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Articles 1 - 30 of 34
Full-Text Articles in Business
The New Solidarity? Trade Union Coalition-Building In Five Countries, Carola Frege, Edmund Heery, Lowell Turner
The New Solidarity? Trade Union Coalition-Building In Five Countries, Carola Frege, Edmund Heery, Lowell Turner
Lowell Turner
[Excerpt] The purpose of this chapter is to present a framework for the analysis of union coalition-building and demonstrate its utility using comparative empirical material mainly from the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom though we also comment on union action in Italy and Spain. In what follows, we seek to define union-coalitions and specify their functions, identify a variety of types of coalition and the variety of factors that encourage unions to forge coalitions. We then set out and seek to explain the variable patterns of coalition use across our five countries. The chapter concludes in speculative vein, …
Why Revitalize? Labour’S Urgent Mission In A Contested Global Economy, Lowell Turner
Why Revitalize? Labour’S Urgent Mission In A Contested Global Economy, Lowell Turner
Lowell Turner
What looked like carte blanche for corporate-led globalization just a few years ago is now increasingly contested. The brave new vision of market fundamentalism has been challenged on several fronts, from massive demonstrations in Seattle and Genoa to contested trade and environmental summits at Johannesburg and Cancun. The critical insights of highly placed insiders have undermined the dominant neo-liberal ideology and given credence to mounting protests and opposition viewpoints (e.g. Soros 2002; Stiglitz 2002). Economic stagnation, inequality, desperate poverty and violence— whether in Japan, East Asia, Russia, Germany, or the United States and Latin America—have belied optimistic predictions of the …
Experimentation And Decentralization In China’S Labor Relations, Eli D. Friedman, Sarosh Kuruvilla
Experimentation And Decentralization In China’S Labor Relations, Eli D. Friedman, Sarosh Kuruvilla
Sarosh Kuruvilla
In this introduction to the special issue ‘Changing work, labour and employment relations in China’, we argue that China is taking an experimental and decentralized approach to the development of new labor relations frameworks. Particular political constraints in China prevent interest aggregation among workers, as the central state sees this as posing a risk to social stability. Firms and local governments have been given a degree of space to experiment with different arrangements, as long as the categorical ban on independent unions is not violated. The consequence has been an increasingly differentiated labor relations landscape, with significant variation by region …
How Does Market Making Affect Industrial Relations? Evidence From Eight German Hospitals, Ian Greer, Thorsten Schulten, Nils Böhlke
How Does Market Making Affect Industrial Relations? Evidence From Eight German Hospitals, Ian Greer, Thorsten Schulten, Nils Böhlke
Ian Greer
The introduction of market mechanisms matters for industrial relations. In the German hospital sector, national liberalization policies have put immense pressure on local management and worker representatives and led to the growth of a low-wage sector. In case studies of eight hospitals, we find some locales where market making has led to union revitalization and mobilization, but this effect varies. Using an eight-way comparison, we infer a configuration of three aspects of the local political economy – labour markets, politics, and codetermination rules – that together provide a well fitting explanation for both variation and change.
Großbritannien: Noch Immer Heimat Des Neoliberalismus?, Ian Greer
Großbritannien: Noch Immer Heimat Des Neoliberalismus?, Ian Greer
Ian Greer
Großbritannien wurde zur Referenzgröße für neoliberale Reformen, und dies nicht nur aufgrund der Entwicklung unter Premierministerin Thatcher. Die Regierungen von New Labour (1997-2010) leiteten ebenfalls kontinuierlich Reformen ein, um die »Abhängigkeit vom Sozialstaat« zu bekämpfen. Damit hielten sie Großbritanniens Status als eine der am meisten ungleichen Gesellschaften Europas aufrecht. Der leichte wirtschaftliche Aufschwung führte dazu, dass die Erwerbslosenquote bei ungefähr acht Prozent verharrte, und eine neue Regierungskoalition von Konservativen und Liberaldemokraten verschärfte Kürzungen bei Sozialausgaben und kündigte Entlassungen im öffentlichen Sektor an, so dass eine weitere Verschlechterung der Lage zu erwarten ist.
