Labor Relations Commons^™

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

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 …

Trade Unions And Collective Bargaining: Suggestions For Emerging Democracies In Eastern Europe And The Former Soviet Union, Harry C. Katz, Sarosh Kuruvilla, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

This paper provides lessons for industrial relations reform efforts in the new nations emerging from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc. Our purpose is to identify the basic industrial-relations practices that enable the advanced industrial countries to compete in world markets. The paper does not provide a detailed descriptive account of the existing industrial-relations institutions in the formerly communist countries, nor does it assess the likely short-run consequences of the economic restructuring under way across the new nations. Rather, our focus is on the experiences in the advanced economies and the lessons those experiences contain regarding successful industrial-relations practice.

Industrial Relations And The Reorganization Of Work In West Germany: Lessons For The U.S., Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

[Excerpt] Some have suggested that to compete in the new world economy we must not only adopt Japanese production practices but also abandon Western traditions of independent unionism. When U.S. trade unionists naturally resist, they are criticized as "adversarial." My argument is that U.S. managers do not need to break the unions or to transform them into subordinate enterprise unions in order to gain the benefits of new work organization. Rather than looking only to Japan for ways to get us out of our current competitive predicament, we should also look to Europe. A particularly useful example is West Germany, …

From Transformation To Revitalization: A New Research Agenda For A Contested Global Economy, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

[Excerpt] The revitalization perspective is hardly new. With deep roots in both labor movement history and industrial relations research, such work was marginalized for much of the postwar period both in union strategy and in the field of industrial relations. What is new is the rather sudden arrival of revitalization research in the mainstream of industrial relations along with a broader literature on contentious politics in a global economy (e.g., Klein, 2002; Delia Porta & Tarrow, 2004). This introductory article offers an overview of the revitalization perspective, deepened in relevance by contemporary struggles for democratic representation in the modern workplace …

Prospects For Worker Participation In Management In The Single Market, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

[Excerpt] This paper examines the development of and debates over the so-called social dimension of the single market project, with particular reference to the issues of employee information, consultation, and participation rights. The Social Charter, issued by the European Commission and agreed to in December 1989 by eleven of the twelve member states of the Council of Ministers, lists the expansion of such rights as one of its planks. In principle, therefore, most employers, governments, and unions are in agreement; the problem comes in implementation and regulation.

Globalization And The Logic Of Participation: Unions And The Politics Of Coalition Building, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

Global liberalization is driving a 'logic of participation', for firms and unions alike. Economic pressures drive managers to innovate across a range of possibilities, from outsourcing and union busting to work reorganization and labor-management partnership. Those same pressures, reflected largely through the strategic choices of employers, also force unions to innovate – from concession bargaining and cooperation to coalition building and international solidarity. Because employers are increasingly tempted by strategies that seek to weaken or marginalize unions, sustained participation for unions arguably requires a new period of activist mobilization. This article explores one significant component of renewed labor mobilization: union …

Building The New Europe: Western And Eastern Roads To Social Partnership, Elena A. Iankova, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

[Excerpt] While the ways in which neoliberalism and economic integration undermine social partnership and the welfare state have been extensively studied, less attention has been given to the ways in which such economic forces may push actors together, in reinvigorated bargaining relationships, to find workable solutions to difficult problems. In his article, we examine the contemporary status of social partnership in four case study countries—Germany, the United Kingdom, Bulgaria and Poland—as well as for Europe as a whole. In the west, while Germany presents a case of established social partnership under pressure, the United Kingdom has stood over the past …

The Europeanization Of Labour: Structure Before Action, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

At national level, the development of effective labour movements has involved the interaction of two processes: the establishment of formal organizational structures, and the rise of rank-and-file pressure and protest. At European level, recent years have seen significant organizational developments; this article discusses the role of the European Trade Union Confederation and the emergent European Works Councils. As yet, however, there has been no parallel evidence of transnational labour protest, and indeed the obstacles are considerable. Nevertheless, institutional frameworks may create a 'political opportunity structure' which facilitates its emergence.

