This research examines five campaigns where trade unions are seeking recognition for collective bargaining for the first time. They all take place within organisations that predominantly employ front-line service workers, with large constituencies of women and part-time workers. As these groups have increased within the workforce, trade union representation has declined. Therefore successfully recruiting and representing these groups remains central to any efforts of British unions to renew themselves. The campaigns have all been selected because they have had some success (although varied) in improving workplace representation structures. And the longitudinal, qualitative approach to the data collection gives insight into the dynamic social processes involved in the campaigns. The research focuses on five key areas of interest: the origins of the campaigns, the roles adopted by key actors (union officials, specialist organisers and workplace activists), the issues around which the unions have campaigned, the organising methods they have used, and the response of the employers targeted. This gives important insight into areas that have, to date, been under-explored. Finally, it is possible to comment on how these factors interact to influence a range of different measures of the 'outcomes' of organising activity. The study concludes that the most effective organising campaigns develop where there is support from both workplace level and from central unions, creating 'articulated' union structures. The role of union experts in securing resources, and in identifying and framing workers' demands is fundamental. The importance of the external context (specifically the business environment and legislative support for union organising) is also emphasised.

Trade unions, workers' collective organisations, are facing tough times almost everywhere. Research on union strategies of revitalisation has largely focused on advanced industrialised countries thereby overlooking potentially interesting developments elsewhere. This thesis aims at contributing to fill this gap by widening the breath of empirical research and bringing in evidence from Chile's large-scale copper mining sector. Chile and its copper sector are often heralded as prominent examples of the benefits globalisation can bring to developing countries but much less publicised has been the extent to which neoliberal policy has negatively affected workers and their organisations. The purpose of this thesis is to understand these challenges and to address the issues of in what ways, why, and how far workers and trade unions have effectively confronted their changing environments. More specifically, the thesis aims at analysing and explaining similarities and differences in the emergence, form, and outcomes of union strategy. The research is based on a comparative multi case study of nine union organisations and draws on semi-structured interviews with union leaders, senior managers, state officials, academics, and elite interviewees. This work employs a preliminary framework of analysis that conceives of union strategy as multi-dimensional and aims at explaining its changing nature by elaborating on Frege and Kelly's (2003) social movement model of union strategic choice, thereby integrating structural determinants with purposeful agency. The thesis shows that since the early 1980s Chile's labour regulatory regimes have been redesigned to subordinate groups' disadvantage, severely impacting workers and unions structure of opportunity. It distinguishes three groups. (1) Unions of core workers in union-accepting regimes have stabilised their situation by engaging in different forms of union-management co-operation and membership de-mobilisation. (2) Unions of core workers in anti-union regimes have developed successful organising campaigns and union-building strategies, transforming their original 'union-free' status into a heavily unionised one. (3) Unions of contract workers in harsh anti-union regimes have developed militant 'direct action' strategies, becoming prominent nation-wide organisations. At its most general, the thesis argues that meaningful union strategic choice is possible, even in the most difficult of conditions, thereby contradicting claims that unions have become powerless, ineffective, and unnecessary organisations in the era of 'globalisation'. It acknowledges the relevance of different strategic paths to union effectiveness but suggests that broadly defined militant types of unionism may be better placed to promote union revitalisation. It suggests that structural determinants are insufficient in explaining the form and outcomes of union choices, and that renewed attention must be paid to the social processes of collective action, in particular to the dynamics of micromobilisation.

No description available.

The aim of this thesis, and the individual publications within it, is principally to provide a realistic picture of the GUFs and to critically explore their power relative to the international industrial relations and political environments within which they operate. Additionally, the thesis aims to: critically analyse the GUFs from different perspectives - organisational, international relations, global governance and developmental; explore the factors impacting the future work of the GUFs with particular emphasis on the decline in union membership and geopolitical developments; and, argue for a reorientation in the work of the GUFs in response to these factors with particular emphasis on building social and political capital through educational work. This context statement also aims to draw together the main themes and arguments within the publications and explore more deeply the strategic importance of the educational work of the GUFs in building the social and political capital required to adapt to this changing environment.

This Thesis investigates the issue of the simultaneous determination of union membership status and wage rates. We explore the determinants of individual union propensity and use an endogeneity correction methodology to estimate the wage impact of UK trade unions in an era of declining unionisation.

This thesis explores the adoption of the organising model of union renewal by the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) in response to membership decline and civil service restructuring. The neoliberal stance of successive UK Governments, together with the continuing decline of union influence and membership, have led unions to reassess their organisational and recruitment strategies. The growth in union renewal has seen many unions adopt both organising and partnership approaches since the formal re-launch of the TUC in 1994 (Heery, 1998). Despite organising now being a well-established tactic deployed by many unions, evaluating its effectiveness is problematic and requires further detailed research which transcends the extent to which organising fits the organising model. The central aim of this research is to: situate debates around union organising in a wider historical and political context; systematically examine the issues of structure and action in relation to union organising and union purpose; and provide a more holistic overview of one union's approach to organising by examining organising across different (horizontal and vertical) levels of union activity in a recognised environment. Hyman's (1994) model of internal union dynamics was adopted as a framework to examine the extent to which organising has been embedded in the structures of the PCS and the work of Simms (2007a) and Martinez Lucio and Stuart (2005) were applied where appropriate. The research findings extend and challenge the existing literature on union renewal with two case studies illustrating that different sections of the same union can be expected to engage with the organising agenda to varying degrees. This is dependent on the perceived purpose of the union amongst representatives, as well as structural factors such as the employer's organisation of services and employment, the union's own internal structures, and crucially bargaining locus and scope.

