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Full-Text Articles in Business
How Does Restructuring Contribute To Union Revitalization?, Martin Behrens, Richard W. Hurd, Kerstin Hamann
How Does Restructuring Contribute To Union Revitalization?, Martin Behrens, Richard W. Hurd, Kerstin Hamann
Richard W Hurd
[Excerpt] As we look cross-nationally at labour movement revitalization, we see a complex process of change that varies depending on the socio-political/economic context. Although we observe a diverse set of union strategies and outcomes, we find that structural adjustment is a common element of revitalization efforts. The mere presence of restructuring does not, of course, assure positive results. In this chapter we define various forms of restructuring, outline factors that shape and promote restructuring, and discuss the likelihood that restructuring leads to union revitalization by using examples from our cross-country comparison.
Contesting The Dinosaur Image: The Labor Movement's Search For A Future, Richard W. Hurd
Contesting The Dinosaur Image: The Labor Movement's Search For A Future, Richard W. Hurd
Richard W Hurd
[Excerpt] As labor contests the dinosaur image it will find no easy answers. Hard work, careful assessment of options, and a willingness to take risks are all required. Without widespread experimentation and a significant reallocation of resources to organizing, extinction awaits.
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 …
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 …
Automobile Workers Strikes, Ian Greer
Automobile Workers Strikes, Ian Greer
Ian Greer
Automobile workers' strikes occurred in essentially four eras: the lost strikes by the industry's craft unions in the early twentieth century, the dramatic sit-down victories of the 1930s, the mixture of wildcat and authorized strikes during the postwar economic boom from the 1940s through the 1970s, and the decline of strikes that accompanied the policy of "jointness' between company and union after J9S0. Autoworkers' strike strategies reflected, in part, the particular structure of the industry, which took shape in the 1920s. Auto production is a complex process of interdependent operations to produce parts and assemble vehicles, each containing tens of …
Business Union Vs. Business Union? Understanding The Split In The Us Labour Movement, Ian Greer
Business Union Vs. Business Union? Understanding The Split In The Us Labour Movement, Ian Greer
Ian Greer
In summer 2005, the trade union movement formalised its split into two rival confederations. The split was precipitated by the 2001 disaffiliation of the carpenters’ union, the Republican electoral victory of 2004, and the decline in union membership. Seven unions, accounting for forty per cent of the membership of the AFL-CIO formed Change to Win as a response to that federation’s ineffectiveness. This article concludes that the split may lead to new techniques for campaigning, but that it will not affect the fortunes or the social vision of the trade union movement.
Alienated Politics: Labour Insurgency And The Paternalistic State In China, Eli Friedman
Alienated Politics: Labour Insurgency And The Paternalistic State In China, Eli Friedman
Eli D Friedman
Is there a labour movement in China? This contribution argues that China does not have a labour movement, but that contestation between workers, state and capital is best characterized as a form of ‘alienated politics’. Widespread worker resistance is highly effective at the level of the firm be-cause of its ability to inflict losses on capital and disrupt public order. But authoritarian politics in China prevent workers from formulating political demands. Despite the spectacular repressive capacity of the state, the central government has in fact responded to highly localized resistance by passing generally pro-labour legislation over the past decade. The …