Social Partnership: An Organizing Concept For Industrial Relations Reform, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

[Excerpt] In this era of globalization and intensified world market competition, once stable relationships involving firms, unions and government have come under pressure everywhere. Here in the United States, a crisis of economic competitiveness, industrial relations instability, and union decline has generated a new openness to reform efforts, including a widespread willingness to learn from the successful practices of both domestic innovators and foreign competitors. Employers, for example, have increasingly moved to adopt "lean" and high-quality-oriented forms of organization as well as new participatory programs for employees. Unions have shown increasing interest in getting involved and providing input into the …

Up Against The Fallen Wall: The Crisis Of Social Partnership In Unified Germany, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

[Excerpt] This book addresses two central and related sets of questions. First, what type of political economy is emerging in unified Germany? How "West German" is it? Is Germany permanently polarized into East and West or converging on a single, integrated political economy? To what extent is the "coordinated market economy" (Soskice 1991) becoming less, or differently, coordinated? The answers to these questions will affect the outcomes of issues ranging from policy and politics to production organization. Second, what has happened to the famous German "social partnership" since unification? Do the employer offensives of 1993-1996 in the pattern-setting metal and …

Unifying Germany: Crisis, Conflict, And Social Partnership In The East, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

[Excerpt] I argue that social partnership is alive and well in eastern Germany. My evidence for this surprising outcome includes the IG Metall strike victory of 1993 and plant-level case studies of restructuring and industrial relations in the metal and electronics industries of eastern Germany. The success of social partnership in eastern Germany can be traced both to the flexible suitability of institutions transferred from the West and to the actor choices in the negotiations and conflicts that have made it possible to adapt these institutions to a new environment. Both the institutional and political aspects of the argument are …

The Politics Of Work Reorganization: Pervasive Union Decline?, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

[Excerpt] These are hard times for unions. There is currently a broad cross-national trend toward the decentralization of bargaining in industrial relations, which challenges established bases of union influence everywhere. The combined effects of intensified world market competition, new microelectronic technologies, managerial strategies to reorganize production, and the success and influence of Japanese production models are exerting great pressure on systems of industrial relations in Western Europe and North America; in many societies, unions are among the major losers in political realignments and industrial adjustment. Alongside wide-ranging discussions of competitiveness and the causes and consequences of trade and other economic …

Globalization, Participation, And The Renewal Of The Labor Movement, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

In dangerous times, in a post-Cold War political landscape in which a settled "New World Order" has yet to emerge, continuing globalization brings enormous challenges. For labor unions, the pressures are intense and have been well documented and analyzed. Yet globalization also brings new opportunities for enhanced participation, alliance-building, and labor movement renewal. Viewing the global economy as an opportunity as well as a threat, some unions are crafting innovative strategies to ride the new currents toward modernization, mobilization, and expanded economic and political influence.

Going Global, Michael E. Gordon, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

[Excerpt] What power can counter the growing strength of MNCs and the forces of globalization? National governments have an important role to play, singly and together, as do international institutions of regulation such as the European Commission, the World Trade Organization, and the International Labor Organization (ILO). Equally important, we would suggest, is the countervailing power of modernized labor movements working actively at local, national, and transnational levels. Further, we suggest that in the current era, the renewal of national and local labor movements may in fact depend greatly on increased coordination with the labor movements of other countries. Transnational …

Conclusion: Markets, Strategies, And Institutions In Comparative Perspective, Kirsten S. Wever, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

[Excerpt If this had been another collection of country case studies, it would now be possible to map out the similarities and differences across the cases covered, possibly in a figure describing various IR-related issues by country. However, since this is a collection of different kinds of analyses with a variety of different focuses, the job of concluding this volume is not so simple. Nevertheless, in the very variety offered by the chapters in this volume, several themes emerge, most of which are at least implicitly, if not explicitly, clarified in the five substantive chapters. The chapters point up the …

Nummi – Japanische Produktionskonzepte In Den Usa, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

