modestas organizaciones socialistas. El texto explora las líneas maestras de la colaboración con los cuadros sindicales del Partido Socialista portugués y con la española Unión General de Trabajadores. El autor defiende la tesis, que podrá refrendarse o refutarse cuando se permita el acceso a algunas fuentes relevantes en Madrid y Lisboa, que el apoyo alemán fue crucial para el meteórico ascenso del histórico sindicato socialista español y para la creación de homónima central portuguesa União Geral de Trabalhadores. AbstractThis paper deals with the international dimension of the trade union transition in Portugal and Spain in the 1970s. It analyzes the contribution of German social democracy to the reconstruction of the socialist labor movement, which were extremely weak in both countries at the beginning of the transitions. It shows how the fear that the communist dominance in the two great Iberian unions, Intersindical and Comisiones Obreras, meant a permanent instability factor in the nascent democracies, moved the DGB and the Ebert Foundation to massively support the modest socialist labor movement. The text explores the main lines of the cooperation with the trade union cadres of the Portuguese Socialist Party and with the Spanish Unión General de Trabajadores. The author holds the thesis, which can be endorsed or refuted when access to some relevant sources in Madrid and Lisbon is allowed, that German support was crucial for the meteoric rise of the historic Spanish socialist union and for the creation of the homonym Portuguese União Geral de Trabalhadores.
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Marino, Stefania, Magdalena Bernaciak, Adam Mrozowicki, and Valeria Pulignano. "Unions for whom? Union democracy and precarious workers in Poland and Italy." Economic and Industrial Democracy 40, no. 1 (2018): 111–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0143831x18780330.
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Focusing on the cases of Italy and Poland, this article examines the link between union organizational democracy and the economic and political inclusion of precarious workers. It argues that union membership of vulnerable groups is not a necessary condition for the representation of their voice and economic interests by labour organizations; rather, these two forms of inclusion are shaped primarily by the institutional contexts in which unions operate as well as by their identities and structural characteristics. In both examined countries the economic inclusion of precarious workers has been more advanced, while the degree of their political inclusion has lagged behind and varied across major union confederations in line with two distinct models of unionism: a solidaristic and a diversity-oriented one.
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Broszkiewicz, Roman, Barbara Krzyskow, and Halina Szejnwald Brown. "The Occupational Safety and Health System in Poland during the Transition to Democracy and a Market Economy." NEW SOLUTIONS: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy 8, no. 2 (1998): 221–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.2190/vc5g-ca39-0nkh-6ufy.
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Since the fall of communism, the occupational health and safety system in Poland, which was extensively developed during the post-war period, has been incrementally adapting to the new social order. The reforms of the 1990s aimed at stimulating active participation by workers and labor unions, increasing the responsibility of employers, reducing the paternalistic role of the state, and strengthening the enforcement branch. The emergent system has many strengths, including a highly branched-out system of regional and local enforcement agencies, competent and self-confident government institutions familiar with the firms under their jurisdiction and adept at balancing competing social objectives; a tradition of cooperation among agencies and employers; and strong advocacy by the government agencies on behalf of workers. The system also exhibits characteristics that may weaken it in the future, such as lack of support from labor unions; low interest among workers; a generally low safety culture; stringent, often unimplementable exposure standards; and lack of “ownership” of the system by social groups other than the state bureaucracy.
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Devinatz, Victor G. "Left-Wing SPA-Led and CPUSA-Led Unions and Worker Organizations as the Vanguard of U.S. Social Democracy’s Left-Wing, Circa 1935 to 1950." Labor Studies Journal 44, no. 1 (2019): 60–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0160449x19828471.
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During the golden era of world trade unionism (circa 1945 to 1980) the trade union movement’s political arm, the workers’ parties (Labor, Social Democratic, and Communist) were at their peak strength attaining a significant amount of electoral support from the citizens in many European industrial democracies. This situation, however, did not occur in the United States where both the Socialist Party of America (SPA) and the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) never exerted similar political power as their European counterparts. Nevertheless, SPA and CPUSA members and their supporters attained significant influence in U.S. trade unions and related workers’ organizations, circa 1930 to 1950. Based on the publication of recent literature, I argue that left-wing SPA-led and CPUSA-led unions and worker organizations were the vanguard of the left wing of U.S. social democracy (the New Deal) from the mid-1930s to approximately 1950. Since the SPA and CPUSA had relatively small membership numbers, it was more effective for these political groups to work through trade unions and other mass worker organizations, such as the International Workers Order, for promoting their ideas and policies.
