Political Entrepreneurs and Co‐Managers: Labour Transnationalism at Four Multinational Auto Companies

This article examines labour transnationalism within four multinational automakers. In our sample, we find different forms of labour transnationalism, including transnational collective bargaining, mobilization, information exchange and social codes of conduct. We explain the differences through the interaction between management and labour in the context of the company structure; of particular importance are transnational coercive comparisons by management and the orientations of worker representatives as political entrepreneurs or co‐managers. We conclude that, although intensified worker‐side cross‐border co‐operation has not prevented wage‐based competition in general (due to the lack of between‐firm co‐ordination), it has reshaped employment relations within these multinational corporations.     

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.     

The Conditions Promoting Compromise in the Workplace

A previous article developed a framework to understand workplace co‐operation. We now elaborate on the key structuring conditions (technology, product markets and institutional regulation) generating different patterns and illustrate from field research how these different workplace regimes develop. Conditions generating positive and sustainable outcomes for both capital and labour are feasible but rare; stronger ‘beneficial constraints’ are needed if they are to be made more frequent. This article provides an alternative to current interpretations of labour–management co‐operation in the industrial relations literature.     

Divided we fall: The breakdown of gig worker solidarity in online communities

The ‘gig economy’ presents a contested new work arrangement where freelancers find work on digital platforms. Subsequently, previous research has investigated how gig workers develop solidarity and take collective action against the exploitative practices of the platforms. However, this research is limited by mostly focusing on solidarity in contexts of local gig worker communities. We investigate whether freelancers who work on a global platform, Upwork, which hires people for diverse and complex jobs, can build up solidarity in a global online community. Applying a mixed-methods research design, we analysed how gig workers responded to a policy change by Upwork that affected their working conditions negatively. In doing so, we outline how solidarity breaks down in an online community of gig workers, due to them realising different interests and identities. We contribute to recent discussions on solidarity in the gig economy, and online communities as tools for organising.     

Is There a Third Way for Industrial Relations?

There has been little systematic analysis of what the ‘Third Way’ means in the sphere of industrial relations. This paper examines the record of the New Labour government in order to evaluate the distinctiveness, innovation and coherence of its industrial relations policy. It argues that many of the limitations of this policy result from the institutional context within which it was introduced. In comparative perspective, Third Way industrial relations can be thought of as a policy adaptation specific to centre–left governments in weakly co‐ordinated liberal market economies.     

The Bases of Compromise in the Workplace: A Theoretical Framework

Schemes for workplace participation have long been promoted and vilified. Such conflicting views have been brought into sharp focus by the highly variable results of such practices as teamwork. Yet a theoretical framework to grasp workplace co‐operation is lacking. This paper develops a framework on the basis of theory and a review of a wide range of empirical studies. Capital and labour each have two sets of ‘concerns’: over ‘control’ of the workplace and the longer term ‘development’ of the productive forces. Cross‐classifying these concerns produces a matrix of patterns of workplace relations. Each cell of the matrix represents a different combination of the interests of capital and labour. The matrix can be used to map participation schemes so as to capture their varying features. The next task, pursued elsewhere, is to identify the conditions leading to locations in different cells of the matrix.     

The Union Response to International Corporations

The purpose of this paper has been to examine, on a pre-liminary basis, some of the implications of the international corporationunion interface for individual countries. It has been suggested that the impact of this interface will depend on the production strategy of the international corporation, the solidarity of the coalition of the unions in different countries, and the economic and political conditions prevailing in the individual countries. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the bargaining relationship between unions and international corporations, it is suggested that research will have to be conducted on the following topics: the industrial relations decision-making process of international firms, in particular the ways in which these firms react to international collective bargaining; the alternative strategies open to unions in international collective bargaining; the impact of international unionism and international firms on the industrial relations system of individual countries; the problems associated with international collective bargaining involving unions with different political ideologies; and the impact of international unionism on economic and political integration and the perception of national governments.     

Collective Bargaining and Wage Dispersion in Europe

The level at which collective bargaining takes place is usually considered important in determining wage levels and wage inequalities. Two different situations are considered: a first in which bargaining is only ‘multi‐employer’, and a second in which it is ‘multi‐level’, in the sense that workers can be covered by both a ‘multi‐employer’ and a ‘single‐employer’ contract at the same time. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of these different institutional settings on pay dispersion. The study is carried out using the European Structure of Earnings Survey, which is a large dataset containing detailed matched employer–employee information for the year 1995. The countries analysed are Italy, Belgium and Spain. The empirical results generally show that wages of workers covered by only a ‘multi‐employer’ contract are no more compressed than those of workers covered by both ‘multi‐employer’ and ‘single‐employer’ contracts. This implies that where workers are not covered by single‐employer bargaining, they receive wage supplements paid unilaterally by their employers.     

