Ce travail s’emploie à comprendre la série de conflits sociaux dans les secteurs de l’automobile, du transport routier et des services publics qui se sont déroulés en Grande-Bretagne lors de l’hiver 1978-1979 et sont connus sous le nom d’« hiver du mécontentement » dans la mémoire collective. L’hypothèse défendue est que ces conflits prennent sens et trouvent leur portée à condition d’être analysés à la croisée de trois processus. Le premier est une crise du travaillisme, au sens de fortes tensions politiques au sein du parti travailliste et plus généralement du mouvement ouvrier. Le deuxième processus est une extension de la conflictualité sociale, non pas au sens où le portrait traditionnel des années 1970 comme décennie du militantisme triomphant devrait être accepté, mais dans la mesure où la période est marquée par une syndicalisation croissante et son extension à de nouveaux secteurs d’activité, par un renforcement des structures syndicales aussi bien au niveau national qu’au niveau local dans une logique générale de déconcentration des processus de décision, enfin par l’apprentissage de l’action collective par de nouveaux groupes de travailleurs. La troisième logique, enfin, est la montée de la droite thatchérienne qui puise un arsenal intellectuel renouvelé dans les travaux des think tanks néo-libéraux. Son discours est relayé par une presse gagnée par l’anti-collectivisme de la nouvelle droite. Ces éléments permettent de comprendre ces conflits qui, à l’hiver 1978-1979, opposent, au gouvernement travailliste arc-bouté sur la défense d’une politique de contrôle des revenus, des groupes de travailleurs et leurs organisations syndicales pourtant pro-travaillistes. / This thesis examines the industrial disputes which took place in the winter of 1978-1979 in a series of sectors – car-making, road haulage and the public sector – and are remembered in collective memory as the « Winter of Discontent ». It argues that these industrial disputes can only be properly understood in a threefold context: first, in the context of the crisis of Labour, that is to say the acute political and ideological tensions and divisions which emerged in the Labour Party from the beginning of the 1970s when the political and economic assumptions which had dominated the leadership of the party since after the War were undermined by the context of economic crisis; secondly, in a context of extension of industrial unrest into new areas such as the public sector, which experienced a rapid unionisation of its growing workforce in the 1970s and whose workers were on a militant learning curve throughout those years; finally, in the context of the rise of the New Right, as a number of think tanks provided rightwingers within the Conservative Party with new ideas and arguments to criticise the trade unions, the welfare State and the Keynesian, tripartite policies pursued in the post-War period, and as these neo-liberal ideas found an increasing number of advocates in the press. These various elements help us to understand the disputes of the winter of 1978-1979 as primarily a conflict about economic policy and priorities within the labour movement as low-paid public sector workers and traditionally loyal trade unions were pitted against a Labour government enforcing a reduction in real wages.

The thesis focuses on the impact of the EU Directive (2002/14/EC), which was incorporated into UK employment law, with its phased implementation starting on 6th April 2005. The empirical evidence is based on a survey and predominantly on case-study research that involved interviews with: managers, employees and trade union representatives, together with the collection of relevant documentary evidence. The empirical findings, especially for the non-unionised sector, indicate that the reflexive nature of the Information and Consultation of Employees (ICE) Regulations has mainly stimulated the development of organisation-specific or tailor-made information and consultation arrangements, which minimally comply with the legislative provisions. Moreover, the development of such arrangements is primarily based on the ad hoc momentum that is generated by business pressures (i.e. collective redundancies, transfer of undertakings etc) and can be viewed as reflecting the conceptual framework of legislatively prompted voluntarism. The ICE Directive is aimed at bringing a consistency to the establishment of basic and standard information and consultation arrangements across the workplaces in Great Britain. Subsequently, it should promote the harmonisation of employee participation practices amongst the UK and other EU countries, as it has the goal of ensuring that there is a minimum floor of rights in relation to information sharing and consultation with employees. Nevertheless, the Europeanisation of British industrial relations cannot instantly take place through the adoption of such EU directives. With regard to this research endeavour, it emerges that the extant national idiosyncrasies cannot be substantially altered, whilst business pressures and employers’ goodwill continue to be key drivers in the development of employee participation and consultation arrangements in Great Britain, albeit within the newly adopted legislative and statutory framework.