Special Interests And Public Goods: Organized Labor’S Coalition Politics In Hamburg And Seattle, Ian Greer
Special Interests And Public Goods: Organized Labor’S Coalition Politics In Hamburg And Seattle, Ian Greer
Ian Greer
Why do some unions engage in special interest politics while others pursue broader social goods? In this chapter I examine the effect of global markets for capital and local political mobilization. I argue that protecting jobs requires unions to engage in coalition politics, sometimes in pursuit of social goods that have benefits beyond the interests of union members. In cases, however, of high- stakes economic development projects involving large employers, the affected unions join business-driven coalitions with narrowly economistic pro-jobs agendas. I demonstrate this argument by comparing union involvement in the politics of economic development in Seattle and Hamburg. Because …
Sozialpartnerschaft Als Gewerkschaftsstrategie - Beispiele Aus 5 Ländern, Michael Fichter, Ian Greer
Sozialpartnerschaft Als Gewerkschaftsstrategie - Beispiele Aus 5 Ländern, Michael Fichter, Ian Greer
Ian Greer
Wie konnen Gewerkschaften in einem gewandelten, neoliberalen Umfeld erfolgreich agieren? Die Privatisierung der stadtischen Kliniken in Hamburg - bei der seitens der Gewerkschaft sowohl der Weg der Kooperation wie der der Konfrontation beschritten wurde - gibt ein bemerkenswertes Beispiel fur den Wandel von Arbeitgeber - und Gewerkschaftsstrategien, Mit Anleihen bei sozialen Bewegungen konnen Gewerkschaften, so zeigt die Erfahrung, solche Konflikte nicht nur besser bestehen, sondern gestarkt aus ihnen hervorgehen.
The European Migrant Workers Union: Union Organizing Through Labour Transnationalism, Ian Greer, Zinovijus Ciupijus, Nathan Lillie
The European Migrant Workers Union: Union Organizing Through Labour Transnationalism, Ian Greer, Zinovijus Ciupijus, Nathan Lillie
Ian Greer
Despite the presence of hyper-mobile migrant workers in the European Union, there is very little research on transnational union organizing efforts. This paper examines the European Migrant Workers Union (EMWU), which signalled a shift by the German union Industriegewerkschaft Bauen-Agrar-Umwelt (IG BAU) in its approach to migrant workers away from national protectionism and toward transnational organizing. The EMWU, however, failed to thrive as an organization, primarily because of decisions by other unions to reject the transnational approach and instead to defend existing jurisdictions. We argue that this inaction constitutes a setback for union reassertion of control over markets and for …
Social Movement Unionism And Social Partnership In Germany: The Case Of Hamburg’S Hospitals, Ian Greer
Social Movement Unionism And Social Partnership In Germany: The Case Of Hamburg’S Hospitals, Ian Greer
Ian Greer
This paper traces the emergence of social movement unionism in Hamburg, Germany, as labor’s channels of influence have broken down and economic pressures have intensified. Trade unionists have responded to the privatization of the municipal hospitals by mobilizing members and building coalitions around issues beyond their members’ immediate interests, including democracy and public service quality. Although the loss of union influence has facilitated social movement unionism, in East Germany economic crisis has had a demobilizing effect.
The Industrial Determinants Of Transnational Solidarity: Global Interunion Politics In Three Sectors, Mark Anner, Ian Greer, Marco Hauptmeier, Nathan Lillie, Nik Winchester
The Industrial Determinants Of Transnational Solidarity: Global Interunion Politics In Three Sectors, Mark Anner, Ian Greer, Marco Hauptmeier, Nathan Lillie, Nik Winchester
Ian Greer
This article compares forms of labour transnationalism in three industrial sectors: motor manufacturing, maritime shipping and clothing and textile manufacturing. In each case, unions engage in very different transnational activities to reassert control over labour markets and competition. As institutions of transnational cooperation deepen, unions continue to struggle with competitive tensions (worker to worker and union to union) which vary from one industry to another.