[Excerpt] NUMMI, die Produktionsstätte des Joint-Venture von General Motors und Toyota, hat Modellcharakter für die gesamte US-Automobilindustrie erlangt und gilt mittlerweile als Paradebeispiel fur eine erfolgreiche Reorganisation der Arbeit. Das »Geheimnis« von NUMMI (New United Motor Manufacturing Inc.) liegt - kurz gefaβt - in der Übertragung von japanischen Produktionskonzepten mit entsprechend sozialpartnerschaftlichen Beziehungen zwischen Arbeitnehmern und Management, Teamarbeit, hoher Arbeitsintensität und groβerer Verantwortung der Beschäftigten für ihren Arbeitsbereich in eine gewerkschaftlich organisierte amerikanische Automontagestätte - mit dramatischen Ergebnissen hinsichtlich Produktivität und Produktqualität. Kein Wunder, daβ amerikanische Automobil-Manager - nicht nur bei GM, sondern auch bei Ford und Chrysler - darauf …

The East In Open Conflict: The Great Strike Of 1993, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

[Excerpt] Because it is impossible in one book to examine all German institutions of negotiation, this book focuses on one important set of relations at the heart of social market regulation: the "social partnership" between labor and management. "Social partnership," a term widely used throughout the European Union but little known in the United States, refers to the nexus—and central political and economic importance—of bargaining relationships between strongly organized employers (in employer associations) and employees (in unions and works councils) that range from comprehensive collective bargaining and plant-level codetermination to vocational training and federal, state, and local economic policy discussions. …

Social Partnership In Germany: Lessons For U.S. Labor And Management, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

German industrial relations in the postwar period have made a major contribution to German industrial success. The German system is rooted in the explicit recognition of well organized interests: strong, assertive employers and employers' associations not afraid to demand what they think is right, including wage restraint as well as reorganization of production toward "lean production"; and strong, assertive unions not afraid to demand what they think is right, including broad skills training, high wages, a shorter workweek, and a "human-centered" work organization. Amazingly, these strong forces end up with negotiated outcomes in a system that is accurately called "social …

Introduction: A Wide-Angle Lens For A Global Marketplace, Kirsten S. Wever, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

[Excerpt] We hope in this volume to accomplish three things. First, we hope to meet the wide and growing demand in the IR community for a better understanding of industrial relations developments abroad. That is, we would like to help lift comparative IR out of its secondary status to a more prominent position within the field as well as reaffirm its centrality to other fields, such as comparative political economy and political sociology. Secondly, we aim to shed light on the specific comparison between other advanced industrial economies and industrializing countries, on the one hand, and the U.S., on the …

The Transformation Of Industrial Relations In Eastern Germany, Ulrich Jürgens, Larissa Klinzing, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

Citing case studies based on interviews they conducted in 1991 and 1992 with labor representatives and managers at six eastern German manufacturing firms, the authors argue that the future could hold either vigor and growth or stagnation and permanent second-class status for the economy and labor movement in eastern Germany, depending largely on actor strategy and choice. The rapid spread of privatization and open markets is tending to undermine unions' influence, on the one hand; but on the other hand, institutional transfer from former West Germany (especially of codetermination law and centralized, regional-level collective bargaining) is giving unions and works …

A Diversity Of New Work Organization: Human-Centered, Lean, And In-Between, Lowell Turner, Peter Auer

Lowell Turner

Lean production, from Toyota, is said to be paradigmatic for future production organization in the auto industry. This article challenges that view. Case studies at auto plants in the U.S., Germany, and Sweden show a wide diversity of developing new work organization. Not only are there differences across countries, there are also substantial and persistent variations across firms and even individual plants. No single model of production is yet emerging from this diversity. Although there are common elements such as team and group work, just-in-time delivery, and "total quality management", the actual shape of new work organization depends on a …

Rank-And-File Participation In Organizing At Home And Abroad, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