The role of biraderi kinship networks has recently gained attention in U.K. elections. Biraderis are patriarchal and hierarchical kinship networks that are led by male elders and originate from Pakistan and Bangladesh. These networks have been accused of influencing selections and elections through bloc votes. Existing research into the actions and implications of biraderi in U.K. politics has examined these networks in isolation. To further understand and contextualise the actions and implications of biraderi networks in U.K. politics, I compare them to trade union networks. Trade unions are paid membership networks in which groups of employees take collective action to maintain and improve employment conditions. Using my two case studies, I focus on the Labour Party and ask two questions. Firstly, what are the implications of network influence for electoral choice? Secondly, are the actions of biraderi networks, and the implications of these actions, different to other networks? And if so, why? I use a combination of qualitative and quantitative data in the process of this inquiry. In chapter three, I use the analysis of 37 interviews with political and community activists to introduce biraderi networks and present their role in the selection and election of political representatives. In chapter four I use the same data to contextualise the role of biraderi and examine the relationship between biraderi networks and the Labour Party. In chapter five, I introduce trade union networks and use the analysis of 16 interviews with MPs, political activists and trade unionists to outline three aspects of the role that trade unions take in the selection and election processes: the legitimate aspect, the controversial aspect and the idealised aspect. In chapter six, the final empirical chapter, I ask which candidates receive support from trade unions. I build upon an existing dataset to analyse financial and in-kind trade union donations to the Labour Party. I find that biraderi and trade union networks both, to some extent, carry out five actions in the selection and election of political representatives: providing political education; providing financial and in-kind support; providing campaigners in selections and elections; selecting candidates; supporting the under-represented. I find that the implications of these five actions for voter choice are two-fold. On the one hand, networks can increase voter choice by providing political education and support to candidates who might not otherwise be able to stand for election. On the other hand, I find that networks can reduce electoral choice. Through a combination of legal and illegal actions, when elders control votes biraderi networks can at best restrict electoral choice and at worst remove it entirely. Although these networks carry out the same five actions, I do find that they differ in the way that they carry out some of these actions. I ague that there are three reasons for this: differing network structures; differing network motivations; and access to different resources to influence selections and elections. I argue that networks are motivated to influence selections and elections by instrumental desires to increase their political influence and power as well as ideological motivations to support the party. I find that political parties need networks to help to campaign and deliver political education. Networks can work alongside parties to do this but they can also takeover as political parties abdicate their responsibilities, effectively becoming the party on the ground in a constituency.

