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Articles 1 - 30 of 42
Full-Text Articles in Labor Relations
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 …
Trade Unions And Collective Bargaining: Suggestions For Emerging Democracies In Eastern Europe And The Former Soviet Union, Harry C. Katz, Sarosh Kuruvilla, Lowell Turner
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
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
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 …
Awakening The Giant: The Revitalization Of The American Labor Movement, Lee Adler, Lowell Turner
Awakening The Giant: The Revitalization Of The American Labor Movement, Lee Adler, Lowell Turner
Lowell Turner
[Excerpt] The key to the contemporary revival of the American labor movement is precisely a renewed mobilization of the rank and file. Based on our combined research and work in labor education and representation, we believe that large numbers of American workers, blue and white-collar, skilled and unskilled, professional, service and manufacturing, union members and non-members, are open and in many cases ready for expanded workplace and union participation. To be sure, mobilization by itself is not enough: also necessary are national union support, innovative and flexible strategies, and coalition building, and we highlight these as well. But expanded rank-and-file …
Reviving The American Labor Movement: Institutions And Mobilization, Richard Hurd, Ruth Milkman, Lowell Turner
Reviving The American Labor Movement: Institutions And Mobilization, Richard Hurd, Ruth Milkman, Lowell Turner
Lowell Turner
[Excerpt] The reawakening of the American labor movement under new leadership with new strategic orientations is a remarkable chapter in late 20thcentury American economic and political history. Given up for dead by so many at home and abroad, under relentless attack from American employers and with government supports disappearing, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFLCIO) and a core of key member unions have re-emerged since the mid-1990s as prominent workplace, community and political actors. With both strategic reorientation and new local mobilization, these unions have fought to reverse decline and re-energize the movement. While the …
Prospects For Worker Participation In Management In The Single Market, Lowell Turner
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.
Reviving The Labor Movement: A Comparative Perspective, Lowell Turner
Reviving The Labor Movement: A Comparative Perspective, Lowell Turner
Lowell Turner
[Excerpt] In recent years, the long-declining U.S. labor movement has refocused in new and promising ways on rank-and-file mobilization, in organizing drives, collective bargaining conflicts and political campaigns. Such efforts are widely viewed as the best hope for revitalizing the labor movement: breathing new life into tired old unions, winning organizing drives and raising membership levels, increasing political influence, pushing toward the power necessary to reform labor law and ineffective labor institutions. The stakes are high and the goals ambitious: to close the "representation gap" at the workplace, reverse growing economic and social inequality, and build new coalitions for expanded …
Globalization And The Logic Of Participation: Unions And The Politics Of Coalition Building, Lowell Turner
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
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
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.
Paths To Global Social Regulation – What Can Americans Learn From The European Union, Lance Compa, Lowell Turner
Paths To Global Social Regulation – What Can Americans Learn From The European Union, Lance Compa, Lowell Turner
Lowell Turner
[Excerpt] For American proponents of global justice, social Europe appears distant yet inspirational, with all its weaknesses still a "vanguard" model for the social regulation of the global economy. We believe that a great deal can be learned by other countries, regions and the global economy as a whole from the ongoing experience of European economic and social integration. We also believe, however, that American experiences with NAFTA as well as with contemporary labor movement revitalization and coalition building offer positive lessons for Europeans and other actors in the global North and South. As much as we admire the European …
The Politics Of The Labor Movement Revitalization: The Need For A Revitalized Perspective, Lucio Baccaro, Kerstin Haman, Lowell Turner
The Politics Of The Labor Movement Revitalization: The Need For A Revitalized Perspective, Lucio Baccaro, Kerstin Haman, Lowell Turner
Lowell Turner
[Excerpt] Unions everywhere are struggling. Globalization, with its supporting neo-liberal ideology, encourages employers and governments to push vigorously against the constraints of employment regulation. Unions have to fight to protect past gains, resist decline and find new allies. To some extent, labor is always on the defensive in a capitalist economy, where ownership and economic decision-making lie largely beyond the reach of workers and unions. Yet the competitive pressures of today's increasingly global capitalism accentuate the pressure. Firms have new options and increasing mobility, far beyond those that most workers and unions can claim. One response is common to all …
Social Partnership: An Organizing Concept For Industrial Relations Reform, Lowell Turner
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 …
Making Transnational Collaboration Work, Michael Gordon, Lowell Turner
Making Transnational Collaboration Work, Michael Gordon, Lowell Turner
Lowell Turner
[Excerpt] The need for transnational collaboration among unions across the world is great and growing in the global economy. Case studies presented in this book demonstrate the active fermentation in cross-border relations and a variety of different approaches, goals, and targets. Yet the barriers to successful collaboration among unions in different countries remain immense: from differences in union structure, ideology, and culture to conflicting interests and differing levels of economic development. What unions have accomplished by operating internationally is important, indeed much more substantial today than ever before. Yet these efforts remain a drop in the bucket compared to the …
Up Against The Fallen Wall: The Crisis Of Social Partnership In Unified Germany, Lowell Turner
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
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
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 …
Conclusion: Uncertain Outcomes Of Conflict And Negotiation, Lowell Turner
Conclusion: Uncertain Outcomes Of Conflict And Negotiation, Lowell Turner
Lowell Turner
[Excerpt] To elaborate on each of these points, the findings presented in this book can be summarized as follows. First of all, the German model, that is, a social partnership approach to the negotiation of terms and conditions for the organization of an advanced market economy has worked in the past. We believe, on the basis of extensive collective research on different aspects of the political economy of the Federal Republic, both before and after unification, that the preservation of a reformed social partnership in Germany is highly desirable as an alternative to less regulated forms of capitalism in the …
Globalization, Participation, And The Renewal Of The Labor Movement, Lowell Turner
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
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
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 …
Three Plants, Three Futures, Lowell Turner
Three Plants, Three Futures, Lowell Turner
Lowell Turner
To spread teamwork and cooperation, managers need to reform themselves—especially their attitudes about workers. At NUMMI, management has provided a system of work and rewards that has earned the loyalty of most employees and local union leaders.
Nummi – Japanische Produktionskonzepte In Den Usa, Lowell Turner
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
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
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
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
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 …
Die Politik Der Neuen Arbeitsorganisation: Kooperation, Opposition Oder Partizipation?, Lowell Turner
Die Politik Der Neuen Arbeitsorganisation: Kooperation, Opposition Oder Partizipation?, Lowell Turner
Lowell Turner
[Excerpt] Es ist inzwischen ein Allgemeinplatz, daβ unter der Last sich verändernder Weltmärkte, politischer Kräfteverhältnisse und Technologien traditionelle fordistische Produktionsmethoden neuen, flexibleren Organisationsformen Platz machen. Vor allem die auβerordentliche Wettbewerbsfähigkeit japanischer Firmen, die innovative Formen der Produktionsorganisation nutzen, zwingen westliche Manager, die Produktion zu reorganisieren; und überall übt dieser betriebswirtschaftliche Zwang starken Druck auf die Gewerkschaften aus. In vielen Ländern sind diese Prozesse eng mit dem Niedergang der Gewerkschaften im letzten Jahrzehnt verbunden und haben diesen zum Teil mit hervorgerufen. Dies gilt vor allem für Länder wie Groβbritannien, Frankreich, Italien und die USA, wo Gewerkschaften keinen institutionell gesicherten Einfluβ auf …