Trade unions

The purpose of this article is to analyse the role played by organized political violence in pre-1914 Europe, with special regard to labour conflicts, through the analysis of the social composition and the practices of four movements which deliberately resorted to armed organisation: the Somatén in Catalonia (Spain), the Jaunes trade union in the French Département du Nord, the Citizen Patrols, and the agrarian squads in the province of Bologna (Italy). Despite their different origins and contexts, these movements pursued similar political strategies based upon the deliberate use of violence and guns, and shared anti-socialist, authoritarian and anti-democratic purposes. The analysis of their practices and political cultures enable us to evaluate the nature of the democratic processes in pre-1914 Europe and also helps to contextualize and understand the political and social violence which came to the fore after the end of the war in 1918.

Investigations into the political economy of globalization usually concentrate upon three related developments—the expansion of international trade and the growth in transnational production, including the rise of transnational corporations;  the creation of a world-wide market for finance and credit;  and finally, the development of regimes and institutions of global economic governance.  By comparison, the role and significance of labour and labourers tends to be neglected in most studies. Yet, from its very inception, the process of globalization has been marked by the different methods of organizing work and organizing the activity of workers themselves.

This volume goes some way in restoring labour to a proper place in the globalization literature. The title 'Globalizing Labour' has a dual meaning. On the one hand it refers to increasing connectedness of workers and work as the globalization of integrated trade, financial and production systems merges economic activity from around the world. Labour is globalizing in the sense that it is connected to world-wide production and exchange structures. On the other hand, the title refers to the activities of workers themselves as their political and economic activities influence broader globalization structures. Labour is globalizing in the sense that workers are themselves building organizational links between different communities and are engaging global power structures whether they be globalizing corporations or international organizations. This volume introduces the subject of labour and globalization by examining four elements of the relationship. Firstly, the historical relationship between labour and globalization is briefly reviewed. Secondly, the condition of various forms of labour since the end of the Cold War is surveyed. Thirdly, the issue of labour, the state and regulation of globalizing corporations is highlighted. The volume concludes with some thoughts on key issues facing global labour in the twenty-first century.

This book is 260 pages long and I include a table of organization of the US military intelligence and the OSS and its behind the lines commando operations.  I focus some on the developing of US signals intelligence and military history that has been declassified, but I think is still censored in our high school history books regarding US war crimes and etc.  I have been adding to this book over the years since the last time I published in on Academia.edu and this is edition as of Nov. 2019.  research.

Emek Araştırmaları (2016-2019)  DİSK-AR tarafından 2016-2019 yıllarında yapılan çeşitli araştırmalardan seçilmiş bir derlemedir. Kitapta Ekonomik Kriz ve Emeğin Durumu, Sendikalaşma Araştırması, Asgari Ücret Gerçeği, OHAL ve Başkanlık Rejiminin Çalışma Hayatına Etkileri, AKP Döneminde Emek, Türkiye’de Emeklilerin Durumu, Başkanlık ve Parlamenter Rejimlerde İşçi Hakları, Kiralık İşçilik Raporu ve Türkiye’nin ILO Karnesi başlıklı araştırmalar yer almaktadır.

EDİTÖR: AZİZ ÇELİK
ARAŞTIRMACILAR: DENİZ BEYAZBULUT, ZEYNEP KANDAZ ve MELİHA KAPLAN

Razvit sistem kolektivnega pogajanja je vrednota skupne evropske dediščine, ki pozitivno vpliva na skladen gospodarsko-socialni razvoj. Kolektivne pogodbe so pomemben avtonomen vir delovnega prava in so zelo učinkovito sredstvo za urejanje delovnih pogojev ter razmerij med socialnimi parterji. Kolektivno pogajanje pa je lahko učinkovito samo v razmerah svobodnega in prostovoljnega kolektivnega pogajanja in avtonomije pogodbenih strank. Načelo svobode, prostovoljnosti in avtonomije kolektivnega pogajanja izhaja iz ustavne določbe o sindikalni svobodi in številnih mednarodnopravnih standardov, mimo katerih avtonomije ne more omejevati niti zakonodajna, niti izvršilna ali sodna oblast. Država ne sme sprejemati nikakršnih ukrepov, ki bi pomenili omejevanje ali poseg v te pravice delavcev in delodajalcev ter njihovih organizacij, po drugi strani pa mora sprejeti nujne ukrepe za zagotovitev učinkovitega uresničevanja te pravice. Kljub temu, da je potrebno izhajati iz čim širšega obsega vs...