Les effets de la sévère crise économique qui a suivi la crise financière en 2007-2008 s’est fait fortement ressentir sur le marché du travail. La croissance du chômage et l’insécurité de l’emploi ont considérablement influencé le pro­cessus de négociation salariale entre employeurs, employés et syndicats. Cette évolution a mis en avant la nécessité de comprendre à quel point ce processus ainsi que le rapport de force entre les parties en présence diffèrent en période de croissance et en période de ralentissement économique. A.n de répondre à cette question, la présente thèse étudie le comportement des employeurs, des employés et des syndicats lors du processus de fixation des salaires, en mettant partic­ulièrement l’accent sur l’évolution de l’interaction entre ces trois agents à travers le cycle économique. Les deux premiers chapitres de ma thèse analysent les fluc­tuations du pouvoir des syndicats à travers le cycle et relient ces fluctuations aux fluctuations des salaires. Le premier chapitre propose un cadre théorique qui associe frictions d’appariement et syndicats et démontre que les rigidités salariales proviennent de façon endogène du comportement des syndicats. Le deuxième chapitre de ma thèse teste ces prédictions empiriquement, en utilisant un panel d’industries sur la période 1987-2000 aux États-Unis. Les résultats confirment l’hypothèse que les salaires sont moins corrélés au niveau de pro­ductivité lorsqu’ils sont négociés collectivement. L’intensification des propriétés contracycliques de la part salariale est au coeur du mécanisme. Le troisième chapitre propose un modèle avec affichage des salaires qui examine l’évolution du pouvoir de monopsone des entreprises à travers le cycle économique. Les conséquences en termes de dispersion des salaires sont étudiées. Le premier chapitre de ma thèse propose un modèle dynamique du marché du travail qui associe deux caractéristiques principales : frictions d’appariement et syndicats. A.n d’étudier comment les syndicats influencent la volatilité des salaires à travers le cycle, je dissocie les deux composants de la volatilité des salaires : la volatilité du surplus total et la volatilité du pouvoir de négocia­tion effectif des syndicats. Le pouvoir de négociation effectif des syndicats est dé.ni comme la part du surplus total alloué aux travailleurs. Je prouve que ce pouvoir de négociation effectif est endogène et contracyclique, résultat qui provient directement de la fonction d’utilité des syndicats. L’intuition est la suivante. Du fait que les syndicats internalisent la relation entre le niveau des salaires et la création de postes, ils font face à un arbitrage entre le niveau des salaires et le niveau de l’emploi. Ainsi, les préférences des syndicats (donnant la priorité aux salaires ou à l’emploi) fluctuent à travers le cycle, et il en est de même du pouvoir de négociation effectif des syndicats. Il en résulte que, lorsque l’économie est touchée par un choc de productivité, la dynamique du pouvoir de négociation effectif des syndicats neutralise partiellement la dynamique du surplus total, mécanisme qui crée de la rigidité salariale. Le modèle est carac­térisé par la coexistence d’un secteur non syndiqué, dans lequel les salaires sont individuellement négociés à la Nash, avec un secteur syndiqué. En calibrant ce modèle avec des données américaines, j’obtiens qu’un choc positif entraine, au moment du choc, une compression de la prime syndicale, suivi par une aug­mentation régulière de cette prime à mesure que la proportion de travailleurs employés augmente. En corollaire, l’emploi réagit plus fortement lorsque les salaires sont négociés collectivement, mais l’effet est moins persistent. / The consequences of the sudden and severe contraction of industrial output in the aftermath of the .nancial crisis of 2007-2008 are increasingly being felt in the labor market. Rising unemployment and job insecurity has greatly in­.uenced wage bargaining interactions between firms, workers and trade unions. It pointed out the necessity to understand how di.erent were the wage-setting process and the balance of power between the main actors in good times and bad. As an answer to this issue, this dissertation investigates the wage-setting behavior of .rms, workers and trade unions, placing particular emphasis on how the interaction between these three economic agents changes over the business cycle. The two first chapters of the thesis analyze the fluctuations of the power of trade unions over the cycle, and relate these .uctuations to the .uctuations of wages. The .rst chapter proposes a theoretical framework with search and matching frictions and trade unions and shows how wage rigidity arises endoge­nously due to the behavior of unions. The second chapter tests these predictions empirically, using a panel of U.S. industries over the period 1987-2000. The re­sults confirm the predictions that wages are less correlated with productivity when collectively bargained. The intensi.cation of the countercyclicality of the labor share is at the core of the mechanism. The third chapter proposes a model with wage posting and investigates how them onopsonistic power of firmse volves along the cycle. The consequences in terms of wage dispersion are examined. The .rst chapter of the dissertation proposes a dynamic model of the labor marketwhichintegratestwomainfeatures: matchingfrictionsandtradeunions. To examine how trade unions shape the volatility of wages over the business cycle, I decompose the volatility of wages into two components: the volatil­ity of the match surplus and the volatility of the e.ective bargaining power. Formally, I de.ne the e.ective bargaining power of the union as the share of the total surplus allocated to the workers. Starting from the union’s objective function, I prove that its e.ective bargaining power is endogenous and coun­tercyclical. Intuitively, because the union internalizes the relationship between the wage level and the job creation, it faces a trade-o. between the wage rate and the employment rate. Therefore, the union’s preferences (wage-oriented or employment-oriented) fluctuate along the cycle and so does its effective bargain­ing power. As a result, when the economy is hit by a productivity shock, the dynamics of the union’s effective bargaining power partially counteract the dy­namics of the total surplus and this mechanism delivers wage rigidity. I specify a model in which a non unionized sector, where wages are negotiated through a standard individual Nash bargaining, coexists with a unionized sector. In the model calibrated with U.S. data, I .nd that a positive productivity shock leads, on impact, to a compression of the union wage premium, followed by a steady increase of this premium as the proportion of employed workers in the trade unions increases. Relatedly, employment reacts stronger when wages are collectively bargained, but its pattern features less persistence.