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Jansa, Joshua M., and Michele M. Hoyman. "Do Unions Punish Democrats? Free-Trade Votes and Labor PAC Contributions, 1999–2012." Political Research Quarterly 71, no. 2 (2017): 424–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1065912917738575.
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This article examines whether labor unions punish incumbent Democrats who vote for free-trade bills in Congress. We theorize that punishment is a risky strategy for interest groups that prefer one party over the other. Therefore, interest groups must be substantially affected by decline in party support to punish. Consistent with our theory, we find important differences between public- and private-sector unions in their willingness to punish. Although public-sector unions articulate opposition to free trade, they do not follow through with either deterrence (withholding contributions to send a signal) or incapacitation (withholding contributions to replace the wayward candidate with a more supportive one). Private-sector unions, specifically unions that organize trade-vulnerable industrial workers, do attempt to punish Democrats via deterrence. The estimated deterrence effect is a 6 percent reduction in contributions. This study improves on previous studies by modeling punishment across several congressional sessions and multiple trade votes. The results reveal new insights into labor’s approach to declining protectionism among congressional Democrats.
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Farmer, Stephanie, and Sean Noonan. "Chicago Unions Building a Left-Labor-Community Coalition, United Working Families, to Restore Working-Class Democracy." Labor Studies Journal 44, no. 4 (2019): 388–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0160449x19887244.
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Neoliberal political institutions are beholden to the interests of capital and professional classes, leaving working people and communities of color without a voice to shape priorities that benefit their interests. To counteract this elite-dominated political system, the Service Employees International Union Health Care Indiana and Illinois (SEIU-HCII) and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), worked with community organizations to form the United Working Families (UWF) Party of Illinois in 2014. UWF is a model of labor-led working class organizing in the electoral system. UWF brings together a left-labor-community alliance under an independent political party formation to champion a left-wing social democratic platform to empower working class people in their workplaces and communities, and to fight against Black and Brown oppression. UWF has provided leadership trainings for a cadre of working class, people of color and women and has been successful electing their leaders to municipal, county and state level government offices.
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Baral, Uma Nath. "Impact of Trade Union in the Hotel Workers." Journal of Political Science 18 (June 29, 2018): 143–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jps.v18i0.20449.
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Along with the implementation of democracy, Nepalese people are privileged of having different categories of human rights. Among them, trade union is one of the major political rights. The workers in industry, trade, business and other labour markets are organized within the trade union. Hotels are supposed to be the service industry or business organizations that are foundincreasing rapidly in the post 1990’s democratic era. Hence, in this post-republican democracy along with settlement of the Maoist arms conflict, hotel business seems to be blooming. In order to be successful in the hotel business, it requires skilled manpower for providing good services. Skillful labourers require having basic rights with several privileges only then they can be fully devoted and committed to their profession, which may lead to a successful hotel business. Pokhara is a renowned place for tourism and hotel business. There are around one thousand hotels here including stars and non-stars. There are different trade unions for organizing the hotel workers for their rights. Whether such unions are working for seeking more privileges to their members is a major question for research. In this regard, to study the role and impact of trade unions among the hotel workers in Pokhara is the main objective of this research paper. Two hotels as one from stars and another from non-stars were chosen for obtaining the required data for the fulfillment of the objective. As with the opening of trade unions - 144 - in almost every sector of industry, including the hospitality, the rights of the labour are taken into considerations. Being united under the trade unions, workers are obtaining various facilities as job security, allowances and basic salary as prescribed by the governmental rules. It has been found that many workers have positive attitudes towards trade unions and the managements have also been positive towards workers as well as unions. Most of the workers enjoy the union memberships and participate in the union activities. But some of them are not satisfied with union activities, because they believe the leaders are more guided and directed by their self-interests and their affiliated political parties. However, as per workers perspective there is cooperative relationship between trade unions and hotel management in fulfillment of their basic and other rights.Journal of Political Science, Volume XVIII, 2018, Page : 143-166
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Adăscăliței, Dragoș, and Aurelian Muntean. "Trade union strategies in the age of austerity: The Romanian public sector in comparative perspective." European Journal of Industrial Relations 25, no. 2 (2018): 113–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959680118783588.
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This article examines the impact of the economic crisis and its aftermath on collective bargaining, by comparing reactions to austerity policies of trade unions in healthcare and education in Romania. We develop an encompassing theoretical framework that links strategies used by trade unions with power resources, costs and union democracy. In a tight labour market generated by the massive emigration of doctors, unions in healthcare have successfully deployed their resources to advance their interests and obtain significant wage increases and better working conditions. We also show that in the aftermath of the crisis, healthcare trade unions have redefined their strategies and adopted a more militant stance based on a combination of local strikes, strike threats and temporary alliances with various stakeholders. By comparison, we find that unions in the education sector have adopted less effective strategies built around negotiations with governments combined with national-level militancy.