The paper examines variation in union density in advanced Western countries. It employs newly updated data on unionization which show that differences among industrialized Western nations persist overtime. The analysis includes examination of the role of corporatism, Left party power, Catholic party power, ethnic and linguistic diversity, the religious composition of the population, size of countries and labor force markets, proportion of the government and industry employment, government‟s share of GDP revenue. In addition to cross-national statistical analysis, union density rates are examined by major geographical and cultural clusters of countries, i.e., Northern countries, the Low Countries, English-speaking countries, German-speaking countries and Southern countries. We focus on divergence of union density between the United States and Canada, which belong to the same cluster of Western nations and have similar economic structures. We examine the role of social values and structural, economic, and political factors in divergence of unionism in Canada and the United States. Our analysis employs 1996 Lipset-Meltz survey data on attitudes towards unions in the United States and Canada as well as data from other surveys, such as the World Values Surveys.

This article explores the types of work undertaken by jazz musicians in London, categorizing their activities using two axes derived from debates over ‘creative labour’. Firstly, the extent to which different jobs offer scope for creative autonomy and, secondly, the extent to which they involve collective as opposed to individualized working relationships. It focuses on the process of
becoming established on the London ‘scene’, presenting qualitative interview data primarily with young workers seeking to build their careers. Musicians may make conscious decisions to pursue types of work which enable greater creative autonomy, but in doing so they may exacerbate fatalism about poor working conditions and undermine professional solidarity. The article also
explores how pressures towards ‘entrepreneurialism’ in other forms of music work constitute further barriers to collective contestation of working conditions. Finally, it points towards types
of music work where notions of professional economic interest have more traction.

Driven by their members’ demands and the need to adopt more combative legal strategies in order to oppose the deterioration of working and employment conditions, British trade unions have developed in-house legal expertise and supported many individual and multiple claims. This article investigates the variation in unions’ legal practices and examines their organizational responses to law and the role of compliance professionals in the regulation of employment litigation. It provides a nuanced account of the influence of legal rationality on the framing of union strategies and shows that, under certain conditions, trade unions are able to build multi-pronged tactics using litigation as a complement to other forms of action.

Since Chile returned to democracy in 1990, centre-left governments have tried to reform the provisions on collective bargaining, strikes and unions established by the Pinochet dictatorship. Between 2015 and 2016 President Michelle Bachelet made the latest attempt to reform them. Despite favourable conditions, the changes were modest. This article explains why this is so. Drawing upon the notion of 'associational power' and through comparisons with labour reforms in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, this article suggests that the imbalance between workers' and employers' collective power is key for explaining why pro-labour reforms fail.

Doubt surrounding the viability of monetary unions stems from the current problems of the Eurozone. The absence of national monetary policies across the currency union has left a growing disparity in the effectiveness of the European Central Bank's policy in individual countries as well as a growing political rift between 'have' and 'have not' countries. Such problems make it less likely that regional trade groups will adopt such a model. This paper explores of the feasibility of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin as an alternative to monetary unions and posits that electronic currency could be adopted by a regional group while still allowing individual members control over their national monetary policy. To answer this question, this research uses data from government forays into cryptocurrency as well as an analysis of Bitcoin and related government policies. The author concludes that a cryptocurrency could be used as a viable alternative to monetary unions.