O protagonismo social de camponeses e indígenas na Bolívia é comumente associado à particular composição étnico-cultural da população do país vizinho. O exame do katarismo - nome herdado do índio insurgente Tupac Katari, que liderou rebelião contra os colonizadores espanhóis no final do século XVIII -, especialmente em sua fase inicial (1969 a 1985), permite uma compreensão mais ampla e complexa do processo de formação, mudança e consolidação da classe trabalhadora boliviana. Antes disso, o trabalhador era representado pela figura do operário mineiro. A partir do surgimento de corrente político-ideológica de valorização étnico-cultural nos grandes centros urbanos e do fortalecimento de novas lideranças do sindicalismo no campo (como Jenaro Flores e Raimundo Tambo), os camponeses-indígenas se consolidam, em um intervalo de aproximadamente 15 anos, como os principais atores sociais das classes populares na Bolívia e reforçam o seu papel no que se refere à organização da sociedade. Ao assumir a problematização da dialética entre os rasgos tradicionais (ou pré-modernos) e as características tipicamente modernas que compõem o movimento, são enfocados os elementos de classe, de um lado, e os antecedentes mais ligados à etnia, de outro. A obra de E. P. Thompson acerca da centralidade das classes sociais é utilizada como referência, juntamente com contribuições de outros autores como Marx, Fernandes, Stavenhagen, Wood e Sewell, para ajudar a decifrar essa combinação entre mobilizações de cunho tradicional e aspectos ligados à modernidade, com especial destaque para a opção katarista pela disputa institucional dentro da estrutura sindical. Nesse sentido, fatores subjetivos (como a teoria dos dois olhos) se imiscuem com a concretude do racismo e do paternalismo, em meio a choques e influências decorrentes da relação com outras correntes de pensamento. Além da questão territorial, também são abordadas as práticas do cotidiano como a atuação das igrejas, o futebol, a rádio e o comércio popular com significados próprios dos povos originários. A análise da formação do katarismo permite um olhar privilegiado de como as estruturais por trás da classe social moderna ideal podem se articular com costumes, tradições e valores étnico-culturais reais dentro de um complexo contexto de país subdesenvolvido. / The social prominence of peasants-indigenous people in Bolivia is trivially associated with a \"special\" ethnic and cultural composition of country\'s population. Through the analysis of katarist movement, on behalf of Tupac Katari (aymara leader who headed a mass rebellion against Spanish colonial administration in 1781), it\'s possible to stress the making of \"working class\" with all wide changes and/or continuities. Until the emergence of Katarism, workers are almost synonymous with miners. After the organization of urban groups promoting the ethnic and cultural values and cosmology and the rising of new leadership in agrarian unions (like Jenaro Flores and Raimundo Tambo) in the end of 1960\'s, the peasant-indigenous sector become a strong social and political agent, taking a crucial role for whole working class and society\'s organization, in a just few 15 years. Traditional (or pre-modern) customs and heritages coexist with modern logics and patterns in the core of katarist movement. Putting the class in central position - as E. P. Thompson does, adding contributions from Marx, Fernandes, Stavenhagen, Wood and Sewell -, this dissertation assumes the challenge of tracking this combination of traditional mobilizations and subjects around modernity. In this effort, it\'s important to point that the katarist leaders have been chosen an \"institutional\" path (within the official agrarian union schemes) to put their demands and proposals. Subjective factors (the aymara \"theory of two eyes\", one more indigenous e another more peasant, bounded in a class structure) are mixed with racism and paternalism. Notable shocks and influences come from outside the movement as well. Beyond the territorial issue, there were little parts of Katarism in everyday\'s practices involving foreign churches, soccer, radio shows and popular commerce (that curiously reveals ancient peoples beliefs in street fairs,, not just monetary and goods exchange). Katarist movement show in a sense how \"unreal\" can be the ideal and \"pure\" theories about the social class and how \"real\", different and apparently controversial elements of class and culture are acting together to change Bolivian society.