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Barkin, Solomon. "Labor Participation – A Way to Industrial Democracy." Relations industrielles 33, no. 3 (2005): 391–405. http://dx.doi.org/10.7202/028886ar.
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The author examines the role and forms of industrial democracy in the enterprise and when in the process of selection of questions, study and analysis, search for solutions and defining the final decision and which methods of implementation shall employees and their union share, and in what manner, the responsibilities of decision-making with management. Current arrangements must be viewed essentially as transitional accommodations in the unending search for viable, more satisfying and productive plans.
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Camerra-Rowe, Pamela. "Agenda 2010: Redefining German Social Democracy." German Politics and Society 22, no. 1 (2004): 1–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/104503004782353311.
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In March 2003, Social Democratic Chancellor Gerhard Schröderannounced a series of reforms that his government plans to undertakein order to deal with Germany’s pressing economic problems.These reform proposals, known as Agenda 2010, include cuttingunemployment benefits, making it easier to hire and fire workers,reducing health insurance coverage, and raising the retirement age.The reforms mark a change in the direction of the German SocialDemocratic Party’s (SPD) economic policy. Rather than promotingtraditional social democratic values such as collective responsibility,workers’ rights, and the expansion of state benefits, Schröder declaredthat “We will have to curtail the work of the state, encourage moreindividual responsibility, and require greater individual performancefrom each person. Every group in the society will have to contributeits share.”1 Despite opposition to these reforms by labor unions andleftist members of the party, Agenda 2010 was approved by nearly 90percent of SPD party delegates at a special party conference in June2003.2 Several of the reforms, including health care and job protectionreforms, were passed by the legislature at the end of 2003 andtook effect on 1 January 2004.
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Kaliappan, P., and Dr FabiyolaKavitha. "A Conceptuel Frame Work On The Causes And Effects Of Industrial Relations." Restaurant Business 118, no. 8 (2019): 431–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.26643/rb.v118i8.8013.
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Industrial relations emerges from day to day association of management and labour.it ensures healthy labour management relations, maintenance of industrial peace and development of industrial democracy. Themanagement ,the labour unions and government are the key players of industrial relations. Industrial relations is all about promotion and development of healthy labour management relations, maintenance of industrial peace, avoidance of industrial strife and development and growth of industrial democracy.
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Tilly, Chris. "Disintegrating Democracy at Work: Labor Unions and the Future of Good Jobs in the Service Economy." Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews 43, no. 1 (2013): 77–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0094306113514539i.
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Johnson, Victoria. "Disintegrating Democracy at Work: Labor Unions and the Future of Good Jobs in the Service Economy." Social Movement Studies 15, no. 1 (2015): 118–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2014.994497.
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Gentile, Antonina. "Labor repertoires, neoliberal regimes and US hegemony: what ‘deviant’ Italy tells us of OECD unions’ paths to power." European Political Science Review 7, no. 2 (2014): 243–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1755773914000101.
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This paper notes the tendency of ‘social movement unionism’ scholarship on both sides of the Atlantic to focus on and prescribe the citizen repertoire as the single most important repertoire of labor for challenging neoliberal globalization. Consistent with liberal conceptions of civil society and theories of participatory democracy, it implicitly dismisses political unionism as a path to labor’s revitalization. It also assumes epochal change and confines neoliberalism to the post-Washington Consensus era. Deviant case analysis of Italian labor’s use oftworepertoires (the citizen and the labor repertoire) and of its two regimes of capitalism (in succession, a post-WWII neoliberal regime and a post-1970 corporatist regime) over the course of the ‘American Century’ gives pause to both these contentions. This study relates labor’s citizen repertoire to the era of US hegemony that promotes changes in party-government that tend to reproduce the image of the archetypically neoliberal American polity: a polity that is devoid of ‘labor’ as a recognized category of the political community, is low in social rights, and, relatedly, is devoid of a party of labor. In this neoliberal political order, labor is perennially locked into the category of ‘citizen’ and reliant on the citizen repertoire. By contrast, the survival of parties of labor in non-US polities during the post-war wave of neoliberalism permitted union movements a routeawayfrom labor-decategorizing orders – political unionism. Now, in the post-Washington Consensus wave of neoliberal regime change, that route is more onerous owing to Third Way changes in parties of labor. The major challenge for labor movements that have experienced regime change to a neoliberal polity is in directing their efforts and even their new citizen repertoire to the task of recapturing parties of labor or to creating new ones – or risk long-term US-style labor decategorization.
