The Early Mobilization of Women Union Leaders — A Comparative Perspective

This article explores the initial reasons for union joining of women who became union leaders in the UK and the USA by drawing on concepts from mobilization theory and the literature on women and unions. The comparative study demonstrates similarities and differences in early mobilization influences on UK and US women with respect to family, ideology, instrumentality and injustice. Informed by the women and unions literature, the article critiques mobilization theorists for failing to problematize the term ‘injustice’ and underplaying the importance of ideology which are shown to be gendered and racialized and located in time and place.     

Peak Union Campaigning: Fighting for Rights at Work in Australia

Many peak unions are in crisis, their traditional reliance on economic or political exchange with employers and the state undermined through falling union membership and the collapse of national bargaining systems. New methods, chiefly as agents of mobilization, and new sources of power, including community organizations, are often advanced as solutions. In Australia, where trade unions faced a fundamental and immediate threat from a national government after an election in 2004, the ‘Your Rights at Work’ campaign signalled a shift in peak union strategy. Although this campaign unseated the government in 2007, its legacy is unclear: reviving the power of peak unions and conceptualizing the means to do so remain difficult.     

Tweeting and Retweeting for Fight for $15: Unions as Dinosaur Opinion Leaders?

Advocacy campaigns are central to unions’ efforts to impact labour rights beyond unionized workplaces. Social media and on-the-ground campaign dynamics are intimately related. Thus, if unions can become leaders on social media, they could have more impact on campaign framing and mobilizing. Drawing on primary data and applying a sequential mixed method, we analyse unions’ ability to emerge as opinion leaders in Twitter dialogues on the Fight for $15 (FF$15) campaign. We track FF$15-related activities of Twitter profiles over seven months and compare union actions to those of others along three dimensions: level of activity, prevalence of tweeting versus retweeting and endorsement within FF$15 community and in the Twitter universe. Regression results show unions prefer advancing their own ideas over supporting those of others, and their messages are more endorsed than others’ messages in the Twitter universe. In-depth interviews and a focus group reveal that while their actions are slow and conservative, unions can count on internal support and institutional reputation to gain leadership. The article concludes by noting the implications of the findings for unions’ strategies to become opinion leaders on social media.     

Linking Union Density and Union Effectiveness: The North American Experience

This study considers how union performance in terms of organizing, bargaining, and political activity are related to severely declining union density (the percentage of the workforce in unions) in the United States and the higher and stable union density in Canada. Canadian unions have remained active in recruiting new members and assign a high priority to organizing, while American unions have shown diminished organizing effort and ability. Canadian unions have demonstrated superior performance in collective bargaining as measured by resistance to concession bargaining and negotiated wage gains, among other factors. Finally, although Canadian unions experienced some political setbacks, they wielded more political influence than their American counterparts in promoting union-specific as well as broad social legislation. Density is examined as both a consequence and determinant of the divergence in union performance.     

Conglomerate Unions and Transformations of Union Democracy

Confronted with membership losses and declining bargaining power, trade unions have engaged in both political and organizational responses. A frequent type of organizational response has involved the creation of conglomerate unions, which bring together workers from various sectors and occupations. Pointing out a number of parallels between organizational developments in trade unions and political parties, this article analyses the emergence of conglomerate unions as a cause and consequence of changing conceptions of union democracy. Drawing on two in‐depth case studies conducted in France and Germany, the article examines how trade unions perceive their situation and how they define a reform rationale based on increasing their organizational ‘efficiency’ and ‘effectiveness’. In accordance with this rationale, unions engage in mergers and create larger conglomerates, thereby centralizing decision‐making bodies and professionalizing their staff. The reform of trade unions’ internal organization, in turn, affects unions’ capacity for interest aggregation and representation.     

Industry Change and Union Mergers in British Retail Finance

This paper investigates the reasons for and implications of the recent merger between three of the largest unions in the retail finance sector, creating UNIFI. Recent union mergers have been explained by environmental changes adversely affecting membership and finances. These prompt leaders to consider merger as an appropriate organizational solution. Mergers are successfully concluded when leaders are able to overcome internal resistance and develop acceptable outcomes. We examine whether these factors are sufficient to explain how the merger between the national banking union and two large company‐based staff unions was concluded, given longstanding institutional rivalry.     

