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Articles 1 - 12 of 12
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Institutions And Activism: Crisis And Opportunity For A German Labor Movement In Decline, Lowell Turner
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 …
A War Against Organizing, Kate Bronfenbrenner
A War Against Organizing, Kate Bronfenbrenner
Kate Bronfenbrenner
[Excerpt] Unless Congress passes serious labor law reform with real penalties, only a small fraction of the workers who seek union representation will succeed. If recent trends continue, there will no longer be a functioning legal mechanism to effectively protect the right of private-sector workers to organize and collectively bargain. Our country cannot afford to make workers defer their rights and aspirations for union representation any longer.
Seeds Of Resurgence: The Promise Of Organizing In The Public And Private Sectors, Kate Bronfenbrenner, Tom Juravich
Seeds Of Resurgence: The Promise Of Organizing In The Public And Private Sectors, Kate Bronfenbrenner, Tom Juravich
Kate Bronfenbrenner
[Excerpt] No revival of our American labor movement will be possible without massive new organizing. While it is important to stem the loss of unionized manufacturing jobs and do a better job of servicing and mobilizing current union members, these alone will not put the labor movement on the road to renewal. Even a cursory review of the data shows that new organizing is the cornerstone of labor’s future. We need new members not only to strengthen bargaining power and reinforce our political clout but, as history has shown us, to refocus our vision and purpose. Yet we have been …
Organizing For Keeps: Building A Twenty-First Century Labor Movement, Kate Bronfenbrenner
Organizing For Keeps: Building A Twenty-First Century Labor Movement, Kate Bronfenbrenner
Kate Bronfenbrenner
[Excerpt] In the last several years a great deal of discussion has taken place both inside and outside the labor movement about the need for American unions to organize massive numbers of unorganized workers. Who exactly this target workforce should be, ranging from low-wage contingent workers in home care, janitorial, or food service occupations, to the legions of unorganized clerical workers in business services, to the expanding professional and technical workforce in our "high tech" economy; to both skilled and unskilled production workers in the light manufacturing plants which have sprouted up across the South and rural Midwest, remains a …
Foreword To The Killing Of Karen Silkwood, Kate Bronfenbrenner
Foreword To The Killing Of Karen Silkwood, Kate Bronfenbrenner
Kate Bronfenbrenner
[Excerpt] The Killing of Karen Silkwood, therefore, is both a cautionary and inspirational tale. It reminds us of what we are up against and what it takes to win. But most of all it reminds us why each of us must stand with the whistle-blowers and the ordinary heroes that are among us, in the workplace, in government, and in our communities, and, if given the opportunity, become ordinary heroes ourselves. The risks are great, but the costs of not standing up and not speaking out are even greater.
What Do Workers Want: Reflections On The Implications Of The Freeman And Rogers Study, Kate Bronfenbrenner
What Do Workers Want: Reflections On The Implications Of The Freeman And Rogers Study, Kate Bronfenbrenner
Kate Bronfenbrenner
[Excerpt] Despite talk in the media and academia concerning worker attitudes about unions and workplace participation, there is precious little data to inform any of these discussions. Thus, research of the scope and scale of the Workplace Representation and Participation Study is of enormous value to the field of industrial relations because it provides important insights into worker attitudes about their jobs, rights, power, and future opportunities. Yet, because there is so little other data available to put Freeman and Rogers's research into context, it becomes all the more essential that we bring great care to our analysis of their …
Changing To Organize: Unions Know What Has To Be Done. Now They Have To Do It, Kate Bronfenbrenner
Changing To Organize: Unions Know What Has To Be Done. Now They Have To Do It, Kate Bronfenbrenner
Kate Bronfenbrenner
[Excerpt] Even leaving aside the unusual events of last year, it is clear that despite all the new initiatives and resources devoted to organizing and all the talk of “changing to organize,” American unions are at best standing still. They will need to organize millions, not hundreds of thousands, of workers each year if they are to reverse the tide and begin to regain their influence and power in American society. Why is this so difficult? Why has it taken so long for new organizing initiatives to bear significant fruit? After spending the past fourteen years conducting a series of …
Reversing The Tide Of Organizing Decline: Lessons From The Us Experience, Kate Bronfenbrenner
Reversing The Tide Of Organizing Decline: Lessons From The Us Experience, Kate Bronfenbrenner
Kate Bronfenbrenner
As increasing numbers of employers and governments in industrialized nations hasten to "Americanize" their economic policies, labor laws, and union-avoidance strategies, it has become critical for unions in other countries to learn what they can from the organizing experience of the US labor movement. Most research on factors contributing to US organizing decline has focused on the role played by factors external to the labor movement such as global competition, de-industrialization, changes in workforce demographics, new work systems, deregulation, aggressive employer opposition, and weak and poorly enforced labor laws. US unions, however, have greatly contributed to their own decline by …
No Holds Barred: The Intensification Of Employer Opposition To Organizing, Kate Bronfenbrenner
No Holds Barred: The Intensification Of Employer Opposition To Organizing, Kate Bronfenbrenner
Kate Bronfenbrenner
[Excerpt] This study is a comprehensive analysis of employer behavior in representation elections supervised by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The data for this study originate from a thorough review of primary NLRB documents for a random sample of 1,004 NLRB certification elections that took place between January 1, 1999 and December 31, 2003 and from an in-depth survey of 562 campaigns conducted with that same sample. Employer behavior data from prior studies conducted over the last 20 years are used for purposes of comparison. The representativeness of the sample combined with the high response rate for both the …
Introduction To Global Unions: Challenging Transnational Capital Through Cross-Border Campaigns, Kate Bronfenbrenner
Introduction To Global Unions: Challenging Transnational Capital Through Cross-Border Campaigns, Kate Bronfenbrenner
Kate Bronfenbrenner
[Excerpt] The chapters in this book make clear that unions have the capability to build the cross-border coalitions necessary to take on transnational corporations. The question is whether they are willing to make the fundamental ideological and cultural changes necessary to make this happen on a global scale. If they are, then maybe it will be five, not twenty years before Wal-Mart is no longer driving the global race to the bottom; before firms such as Exxon Mobil, Coca-Cola, Talisman, Caterpillar, and any number of large pharmaceutical companies will no longer be able to profess to be good corporate citizens …
Conclusion To Global Unions: Challenging Transnational Capital Through Cross-Border Campaigns, Kate Bronfenbrenner
Conclusion To Global Unions: Challenging Transnational Capital Through Cross-Border Campaigns, Kate Bronfenbrenner
Kate Bronfenbrenner
[Excerpt] What the cases in this book show is that the world's unions have a greater potential than most realize to take on the most powerful corporations and win. These cases also show how difficult that can be. It requires enormous effort, creativity, and a willingness to take risks and reach across differences. But going from individual cases to something bigger requires something else as well. As difficult as times are for workers in the Global North, and as much as the wealth accumulated by global capital comes mostly from taking enormous profits at the expense of all workers, part …
Book Review: Capital And Its Discontents: Conversations With Radical Thinkers In A Time Of Tumult By Sasha Lilly (Pm Press, 2011), Nick J. Sciullo
Book Review: Capital And Its Discontents: Conversations With Radical Thinkers In A Time Of Tumult By Sasha Lilly (Pm Press, 2011), Nick J. Sciullo
Nick J. Sciullo
No abstract provided.