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Laurell, Asa Cristina. "The Role of Union Democracy in the Struggle for Workers' Health in Mexico." International Journal of Health Services 19, no. 2 (1989): 279–93. http://dx.doi.org/10.2190/n1nk-lxek-nfkm-bnrm.
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In this article, the author analyzes the struggle for workers' health in Mexico, emphasizing the importance of the general and specific political context. In an overview of the legislation on industrial health and safety, the state institutions involved in the issue, and the characteristics of union organization in Mexico, the author shows that the limited activities related to workers' health have more to do with the relative political weakness of the Mexican working class than with the formal structures of legislation, state institutions, and unions. The second part of the article deals with the four most important struggles for health and safety in Mexico during the last ten years, which show some similarities. These struggles are consistently linked to processes of union democratization and tend to decline when union democracy is lost. The strategies of the companies show a common pattern: removing health issues from collective bargaining and putting them in the hands of state institutions. When workers have opposed this solution, management has used selective repression to solve the conflict. The state institutions subordinate their position to the companies' by postponing action or by doing a technically poor job. Changing the existing situation involves the social legitimation of the workers' health issue, since this would have an impact on the political processes involved, i.e., corporate control over workers, authoritarian labor relations and professionalism, and resources of the state institutions.
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Gaido, Daniel. "Archive Marxism and the Union Bureaucracy: Karl Kautsky on Samuel Gompers and the German Free Trade Unions." Historical Materialism 16, no. 3 (2008): 115–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156920608x315266.
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AbstractThis work is a companion piece to ‘The American Worker’, Karl Kautsky's reply to Werner Sombart's Why Is There No Socialism in the United States? (1906), first published in English in the November 2003 edition of this journal. In August 1909 Kautsky wrote an article on Samuel Gompers, the president of the American Federation of Labor, on the occasion of the latter's first European tour. The article was not only a criticism of Gompers's anti-socialist ‘pure-and-simple’ unionism but also part of an ongoing battle between the revolutionary wing of German Social Democracy and the German trade-union officials. In this critical English edition we provide the historical background to the document as well as an overview of the issues raised by Gompers' visit to Germany, such as the bureaucratisation and increasing conservatism of the union leadership in both Germany and the United States, the role of the General Commission of Free Trade Unions in the abandonment of Marxism by the German Social-Democratic Party and the socialists' attitude toward institutions promoting class collaboration like the National Civic Federation.
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Barnes, Teresa. "Democracy and Historiographies of Organized Labour in Zimbabwe." International Review of Social History 48, no. 3 (2003): 457–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0020859003001159.
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Keep on Knocking: A History of the Labour Movement in Zimbabwe, 1900–97. Ed. by Brian Raftopoulos and Ian Phimister. Baobab Books on behalf of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Harare 1997. xx, 164 pp. Striding Back: The Labour Movement and the Post-Colonial State in Zimbabwe 1980–2000. Ed. by Brian Raftopoulos and Lloyd Sachikonye. Weaver Press, Harare 2001. xxvii, 316 pp., £14.95; $24.95.
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del Rio Loira, Pablo, and Menno Fenger. "Spanish trade unions against labour market reforms: strategic choices and outcomes." Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research 25, no. 4 (2019): 421–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1024258918818267.
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Trade unions are considered to be key political actors in the formation of welfare states. Their importance for the current fate of welfare states, however, has been disputed within academia. Aiming to contribute to this vast body of literature, this article analyses the participation of Spanish trade unions in labour market reforms since the restitution of democracy in Spain. The article analyses the strategic choices open to trade unions, particularly the choice of calling for mobilisation, and why unions make the choices that they do. Mobilisation in the form of a general strike constitutes unions’ last and most extreme resort for confronting the government. We also explain the context in which such mobilisations are able to prevent retrenchment measures attempted by the government.
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Meer, Marc Van Der, Roos Van Os Van Den Abeelen, and Jelle Visser. "The focus of the new trade union. Opinions of members and non-members regarding social differences and trade union priorities in the Netherlands." Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research 15, no. 3-4 (2009): 439–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10242589090150031401.
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Trade union legitimacy at national level is increasingly coming under pressure due to the new social challenges arising from the shifting of decision making from national to both international and decentralised levels. In this article we discuss representative opinion research on the social differences perceived by Dutch citizens and the priorities on which trade unions should focus. This allows us to relate the emerging criticisms of the unbalanced composition of Dutch trade union membership to issues of ‘positive’ coordination and policy-making legitimacy in light of internal trade union democracy and the representation of younger labour market cohorts.