Social Capital and Union Revitalization: A Study of Worker Networks in the UK Audio‐Visual Industries

This article examines Jarley's contention that trade union revitalization is conditional upon the generation of social capital through the systematic creation of networks. It draws on a qualitative study of freelance workers in the UK audio‐visual industry to consider two propositions. The first, that ‘social capital within networks is forged on “bonds” that are conducive to trade union identity’ was not sustained by the data, which instead suggested that social capital is more likely to be generated by networks outside trade union structures. However, the data did support the second proposition that ‘trade unions can harness social capital in order to achieve concrete industrial relations outcomes’ by linking networks to reservoirs of expertise and influence.     

Beyond the Union‐Centred Approach: A Critical Evaluation of Recent Trade Union Elections in China

Many Western scholars have regarded union democracy and elections as affairs that are internal to trade unions and unconnected with outside forces. Going beyond the mainstream union‐centred approach, this study critically assesses one significant type of union election that has been emerging in China since 2010 and that has been driven by different forces from previous elections. Previous workplace union elections had been ‘top‐down’ — initiated by the party‐state or its apparatuses, or else transnational corporation‐induced — but this newer type of election has been driven by workers' strikes. This study illustrates how the dynamics among the quadripartite actors — party‐state, higher‐level trade unions, capital and labour — have shaped these strike‐driven elections. Contrary to the claim that these elections have been ‘direct’ and ‘democratic’, our case studies show that they have been indirect and quasi‐democratic in nature.     

The Influence of Leadership and Member Attitudes in Understanding the Nature of Union Participation

There has been a growth of interest among industrial relations scholars in the functions of union leadership at both national and local levels. This paper presents a survey-based analysis of the impact of union leaders on member participation in Cypriot public-sector trade unions. It indicates that active leaders promote participation both directly and indirectly, through their influence on members' attitudes towards the union. The study emphasizes the importance of leadership in facilitating further understanding of member participation in trade unions.     

The Political Effects of Accounting Normalization on Trade Unions: An Analysis of Financial Transparency Reform in France

The law of 20 August 2008 reformed the representativeness of French unions by imposing an obligation for ‘financial transparency’. Building on exploratory research, we address the question of the organizational and political effects of the new regulation, which point to a traditional debate in union democracy studies: how do administrative and representative rationalities combine within trade union organizations? Drawing on interviews with union leaders and finance officers at various levels in three major labour confederations (CGT, CFDT and CGT‐FO), we describe the different ways unionists have received the new accounting requirements and translated them into organizational practices and norms. Going beyond the traditional theses of compatibility and colonization, we make use of the body of work in critical legal and management studies to develop an endogenous approach of the relationships between trade unions and accounting management.     

Union Co‐operation in a Context of Job Insecurity: Negotiated Outcomes from Teamworking

This paper explores the ‘mutual gains’ argument that employees benefit when teamworking is introduced alongside employee involvement in problem‐solving and within a co‐operative industrial relations climate. It reports worker outcomes from negotiations to introduce teamworking across two steelworks. Moderate union branches and employees at one of the works (Scunthorpe) co‐operated with managers in joint problem‐solving teams to redesign work. However, contrary to mutual gains expectations, greater job insecurity at this works coerced union branches to accept teamworking agreements containing extensive demanning and a pay increase for fewer employees. Employees perceived greater job security at the other works (Teesside) and by rejecting joint problem‐solving with managers, militant union branches protected more jobs and extracted higher payment for teamworking. The findings indicate that job insecurity can lead co‐operative unions down a slippery slope of coerced co‐operation restricting employee benefits from teamworking.     

An International Study of Trade Union Involvement in Community Organizing: Same Model,Different Outcomes

This article reports on a two‐year study of union/community organizing in the UK, USA and Australia. It takes a particular model of organizing — that of the Industrial Areas Foundation — and analyses trade union engagement in coalition‐building activity in each of the three countries. Findings show mixed approaches to working with community groups from ad hoc instrumentalism to deep coalition‐building. While these variations may, in part, be explained by different industrial relations contexts, it appears that the ‘fit’ between ideology and culture of unions and their coalition partners, as well as the practices and strategies that reinforce this fit, have much greater effect on the attitude and behaviour of unions towards non‐workplace‐based organizing. The article contributes to debates about the conditions under which unions succeed (or not) in sustaining strong coalition‐building beyond their traditional constituencies.     

Policies on Union Representation in US Multinationals in the UK: Between Micro-Politics and Macro-Institutions

This paper examines the policies towards unions and collective representation in US multinationals in the UK. It uses detailed case‐study data to argue that the dominant ‘ideological norms’ of anti‐unionism in the US business system shape, but do not determine, the behaviour of US multinational subsidiaries in the UK. Within the structural constraints determined by such factors as sector, subsidiary policy and behaviour towards unions are the outcome of the complex interaction of the contrasting ‘macro‐institutional’ forces of home and host business systems, and how these are filtered through the perceptions and interests of actors at different levels of the multinational. The resulting ‘micro‐politics’ generates a complex and evolving pattern of union relations and non‐unionism in US subsidiaries.     