This thesis examines the extent to which the modern labour movement is utilising social movement unionism as a form of organisation in the modern political economy. A multi-level analytical approach utilises a Gramscian inspired theoretical framework to look at developments at the national, regional, and global levels of the labour movement in the modern global political economy. Issues at stake are i) understanding the issues affecting the labour movement in the age of globalisation; ii) the degree to which social movement unionism presents the labour movement a framework for renewal; iii) the extent to which key themes of social movement unionism are being implemented by those within the labour movement at all levels; and iv) whether there exists at present a form of labour organisation that presents a true test for social movement unionism. This thesis adds to contemporary literature by combining analysis of existing academic debates with original primary material (a series of interviews with several key figures within the labour movement), in order that the relevancy of contemporary academic arguments for tangible developments surrounding the labour movement is determined. The insights gained from these interviews are incorporated into the body of this thesis. After an outline of initial points of contextualisation in chapter one, chapter two moves to provide the theoretical framework for this research. Chapter three discusses issues of globalisation that affect the labour movement. The thesis then moves to analyse tangible issues surrounding the labour movement, with chapter four outlining the British labour movement's experiences and responses to challenges faced. Chapter five analyses the degree to which the European level presents a viable framework for the internationalisation of the labour movement, whilst chapter six shifts focus to the global level. At this point it will be argued that non-traditional labour organisations and social forums provide potential catalysts for the widespread adoption of social movement unionism. The final chapter provides concluding arguments and a revisiting of the researches main points.

Social partnership dominated industrial relations in Ireland for twenty-two years, 1987- 2009. The degree to which it influenced the nation’s rapid economic recovery in the 1990s is a matter of much debate, but there can be little doubt that it contributed to a prolonged period of industrial peace. This thesis addresses the experience of the trade union movement with social partnership between 1987 and 2000, a period which saw the Irish economy progress from a state of near collapse, in 1987, to the dizzying heights of the Celtic Tiger era, a mere decade later. The 1CTU entered into partnership with government, employers and farmers with clear goals in mind and with a view to having significant influence over socio-economic policy formation at national level. Initially motivated by a desire to play their part in driving an economic recovery in the late 1980s, trade unions in Ireland continued their engagement with partnership long after that recovery had been achieved. Throughout this period the ICTU traded industrial peace for guaranteed wage increases, but it was not until the mid- 1990s that a reduction in unemployment levels was finally realised. As a consequence, Congress was dogged by accusations that it had adopted a business led agenda to the detriment of organised labour. This, an accusation that persisted over the twenty-two years of social partnership, was not entirely unjustified, as senior trade unionists in 1987 accepted the need for business profits to rise in advance of any improvements in overall employment statistics. However, engagement with social partnership came at a price. Not alone were unions beholden to a ‘no-strike’ clause as part of each agreement, issues such as mandatory union recognition, enterprise level partnership and profit sharing, to name but a few, posed considerable difficulties for organised labour and by 2009, and the collapse of partnership, these key union objectives had not been achieved. This research, therefore, analyses the impact social partnership had on trade unions in Ireland between 1987 and 2000. Trade union engagement with partnership in Ireland is compared with that of organised labour in the United Kingdom and Austria, while apparent union weakness in the face of collapse of social partnership in 2009 is also addressed.

Though the contemporary political situation is unfavourable, there has been a continuing and lively debate about the efficacy of trade union affiliation to the Labour Party. This debate has primarily focused upon if trade unions are an effective mechanism for political action due to their institutional role and leverage inside the party’s structures. In order to evaluate the extent of this influence, the thesis examines four legislative events, which chart the transition from two structurally different contexts – collective laissez-faireism to a liberal market economy. These events are the Social Contract (1974-79), National Minimum Wage (1998), Employment Relations Act (1999) and the Warwick Agreement (2004). The thesis uses Hamann and Kelly’s (2004) four factors of influence that shape trade union decision-making as a conceptual framework: (1) economic and political institutions (2) union ideology, (3) employer, political party or state strategies and (4) strategic choices of union leaders. The research established three questions framed as propositions designed to identify structural and agency factors flowing from these four factors. Utilising this framework, the thesis will present an analysis of the constraining and optimising effects of the four factors on the ability of trade unions to attain favoured outcomes. The research found the strategic choices of union leaders to be the most important factor contributing to minimalist and more extensive employment relations frameworks. Informal processes are judged to have displaced formal processes in conjunction with coordination mechanisms as a means to offsetting environmental constraints. The thesis’ observations are anchored through a unique dataset consisting of in-depth interviews from the reflections of actors who strategically influenced the behaviour of trade unions or directly engaged trade union leaders in the legislative events. The object of enquiry, that being political action by trade unions as a mechanism for delivering change, is better understood from the strategic perspective of these actors. As such, a distinctive feature of the research is its approach to case events and sources of data.

No description available.