Beyond National “Varieties”: Public-Service Contracting In Comparative Perspective, Ian Greer, Ian Greenwood, Mark Stuart
Beyond National “Varieties”: Public-Service Contracting In Comparative Perspective, Ian Greer, Ian Greenwood, Mark Stuart
Ian Greer
[Excerpt] In this chapter, we will explore how work in contracted-out public services, including that in the voluntary sector, maps onto the broader international political economy of work. Comparative scholars often write about society correcting the excesses of the market, and it is hard to imagine a more relevant phenomenon to this than the voluntary sector. Yet this sector is itself subject to market forces, ironically perhaps, due to its ever-closer relationship with the state. Our study of employment in welfare-to-work services in the UK and Germany, whose findings are summarised below, shows how this relationship works and what its …
Welfare Reform, Precarity And The Re-Commodification Of Labour, Ian Greer
Welfare Reform, Precarity And The Re-Commodification Of Labour, Ian Greer
Ian Greer
While welfare reform matters for workers and workplaces, it is peripheral in English-language sociology of work and industrial relations research. This article’s core proposition is that active labour market policies (ALMPs) are altering the institutional constitution of the labour market by intensifying market discipline within the workforce. This re-commodification effect is specified drawing on Marxism, comparative institutionalism, German-language sociology, and English-language social policy analysis. Because of administrative failures and employer discrimination, however, ALMPs may worsen precarity without achieving the stated goal of increasing labour-market participation.
Von Sozialen Bewegungen Lernen: Ein Impuls Fur Deutsche Gewerkschaften, Ian Greer
Von Sozialen Bewegungen Lernen: Ein Impuls Fur Deutsche Gewerkschaften, Ian Greer
Ian Greer
Wie konnen Gewerkschaften in einem gewandelten, neoliberalen Umfeld erfolgreich agieren? Die Privatisierung der stadtischen Kliniken in Hamburg - bei der seitens der Gewerkschaft sowohl der Weg der Kooperation wie der der Konfrontation beschritten wurde - gibt ein bemerkenswertes Beispiel fur den Wandel von Arbeitgeber- und Gewerkschaftsstrategien, Mit Anleihen bei sozialen Bewegungen konnen Gewerkschaften, so zeigt die Erfahrung, solche Konflikte nicht nur besser bestehen, sondern gestarkt aus ihnen hervorgehen.
Analysing Social Partnership: A Tool Of Union Revitalization?, Michael Fichter, Ian Greer
Analysing Social Partnership: A Tool Of Union Revitalization?, Michael Fichter, Ian Greer
Ian Greer
[Excerpt] Recently, much has been written about social partnership. Especially in Europe, the spread of national social pacts, the introduction of tripartite institutions to the Central and Eastern European accession countries, and the implementation of the Social Dialogue in the European Union have created a new interest in the effects and effectiveness of such arrangements. In the United States, the meaning of labour-management partnership is developing further, as revitalized unions of service and construction workers have applied this instrument to extend and consolidate gains (Mills 2001; WAI 2002). This chapter focuses on one issue among many with regard to social …
Marktorientierung Und Anstellungsverhältnisse In Der Aktivierungsindustrie: Fallstudie Zu Großbritannien Und Deutschland, Ian Greer, Ian Greenwood, Mark Stuart
Marktorientierung Und Anstellungsverhältnisse In Der Aktivierungsindustrie: Fallstudie Zu Großbritannien Und Deutschland, Ian Greer, Ian Greenwood, Mark Stuart
Ian Greer
In diesem Beitrag beschreiben wir »Aktivierung« als staatlich finanzierte Industrie mit einem großen Personalbestand. Wir untersuchen die Beispiele Großbritannien und Deutschland, wo die wichtigsten Akteure die öffentlichen Arbeitsämter sind. Gemeint sind damit insbesondere die Bundesagentur für Arbeit (BA) und das Jobcentre Plus (JCP), welche selber Arbeitsvermittlung betreiben sowie Weiterbildung und Beratung für Erwerbslose an externe Unternehmen auslagern. Als weitere wichtige Akteure sind große Anbieter wie die deutschen Sozialverbände und die nationalen karitativen Verbände Großbritanniens zu nennen, aber auch Konzerne wie A4e, Maximus oder Ingeus. In vielen Ländern expandierte die Aktivierungsindustrie zusammen mit den steigenden finanziellen Mitteln für Aktivierungsprogramme. Auch veränderte …
Labor And Regional Development In The U.S.A.: Building A High Road Infrastructure In Buffalo, New York, Ian Greer, Lou Jean Fleron
Labor And Regional Development In The U.S.A.: Building A High Road Infrastructure In Buffalo, New York, Ian Greer, Lou Jean Fleron