Kuşkusuz, işçi devletinin yaşadığı zorluklarda sorunu öncelikle nesnel koşullarda aramak gerekir (ve bu koşullar aşağıda daha ayrıntılı şekilde ele alınacaktır). Fakat öznel etken de yabana atılmayacak derecede sorunlu olduğunu göstermiştir. Partinin ileri doğru gittiği (“saldırdığı”) her durumda Bolşevik örgütlenme modelinin kazandırdığı kaynaşmış ve ideolojik açıdan ortaklaşmış nitelik yeterince güçlü olduğunu göstermiş ve zaten tam da bu nedenle Lenin’in partisi bir devrime önderlik edebilmişti. Fakat saldırı ânında, suların yükseldiği dönemde görülmeyen ya da etkisizleştirilebilen eksiklikler, suların geri çekildiği koşullarda kendisini çok çarpıcı bir şekilde göstermiştir. Lenin bir partinin esas gücünün tıpkı bir orduda olduğu gibi geri çekilirken görülebileceğini ve saldırırken gösterilen azim, kararlılık ve birlikteliğin ricat halindeyken de gösterilmesi gerektiğini söyler.
Bu açıdan bakıldığında, partinin bazı sınavları alnının akıyla geçtiğini, bazılarındaysa aynı başarıyı gösteremediğini söylemek gerekir. Parti içindeki tartışmalarda ortaya çıkan yanlış görüşler, partinin yönetici kademesindeki insanların (Buharin, Şlyapnikov, Kollontay, Stalin) devrimin üzerinden birkaç yıl geçtikten sonra en temel konularda büyük ilkesel yanlışlara düşüyor olmaları, tüm bunları toparlayan isim sıfatıyla Lenin’in ölümünden sonra partinin içinde yaşanacakların, yani bir nesnellikten beslenen bürokratik karşıdevrime partinin içindeki ileri gelenlerin önderlik etmesinin habercisi olarak alınmalıdır.

The purpose of this study is to provide a systematic and quantitative review of the existing empirical evidence on the effects of unionization on overall job satisfaction. We conducted a meta-regression analysis (MRA) with results from a pool of 235 estimates from 59 studies published between 1978 and 2015. The accumulated evidence indicates that unionization is negatively related to job satisfaction but is far from being conclusive. When primary studies control for endogeneity of union membership, the results of the MRA indicate that the difference in job satisfaction between unionized and non-unionized workers disappears. These results suggest that reverse causation (i.e. dissatisfied workers are more likely to join a union) and time-varying endogenous effects play a key role in explaining the relationship between unionization and job satisfaction.

Drawing both on social movement studies and labour studies, this article investigates the kind of people who join trade union-staged marches during the current crisis, looking at the presence of (politicized) grievances, collective identity and the embeddedness of mobilization. Data were taken from surveys conducted during 13 marches organized by the main trade unions in five European countries. They show that participants in union-staged demonstrations in countries in which a corporatist model dominates and trade unions have a tradition of business unionism (Belgium and the Netherlands) are characterized by higher political trust, more moderate positions on the left– right continuum and stronger organizational ties. On the other hand, in countries in which unions are less institutionally recognized and with a tradition of oppositional unionism (Italy and Spain), participants in union-staged demonstrations are more mistrustful of politics, located more to the left and rely more upon informal social networks to mobilize. The United Kingdom falls between these two poles.

Poland's European Union accession afforded Polish trade unions membership of European-wide, umbrella trade union organisations. This essay evaluates the strategies Polish trade unions adopted to represent their interests following Poland's accession to the European Union. It draws on a series of interviews and document analysis. In addition the essay seeks to gauge the extent to which Polish trade unions were ‘Europeanised’, understood in both the context of their adoption of European policy models and their ability to win support for their causes at the European level.