[Excerpt] We know that we need labor law reform. But it is also clear that this is not all we need; nor can we expect to achieve legal reform simply by electing Democrats. That strategy did not work in 1978-79 or in 1993-94, and it will not work in the future. In the face of inevitably powerful and well-organized business opposition, even the most well-financed and articulate lobbying campaign for labor law reform can fail. What was missing in 1978-79 and in 1993-94 and is urgently needed now is the pressure of a massive social movement, mobilized to transform and …

Labor And Global Justice: Emerging Reform Coalitions In The World's Only Superpower, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

This paper examines rejuvenated labor, environmental and campus movements in the U.S., in case studies of living wage, anti-sweatshop, sustainable development and Justice for Janitors campaigns. The cases offer surprising evidence for the resurgence of progressive activism in America, at a critical historical juncture in which contrasting perspectives contend for prominence - Washington consensus versus Seattle coalition, employer-driven deunionization versus union-led mobilization, corporate power and corruption versus labor-inclusive social movement upsurge, and in the global arena, unilateral domination versus multilateral negotiation. Predominantly local, the coalitions examined in this research, taken together across the United States, amount to a substantial movement …

Introduction: An Urban Resurgence Of Social Unionism, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

[Excerpt] The essays presented here examine the emergence, successes, and failures of contemporary urban-based labor movements, especially in the United States, where such developments are most significant, but also in the United Kingdom and Germany in comparative perspective. Our central question is why such labor movements have emerged prominently and achieved significant successes in some cities but not in others. A comparative analysis points to the central role of two factors: agency, specifically the choices and strategies pursued by union leaders and their organizations; and opportunity structure, located in the presence or absence of particular barriers in the institutional, political, …

Convergence And Diversity In International And Comparative Industrial Relations, Lowell Turner, John P. Windmuller

Lowell Turner

[Excerpt] In this essay, we reexamine a critical paradox in international and comparative industrial relations, a paradox that already decades ago demonstrated its ability to intrigue scholarly curiosity (Galenson, 1952,1963; Kerr et al, 1960). As we see it, convergence along a number of important dimensions, such as labor law and organizational and bargaining structure, is occurring simultaneously with widespread cross-national and local divergence, or diversity, in industrial relations practices and outcomes. Along with economic and political interdependence and with intensifications of market competition, convergence and diversity both appear to be product of an increasing spread of markets and ideas sometimes …

Institutions And Activism: Crisis And Opportunity For A German Labor Movement In Decline, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

In recent decades, German unions have rested on their institutional laurels even as the ground has slipped away. This article analyzes two recent innovative campaigns based on grassroots mobilization that, the author argues, offer possibilities for renewed union strength. A breakthrough campaign against a militantly anti-union firm in the retail industry demonstrates the potential for a German brand of social movement unionism. The story line and institution-building strategy of this campaign fall entirely outside the framework of traditional German industrial relations. A second, very different campaign, from deep inside that traditional framework, has mobilized union members in Nordrhein-Westfalen (IG Metall’s …

Advantages Of Backwardness: Lessons For Social Europe From The American Labour Movement, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

[Excerpt] In the crisis of declining union influence, the United States has played a vanguard role. The weakness of labour in the U.S. has opened the door to the neoliberal policies developed here and then imposed on the global economy. More recent efforts to revitalise the labour movement aim, among other things, to reverse such policies. In suffering union decline and grappling for new strategies, we have what Alexander Gerschenkron once called the ‘advantages of backwardness’. Ironically, European unions and social democrats can perhaps derive lessons not only from our failures but also from our efforts to turn the tide.

Perils Of The High And Low Roads: Employment Relations In The United States And Germany, Lowell Turner, Kirsten S. Wever, Michael Fichter

Lowell Turner

[Excerpt] The U.S. crisis is characterized by growing income inequality, a shrinking safety net, and the decline of worker representation. Like the German crisis, it is caused in part by intensified global competition. Unlike in Germany, problems in the United States have also been exacerbated by deregulation, short-term horizons (e.g., quarterly reports to shareholders), and the decline of the labor movement.

Both Germany and the United States, however, have substantial political, economic, and social resources to use in solving their problems. The contemporary crises do not appear for either of these countries to foreshadow a major collapse like that of …