Dominance Effects from Local Competitors: Setting Institutional Parameters for Employment Relations in Multinational Subsidiaries; a Case from the Spanish Supermarket Sector

Dominance effects are normally associated with multinational corporations (MNCs). However, we argue that a strong local competitor can create ‘dominance effects’ setting the institutional parameters for employment relations in multinational subsidiaries. Moreover such an effect can be persistent. In this case the Spanish‐owned El Corte Inglés (ECI) used its power and influence to establish an employer's federation and two ‘yellow unions’. These yellow unions infiltrated the French‐owned MNC Carrefour and most of the Spanish supermarket sector by the early 1980s and continue to dominate collective bargaining rounds and works council elections, marginalizing the main independent trade unions. This has resulted in poor pay and working conditions and a lack of effective employee representation across most of the Spanish supermarket sector. The fact that Carrefour established an international framework agreement to observe union rights in 2001 has as yet not changed this situation.     

Labour Market Dualism and Diversification in Japan

The Japanese labour market has been regarded as ‘dualistic’ in terms of employment status (regular vs non‐regular). While it is true, this perspective misses recent changes in regular employment in terms of labour flexibility. The government has attempted labour market deregulation since the 1990s to increase the flexibility of not only non‐regular but also regular employment, and the labour market has become more diversified. Labour unions lack power resources to resist these neoliberal changes, however, because of their insufficient access to policy‐making, low union density and a lack of solidarity against the background of economic stagnation and competition under globalization.     

Collaborating to shape markets: Emergent collective market work

Research into ‘market-shaping’ – the deliberate shaping by firms and other actors of market behavior, structures, expectations and practices – has primarily taken either system-level or micro-level practice perspectives. Instead, this research focuses on ‘collective market work’ – the orchestrated purposeful actions of a collaboration to shape a market. In synthesizing the social emergence paradigm and the institutional work framework, this study examines the different types of market work undertaken as a meso-level collective evolves. Drawing on primary and secondary data, this paper explores the historic case of a collaboration by small New Zealand wineries to gain acceptance of the screwcap closure on premium wine in the early 2000s. We find collective market work travels through three stages: ‘coalescing,’ ‘legitimizing,’ and ‘using market clout.’ Each stage functions as an intermediate frame within the market system, progressively enabling and emboldening the collaborators to take action and impact increasing numbers of larger actors and market gatekeepers.     

False Self‐Employment,Autonomy and Regulating for Decent Work: Improving Working Conditions in the UK Stripping Industry

A large‐scale study of working conditions in UK‐based strip dancing clubs reveals that dancers are against de facto self‐employment as it is defined and practised by management, but in favour of de jure self‐employment that ensures sufficient levels of autonomy and control in the workplace. While dancers could potentially seek ‘worker’ or ‘employee’ status within the existing legal framework, their strong identification with the label ‘self‐employed’ and their desire for autonomy will likely inhibit these labour rights claims. We propose an alternative avenue for improving dancers’ working conditions, whereby self‐employed dancers articulate their grievances as a demand for decent work, pursued through licensing agreements between clubs and local authorities and facilitated by collective organization.     

Managerial Control of Employees Working at Home

Places of work constitute processes of management by facilitating ‘visibility’ (the possibility for supervisors and others to observe workers) and ‘presence’ (the ability for workers to participate in relations with co‐workers and others). Working at home creates problems for both these aspects of managerial control. We suggest that managers seek to compensate for the relative lack of visibility and presence of home‐located workers by generating a range of devices and social disciplines that together comprise loose networks of control. However, these responses are only partially successful since they are founded on contradictory assumptions and practices.     

Accounting for National and Sectoral Variance in the Implementation of European Social Partner ‘Soft’ Law: The Cases of the Implementation of the Telework and Work‐Related Stress Agreements

This article investigates the factors that explicate the implementation of European social partner ‘soft’ framework agreements. The implementation of two such agreements, the Telework and Work‐Related Stress Agreements, in four countries and two sectors is investigated. Seven hypotheses, primarily derived from the study of generic European ‘soft’ law, about the factors that explain the implementation of European social partner ‘soft’ law are tested. The article concludes that European social partner ‘soft’ law is distinctive from generic European ‘soft’ law in that its successful implementation is contingent upon the extent the industrial relations system in which it is implemented is centralized and co‐ordinated.     