Ian Greer
[Excerpt] In a country where worker representatives lack broadly institutionalized roles as "social partners," how can they play a constructive role in solving the problems of regional development? In Buffalo, New York, regularized, labor-inclusive procedures of problem solving involving multiple coalition partners – what we call a high-road social infrastructure – has emerged. Socially engaged researchers and educators have played a role in spreading lessons and organizing dialogue. Despite the emergence of regional cooperation, however, successful development politics are hampered by many of the same problems seen in European regions, including uncertainty about the best union strategy, hostility from business …
Industrial Relations, Migration, And Neoliberal Politics: The Case Of The European Construction Sector, Nathan Lillie, Ian Greer
Industrial Relations, Migration, And Neoliberal Politics: The Case Of The European Construction Sector, Nathan Lillie, Ian Greer
Ian Greer
Transnational politics and labor markets are undermining national industrial relations systems in Europe. This article examines the construction industry, where the internationalization of the labor market has gone especially far. To test hypotheses about differences between “national systems,” the authors examine the United Kingdom, Finland, and Germany, alongside European-level policy making. Regardless of overall national institutional framework, employers seek to avoid industrial relations rules, while unions attempt to relocalize labor relations. Both use shop-floor, national, and European power resources. The authors argue that comparative industrial relations should take seriously the connection between action at the national and transnational levels.
The Wagner Model And International Freedom Of Association Standards, Lance A. Compa
The Wagner Model And International Freedom Of Association Standards, Lance A. Compa
Lance A Compa
[Excerpt] I first met Pierre Verge just before beginning my service with the NAFTA labour commission in 1995. Not long after that, Pierre Verge and my own labour law professor at Yale in 1972, Clyde Summers, jointly wrote a penetrating evaluation of the first years of the NAFTA labour side accord, which still serves as the best single analysis of that seminal but flawed instrument linking labour standards and a trade agreement (Summers, Verge and Medina, 1998; Verge, 1999; Verge, 2002). Since then, my understanding of international labour standards and how they relate to labour law in North America has …
Is Incorporation Of Unauthorized Immigrants Possible? Inclusion And Contingency For Nonstatus Migrants And Legal Immigrants, Maria Lorena Cook
Is Incorporation Of Unauthorized Immigrants Possible? Inclusion And Contingency For Nonstatus Migrants And Legal Immigrants, Maria Lorena Cook
Maria Lorena Cook
[Excerpt] What does inclusion for nonstatus migrants look like? How do we recognize and measure inclusion for this population? How might we model inclusion for nonstatus migrants? This essay addresses these questions, drawing primarily on empirical examples from the United States and Spain. Although Spain has become a country of immigration relatively recently, both countries have received large numbers of unauthorized immigrants, especially in the early part of the 2000s. These two countries also illustrate different means of inclusion for unauthorized migrants. During most of the 2000s opportunities for the “regularization” of unauthorized migrants have arguably been greater in Spain …
Regional Integration And Transnational Politics: Popular Sector Strategies In The Nafta Era, Maria Lorena Cook
Regional Integration And Transnational Politics: Popular Sector Strategies In The Nafta Era, Maria Lorena Cook
Maria Lorena Cook
[Excerpt] This chapter argues that although economic integration between the United States and Mexico had been taking place for some time, it was the formal recognition of this process as represented by the discussions surrounding the North American Free Trade Agreement that facilitated transnational political action by non-state actors. Whereas the globalization of the economy and the prevalence of neoliberal economic policies may be considered by some to undermine popular sector organization and actions, formal recognition of regional economic integration in North America has produced a ‘transnational political’ arena that has expanded the resources available to non-governmental groups, increased their …
Working Through The Past: Labor And Authoritorian Legacies In Comparative Perspective, Teri L. Caraway (Ed.), Maria Lorena Cook (Ed.), Stephen Crowley (Ed.)