A abertura econômica vivenciada pelo Brasil com a implementação de medidas liberalizantes nas décadas de 1980 e 1990 e a intensa expansão da economia nacional, nos anos 2000, inseriram o país em um cenário global jamais vivenciado. Em termos nacionais, tanto o setor de telecomunicações como o metalúrgico experimentaram processos de reestruturação com o ingresso de empresas transnacionais e a proliferação de empresas brasileiras atuando no exterior. Para os sindicatos, intensificavam-se desafios em uma arena que extrapolava os limites nacionais. A partir desse cenário, este estudo analisou a internacionalização de organizações sindicais brasileiras e suas lideranças desde os anos 1980 até os 2000. De um lado o foco reside, inicialmente, no Sindicato dos Metalúrgicos do ABC, mas se amplia à Confederação Nacional dos Metalúrgicos e à Central Única dos Trabalhadores. Do outro, centra-se no Sindicato dos Trabalhadores em Telecomunicações de São Paulo, filiado à Força Sindical. Constatou-se que a entrada destas organizações na arena global desenvolveu-se em diferentes ritmos e características, na passagem de uma etapa em que, nos anos 1980, consumiam relações internacionais para outra, nos anos 2000, em que passaram a ter um papel mais ativo, protagônico. Enquanto que para os metalúrgicos este processo é orgânico e paulatino, para as telecomunicações intensificou-se como reação às privatizações. Para ambos, observam-se mudanças em referenciais que estavam voltados à esfera nacional, ampliam-se os percursos possíveis para as carreiras sindicais e a divisão do trabalho sindical por meio de um processo que reforça uma seleção social, a qual se constitui de forma coletiva e individual. / In Brazil, the economic opening experienced with the implementation of liberalization measures in the 1980s and 1990s and the intense expansion of the national economy in the 2000s, brought the country into a global setting never previously experienced. Both the Brazilian telecommunications and the metalworking sectors have gone through re-structuring, the entry of transnational corporations and the proliferation of national companies operating abroad. For the trade unions, challenges have intensified beyond national boundaries. On that basis, this study has analyzed the internationalization of Brazilian trade unions and their leaders from the 1980s until 2000s. On one hand, the focus is initially on the ABC Metalworkers\' Trade Union (SMABC), but is extended to the Brazilian National Confederation of Metalworkers (CNM) and the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT). On the other, it focuses on the Telecommunications Workers Union of São Paulo (SINTETEL), affiliated to Força Sindical (FS). It was found that their entry into the global arena was developed at differing speeds and with different characteristics, in a transition from a stage where, in 1980s, they consumed international relations, to another, in the 2000s, in which they have a more active and protagonistic role. While for the metalworkers this process was organic and gradual, for the telecommunication sector it became intensified as a reaction to the process of privatization. In both cases, changes to the references that were once related to a national sphere were observed, as well as the widening career paths available to trade unionists. Also, trade unions division of labor widened as a result of a process that reinforced a social selection constituted both collectively and individually.