Sociologiska institutionen. Foto: Lunds universitet Nyhetsarkiv 1978-2023: fack, arbetsgivare, kollektivavtal, parts-relationer, svenska modellen, a-kassa, arbetsvillkor mm News Archive 1978-2023: Trade unions, employers' associations, collective agreements, industrial relations, the Swedish model, unemployment funds etc Anders Kjellberg Med länkar till nedladdningsbara artiklar, bokkapitel, forskningsrapporter mm samt utdrag ur en del av artiklarna. Länk till denna fil:

International Labor and Working-Class History
No. 83, Spring 2013, pp. 137–142

This note reflects on the August 2012 miners' strike at Marikana, South Africa in light of a century long history of violence associated with worker actions in that country and elsewhere in the Global South. It suggests that the breakaway union's allegedly 'illegal' strike fits within a long tradition of radical worker activism in South Africa, which is best understood in light of anticolonial efforts to short-circuit the chronologies of imperial power. The Marikana strike, like anticolonial rebellions during the early twentieth century and, critically, white worker struggles following First World War, was an effort to speed up the process by which the value of workers' lives and labor might be made equivalent to those in power.

"[...] Allora riportiamo con coraggio e fino in fondo il punto di vista di classe, anche nelle nostre analisi e soprattutto nelle nostre raccomandazioni militanti. Rovesciare il punto di vista attraverso cui guardiamo a questi processi di trasformazione del lavoro e di sviluppo dell’economia digitale. Iniziamo a dirlo con forza: la difesa dell’efficienza del sistema economico non spetta all’organizzazione sindacale o al lavoro, ma alla sua controparte. Ai sindacati dovrebbe interessare la rappresentanza degli interessi dei lavoratori. Per far emergere un punto di vista di parte. Il loro."

The focus of this paper will be on industrial democracy model existed in former SFRY, as one of the pioneer countries in realising the concept of workers’ participation to achieve the democratic working conditions.
In order to understand better the model itself, I will provide a necessary short overview on the legal situation preceding it, considering the economic, social and political factors that were present in the countries entering the Monarchy of Serbians, Croatians and Slovenian (later the Monarchy of Yugoslavia) and general situation that Yugoslavia has been in that influenced creation of workers’ collective bodies following the timeline of different levels of industrial level and state systems that SFRY has passed through till becoming socialist country. In doing so, I will highlight the most important legal documents that played pivotal role in introducing industrial democracy in Yugoslavia, that were not always necessarily in direct relationship with collective workers’ participation, but rather have a role on explaining the conditions under which this type of participation was developing.

Dal paper resulta una comparazione tra il sistema di rappresentatività sindacale in Spagna e quello italiano dopo le vicende della FIAt e la sentenza della Corte Costituzionale  italiana dichiarando l'incostituzionalità del art. 19 dello Statuto dei lavoratori.

Uprawnienia zakładowej organizacji związkowej w zakresie udziału w tworzeniu zakładowych źródeł prawa pracy stanowią zasadnicze, podstawowe i najdalej idące uprawnienia związku zawodowego. W prokuraturze napotykają one jednak na ograniczenia natury prawnej i praktycznej. Układu zbiorowego pracy dla prokuratorów nie zawiera się, a w stosunku do pozostałych pracowników prokuratury problemy związane z reprezentacją po stronie pracodawcy oraz brakiem autonomii finansowej tego podmiotu zniechęcają do podejmowania negocjacji. Podobnie prokuratorzy nie mogą być objęci regulaminem wynagradzania, a w praktyce regulaminy takie nie są tworzone także dla pozostałych pracowników prokuratury. Warunki wynagradzania tych osób określane są w rozporządzeniach. Możliwe jest jednak ustalenie w regulaminie premiowania lub regulaminie nagród zasad podziału środków przeznaczonych na premie i nagrody dla prokuratorów i pracowników prokuratury tam, gdzie brak innych regulacji. Natomiast w zakresie uzgodnienia treści regulaminu pracy oraz zakładowego funduszu świadczeń socjalnych, uprawnienia zakładowej organizacji związkowej w prokuraturze są takie same jak w innych zakładach pracy.

Kompakt und in klarer Sprache untersucht Ralf Hoffrogge in dem Buch «Sozialismus und Arbeiterbewegung in Deutschland» die Entwicklung sozialistischer Analysen und Theorien sowie verschiedene Praktiken und Organisationen der Arbeiterbewegung in Zeiten von Industrialisierung und Sozialistengesetzen, bis hin zum Ausbruch des Ersten Weltkriegs.