Working Through The Past: Labor And Authoritorian Legacies In Comparative Perspective, Teri L. Caraway (Ed.), Maria Lorena Cook (Ed.), Stephen Crowley (Ed.)
Maria Lorena Cook
[Excerpt] Democratization in the developing and post-communist world has yielded limited gains for labor. Explanations for this phenomenon have focused on the effect of economic crisis and globalization on the capacities of unions to become influential political actors and to secure policies that benefit their members. In contrast, the contributors to Working through the Past highlight the critical role that authoritarian legacies play in shaping labor politics in new democracies, providing the first cross-regional analysis of the impact of authoritarianism on labor, focusing on East and Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. Legacies from the predemocratic era shape labor’s …
Decomposing Ldc Inequality, Gary S. Fields
Decomposing Ldc Inequality, Gary S. Fields
Gary S Fields
[Excerpt] At the present time, there is great interest among development economists in the problem of economic inequality in less developed countries (LDCs). Studies of the determinants of inequality follow either of two general approaches. The more traditional approach is associated with names like Kuznets (1963), Chenery and associates (1960, 1968, 1975), Adelman and Morris (1973), Ahluwalia (1976) and Chiswick (1971). These studies share a common methodology, consisting basically of looking at a cross-section of countries, and (1) measuring the degree of inequality in each, (2) measuring other characteristics of each country (e.g., level of GNP, its rate of growth, …
Changing Labor Market Conditions And Economic Development In Hong Kong, The Republic Of Korea, Singapore, And Taiwan, China, Gary S. Fields
Changing Labor Market Conditions And Economic Development In Hong Kong, The Republic Of Korea, Singapore, And Taiwan, China, Gary S. Fields
Gary S Fields
In the newly industrializing economies (NIEs) of Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan (China), the entire working population has benefited from labor market institutions. The East Asian NIEs attained and maintained generally full employment, improved their job mixes, raised real earnings, and lowered their rates of poverty. This article reaches two principal conclusions. First, labor market conditions continued to improve in all four economies in the 1980s at rates remarkably similar to their rates of aggregate economic growth. Second, labor market repression was not a major factor in the growth experiences of these economies in the 1980s. …
Higher Education And Income Distribution In A Less Developed Country, Gary S. Fields
Higher Education And Income Distribution In A Less Developed Country, Gary S. Fields
Gary S Fields
[Excerpt] The primary purpose of this paper is to empirically test among both the intra- and the inter-generational version of these three hypotheses for higher (i.e. post-secondary) levels of education for one less developed country, Kenya. A secondary purpose is to investigate other economic aspects of spending on higher education, most notably the question of horizontal equity in school finance. Before proceeding, a methodological point is in order. There is no consensus in the public economics literature on what is a suitable criterion for assessing the equitability of a fiscal programme. At least three criteria may be distinguished (the terminology …
The Dynamics Of Poverty, Inequality And Economic Well-Being: African Economic Growth In Comparative Perspective, Gary S. Fields
The Dynamics Of Poverty, Inequality And Economic Well-Being: African Economic Growth In Comparative Perspective, Gary S. Fields
Gary S Fields
Two hundred and fifty million Africans (about 45% of the population) are poor. In rural areas, where most Africans live, there is, alas, a 'poor majority'. Rural poverty rates range from 37% in Madagascar and 41% in Kenya to 88% in Zambia and 94% in Ghana (Table 1). It is hard to imagine an issue in development economics that is of greater importance to humankind than the effects of economic growth on poverty and economic well-being. Yet there is remarkably little consensus on this vitally important issue, as illustrated by the following two polar positions: New patterns of growth will …
Changes In Poverty And Inequality In Developing Countries, Gary S. Fields
Changes In Poverty And Inequality In Developing Countries, Gary S. Fields
Gary S Fields
This paper presents new data on poverty, inequality, and growth in those developing countries of the world for which the requisite statistics are available. Economic growth is found generally but not always to reduce poverty. Growth, however, is found to have very little to do with income inequality. Thus the "economic laws" linking the rate of growth and the distribution of benefits receive only very tenuous empirical support here.