Collective Bargaining and the Evolution of Wage Inequality in Italy

Italian male wage inequality has increased at a relatively fast pace from the mid‐1980s until the early 2000s, while it has been persistently flat since then. We analyse this trend, focusing on the period of most rapid growth in pay dispersion. By accounting for worker and firm fixed effects, it is shown that workers' heterogeneity has been a major determinant of increased wage inequalities, while variability in firm wage policies has declined over time. We also show that the growth in pay dispersion has entirely occurred between livelli di inquadramento, that is, job titles defined by national industry‐wide collective bargaining institutions, for which specific minimum wages apply. We conclude that the underlying market forces determining wage inequality have been largely channelled into the tight tracks set by the centralized system of industrial relations.     

Unionization,Inequality and Redistribution

This article explores the implications of the OECD‐wide decline of union density for earnings inequality and income redistribution by looking at aggregate (country‐level) data. Over the period 1975–95, countries that experienced relatively large declines in union density also experienced relatively large increases in earnings inequality. In addition, governments apparently became less willing to engage in ‘compensatory redistribution’ in these countries. Since the early 1990s, however, union decline has become less closely associated with rising earnings inequality and redistributive policy changes. I argue that the declining relevance of unionization has to do with changes in the position of union members in the income distribution. In most OECD countries, the average union member has become relatively better off as union density has declined and union members have probably become less supportive of wage solidarity and redistributive government policies.     

Union Immobility? Trade Unions and the Freedoms of Movement in the Enlarged EU

East–West union co‐operation in Europe is discussed as the most serious test to cross‐border union solidarity, in the light of new frameworks capable to make sense of transnational trade union activity and alternative to theoretical nationalism. The empirical assessment of trade union chances reviews the activities of trade unions in the UK, Germany, Austria and Poland on foreign investment, migration and movement of services. Secondary evidence and case studies show that the strength of transnational union action does not depend on the country, but rather on its form. ‘Structural’ Europeanization remains weak (e.g. in most European Works Councils), while network‐based action is displaying strong developments, especially on migration, but least on the movement of services.     

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.     

Vertical Disintegration and the Disorganization of German Industrial Relations1

Drawing on case studies from the telecommunications and auto industries, the authors argue that the vertical disintegration of major German employers is contributing to the disorganization of Germany’s dual system of in‐plant and sectoral negotiations. Subcontractors, subsidiaries and temporary agencies often have no collective bargaining institutions or are covered by different firm‐level and sectoral agreements. As core employers move jobs to these firms, they introduce new organizational boundaries across the production chain and disrupt traditional bargaining structures. Worker representatives are developing new campaign approaches and using residual power at large firms to establish representation in new firms and sectors, but these have not been successful at rebuilding co‐ordinated bargaining.     

Scale matters: The scale of environmental issues in corporate collective actions

Research Summary: Much of the research on corporate collective action to manage common pool resources is focused on coordinated actions, such as voluntary programs, rather than collaborative actions, such as technology sharing. In this article, we examine inductively the collective actions taken by a consortium of 12 oil sands companies to address three environmental issues of different scale. We identified a set of organizing rules that determined whether the relationship among industry members would be collaborative or competitive, and found that the organizing rules for collaborative collective action were more effective for smaller scale issues (i.e., tailings ponds and water) than the larger scale issue (i.e., greenhouse gas emissions). Our findings contribute to research on the competitive dynamics of collaborating with competitors and on industry self‐regulation. Managerial Summary: Many environmental issues, such as climate change, water quality, and contaminated land, are caused by the overexploitation of commonly shared natural resources. Firms will often overuse resources because their cost of use is less than the benefit that accrues. In Alberta’s oil sands, 12 of the major oil sands operators, all competitors, have agreed to collaborate by sharing technology, which goes against the received wisdom of competition. This multiparty collaboration among competitors, while still relatively rare, is becoming increasingly commonplace. In this article, we outline the rules that allow this collaboration to flourish. Our most important finding is that the rules are shaped by the scale of the issue being managed, not the size of the collaboration.