New Measures of Union Organizing Effectiveness

This study compares union organizing activity and success in the United States and Canada. Based largely on certification data for the period 1976–1985, he results indicate there was a substantial decline in union organizing effectiveness in the United States and the Canadian unions were more active and successful in recruiting new members than their American counterparts. The evidence suggests that labor policy in Canada is more supportive of union organizing and the achievement of first collective agreements.     

Institutional Change and Union Membership: A Longitudinal Analysis of Union Membership Determinants in Israel

We examine the degree to which factors associated with workers' union membership decisions are sensitive to shifts in the institutional environment of unions. Comparative logit analyses of the relationship between potential determinants of membership and actual union membership over time suggestthat the factors associated with membership are elastic and may reflect shifts in the institutional context of unions.     

Legacies,Conflict and ‘Path Dependence’ in the Former Soviet Union

This article analyses management–union–worker relations in a foreign‐owned Moldovan clothing factory. Studies of post‐socialist industrial relations have focused on explaining labour quiescence, advancing ‘path dependence’ and ‘Soviet legacy’ arguments. These draw attention to strong links between management and unions, and weak relations between the latter and workers. We show how the union has, in one case, drawn creatively on Soviet legacies to develop strong articulation between itself and women workers. This was part of a wider adaptive strategy within which the union transformed the meaning of previous functions and developed novel ones. The outcome is a well‐organized representative union capable of challenging management at the negotiating table, as well as on the shop floor. This seems unlikely to be universal but equally unlikely to be unique.     

The Political Representation of the Labour Interest in Britain

This article analyses the condition of the labour alliance of the Labour Party and its affiliated unions in the light of a recent typology of union–party links, and of Lewis Minkin's seminal study of the British union–party link. We conclude that, while the link appeared to have stabilized before the general election in 2001, it has become much more volatile since, although the new group of more left‐wing leaders of major unions remains determined to reassert the union position inside the party rather than radically change the union–Labour relationship.     

The Union Wage Effect in Japan

Previous studies point to Japanese labor unions’ lack of bargaining power that results from their organization at an enterprise level. However, a detailed examination of the institutional setting backed by the Labor Standard Law and Trade Union Law reveals that unions have strong bargaining power against deteriorating work conditions. This paper examines the effect of unions on wages using the Japanese General Social Surveys 2000–2003, which cover a period of economic stagnation. We find a robust union wage premium for both males and females. A Cotton–Neumark decomposition reveals that about one‐fifth of union workers’ higher wage is explained by the difference in the union and nonunion wage structures. We also can confirm the union wage compression effect using the DiNardo, Fortin, and Lemieux (1996 ) method. Union workers are likely to think that they will not find jobs with similar compensation packages if they leave their current jobs. In summary, unions in Japan contribute to an increase in the average wage and compress the wage distribution among their workers. This result is reconciled with previous findings by considering the uniqueness of the macroeconomic conditions of the sample period.     

Advocates, Critics and Union Involvement in Workplace Partnership: Irish Airports

The Irish Airports Authority and its unions have developed a radical partnership initiative which seeks to involve staff and unions in operational and strategic decision–making. The initiative allows for an empirical assessment of arguments regarding the effects of partnership on union organization and strength, and on members' commitment to unions. Drawing on research conducted over a four–year period, we argue that partnership was of considerable benefit to workers and unions, but that new tensions and challenges have arisen. On balance, the evidence provides modest support for the theoretical arguments of advocates of partnership.     

Union Exclusion and the Decollectivization of Industrial Relations in Contemporary Britain

A major focus of the Conservative government's employment policy since 1979 has been the reduction of union power within the labour market, the employment relationship and as representatives of a separate ‘labour interest’ in society ' union exclusion. The principal impact of the legislative changes is to deny workers access to resources of collective power, thereby commensurately increasing employers' discretion to determine the terms of the employment relationship. When forming new subsidiaries and establishments, or purchasing non-union subsidiaries, employers have been able to resist unionization and recognition except on their own terms, but comparatively few have terminated existing union recognition agreements, preferring to marginalize the role of unions through the adoption of partial exclusion policies ' joint consultation, direct communication, performance-related pay, and the fragmentation of common employment and bargaining.