Leser_innen begegnen in diesem Buch den Anfängen moderner Gesellschaftskritik und den Organisationsformern der der Kritiker_innen. Dabei können sie die Auseinandersetzung der frühen Arbeiterbewegung mit Themen wie Kapitalismus, Sexismus und Rassismus verfolgen.

Ein Blick in die Geschichte der sozialen Frage offenbart erstaunliche Parallelen zu heutigen Debatten. Mulitkulturalität, sinkende Reallöhne und Fragen zur Organisation sind immernoch drängende Themen. Deshalb hilft die Lektüre dieses Buchs allen politisch Interessierten dabei, zu aktuellen Themen Stellung zu beziehen und Politik aktiv zu gestalten.

In this thesis I am examining the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) and Solidarity’s responses to technological changes at the ArcelorMittal (formerly known as Iron and Steel Corporation of South Africa (Iscor)) Vanderbijlpark Plant in the south of the Gauteng province between 1989 and 2012. As part of the restructuring plans of the Apartheid government, Iscor South Africa was privatised in 1989. At that time the plant was also in a process of restructuring, which included technological changes and work reorganisation, the objective of which was to prepare Iscor South Africa and the plant for competing in a global steel market. 

Therefore the subsequent technological changes in the plant were also part of the plant’s positioning in the global competition of the steel market. The ownership of the plant by ArcelorMittal International after 2006 meant that the plant was fully integrated into the global steel market because it became part of the other global plants of the ArcelorMittal International Group in other parts of the world.

Technological changes and work reorganisation led to a massive displacement of workers at Iscor South Africa. For example, in 1988,  Iscor had about 59 000 employees and this number was reduced to about 9 300 employees in 2010.

The key objective of the thesis is to conduct a sociological analysis of trade union responses to the technological changes at ArcelorMittal Vanderbijlpark Plant. One of the discoveries of this thesis is that both trade unions – Solidarity and NUMSA- were not proactive in responding to technological changes at the plant. They argued for more consultation on technological changes, training, and deployment of workers who had been displaced by machines, work reorganisation, and retrenchment packages for retrenched workers. Solidarity, a predominantly white workers’ union, with its skilled workforce did not use its membership’s strategic location at the point of production to help it proactively to respond to technological changes.

On the other hand, NUMSA, a predominantly black union which was part of a vibrant anti-apartheid movement with traditions of grooming worker intellectuals, did not respond proactively to technological changes at the plant.

Even after the wave of restructuring and technological changes of the 1990s to early 2000s, both unions did not move away from a reactive approach towards a proactive approach to production technology. The two unions did not combine reproduction and production issues in their bargaining strategies. The unions were still focusing on wages or reproduction as a strategy of engaging factory owners. Production in the form of technological changes and work reorganisation was not being addressed by the union and yet changes in production processes play a major role in determining the number of workers in a plant and the profile of the workforce as shown in this thesis. 

The reactive responses of both trade unions and a focus on wages is theorised as reproduction reductionism. This means that unions tend to focus on wages and other spheres of income such as politics of ‘upward mobility’ which play a central role in reproducing workers and their leaders. The focus on these issues means that the unions are prioritising reproduction over production. This then leads to management of the plant having free reign in the sphere of production and technological changes.

The past few decades have seen a marked decline in the influence of trade unions. While membership density stood at 55.6% of the workforce in 1979, it currently stands at around 27%. The membership level has been especially poor in the private sector, with just 14% of the workers being members of unions. While, at a point there were ‘closed shop agreements’ where joining a union was a pre-condition to employment at a few workplaces, now a good number of employers don’t even recognize unions. This decline can be attributed to various economic, legal and political factors and to changes in workplace relations.   
The trade unions have been trying to reinvent themselves in an effort to reverse this trend or to at least arrest it. While there have been a few instances of radical unionism, there has been a general shift towards greater co-operation and partnership with employers. 
For trade unions to regain their lost glory, they should first try and increase membership. This will only happen if they can convince workers that there is a clear benefit in joining them. This is tricky in the current scenario as they don’t enjoy the same kind of legal and political protection they once had.