Income Distribution In Developing Economies: Conceptual, Data, And Policy Issues In Broad-Based Growth, Gary S. Fields
Income Distribution In Developing Economies: Conceptual, Data, And Policy Issues In Broad-Based Growth, Gary S. Fields
Gary S Fields
[Excerpt] The aim of economic development is to raise the standard of living of a country's people, especially its poor. Economic growth, particularly when broadly based, is a means to that end. 'Underdevelopment' can be defined as a state of severely constrained choices. When one is choosing from among an undesirable set of alternatives, the outcome will itself be undesirable. Standards of living will be low. If standards of living are to be improved, people must have a better set of alternatives from which to choose. 'Economic development' is the process by which the constraints on choices are relaxed. Based …
Evaluating Policy Measures To Tackle Undeclared Work: The Role Of Stakeholder Collaboration In Building Trust And Improving Policy-Making, Colin C. Williams, Anton Kojouharov
Evaluating Policy Measures To Tackle Undeclared Work: The Role Of Stakeholder Collaboration In Building Trust And Improving Policy-Making, Colin C. Williams, Anton Kojouharov
Colin C Williams
The aim of this paper is to examine and analyse the realm of policy evaluation approaches and methods as they relate to assessing measures to tackle undeclared work. The discussion is set at the backdrop of a brief review of the more prominent theoretical and conceptual considerations in the policy evaluation literature. The paper then investigates results from policy assessments and evaluations illuminated in the previous GREY working papers, as well as some selected from the Eurofound database. The analysis of a limited sample of available policy evaluations and results demonstrates that a common probable cause of policy failure with …
Convergence In Industrial Relations Institutions: The Emerging Anglo-American Model?, Alexander Colvin, Owen Darbishire
Convergence In Industrial Relations Institutions: The Emerging Anglo-American Model?, Alexander Colvin, Owen Darbishire
Alexander Colvin
At the outset of the Thatcher/Reagan era, the employment and labor law systems across six Anglo- American countries could be divided into three pairings: the Wagner Act model of the United States and Canada; the Voluntarist system of collective bargaining and strong unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland; and the highly centralized, legalistic Award systems of Australia and New Zealand. The authors argue that there has been growing convergence in two major areas: First, of labor law toward a private ordering of employment relations in which terms and conditions of work and employment are primarily determined at the level …
The Globalization Of Service Work: Comparative Institutional Perspectives On Call Centers (Introduction To A Special Issue Of The Industrial & Labor Relations Review), Rosemary Batt, David Holman, Ursula Holtgrewe
The Globalization Of Service Work: Comparative Institutional Perspectives On Call Centers (Introduction To A Special Issue Of The Industrial & Labor Relations Review), Rosemary Batt, David Holman, Ursula Holtgrewe
Rosemary Batt
This introduction to the special issue on the globalization of service work provides an overview of the call center sector and its development in coordinated, liberal market, and emerging market economies. The introduction's authors situate this research in literature on the comparative political economy and industrial relations. Drawing on qualitative research and a unique survey of 2,500 establishments in 17 countries conducted in 2003-2006, they discuss the extent of convergence and divergence in management practices and employment relations. They also describe the research methodology for the overall research project, highlight its major findings, and summarize the contributions of the thematic …