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo o estudo da importância da participação das trabalhadoras nas organizações sindicais de trabalhadores como forma de luta contra a desigualdade em razão de gênero no mercado de trabalho. Há um número expressivo de normas jurídicas aplicáveis no ordenamento jurídico brasileiro com o objetivo de combate à desigualdade em razão de gênero, com um enfoque repressivo. No entanto, as consequências nefastas da divisão sexual do trabalho persistem, perpetuando os papéis estereotipados de gênero. É imprescindível, portanto, não apenas a proteção contra a discriminação negativa, mas também a garantia de acesso da mulher ao mercado de trabalho, por meio de medidas de discriminação positiva. Nesse sentido, a atuação das mulheres nas organizações sindicais de trabalhadores é uma das principais formas de garantia desse acesso, já que possibilita o empoderamento das mulheres, proporcionando maior possibilidade, por parte dessas mulheres trabalhadoras, de exercer poder e cidadania no espaço público em que é construída a democracia, bem como uma maior legitimidade das normas jurídicas convencionais no tocante à igualdade em gênero, diante da função normativa dos sindicatos. Essa participação nas atividades sindicais, no entanto, é eivada de uma série de dificuldades e, para que elas sejam sobrepujadas, é necessário que a participação das mulheres nas organizações sindicais aumente, não apenas com uma maior presença das mulheres nessas organizações, como também, com uma maior capacidade de tomada de decisão dentro dessas organizações, mediante o aumento das mulheres nos órgãos deliberativos das organizações sindicais de trabalhadores. Para que isso ocorra, são necessárias medidas de discriminação positiva para combater as dificuldades existentes para a participação das mulheres nas organizações sindicais de trabalhadores. / This work aims to study the importance of women workers participation in trade unions as a way to combat gender inequality in the labor market. There are a significant number of legal rules applicable in Brazilian legal system in order to combat gender inequality, with a repressive approach. However, the negative consequences of sexual division of labor persist, perpetuating stereotypical gender roles. It is imperative, therefore, not only the guarantee of protection against negative discrimination, but also to guarantee women\'s access to the labor market, through affirmative actions. In this sense, womens workers participation in trade unions activities is a major way to ensure this access, as it enables women\'s empowerment, providing greater possibility for women to exercise power and citizenship in the public sphere in which democracy is constructed, and greater legal legitimacy of conventional norms regarding gender equality, given the normative role of unions. This participation in union activities, however, is fraught with a number of difficulties. To overcome these difficulties, it is necessary that womens participation in trade union organizations increases, not only with a greater presence of women in these organizations, but also with a greater capacity for decision making process, through the increase of women in decision-making bodies of trade unions. For that, it´s necessary the implementation of affirmative actions to combat the difficulties in women\'s participation in trade unions.

This thesis examines the moderating role of trade union representation in addressing the gap in employer-provided training between permanent workers and workers with fixed-term contracts (FTCs) from a cross-country, comparative perspective. The impact of trade union representation is measured on two different levels: (1) access to trade union representation at the workplace at the individual-level (2) average trade union representation at the country-level, measured as trade union power. The statistical analyses are performed using data from the 2015 European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) and multilevel modelling. Our result suggests that, across the European countries, workers with FTCs receive less employer-paid training than permanent workers. Regarding the impact of trade union representation, statistically significant result is found only at the individual-level, where access to trade union representation increases employer-paid training regardless of employment contract. For the interaction between access to trade union representation at the individual-level and FTC, no significant relationship is found. However, the models with the cross-level interaction between trade union power and FTC indicate that employer-paid training increases for permanent workers only. Our findings suggest that trade union representation at the workplace could operate as an equalizer between permanent workers and FTC workers, while at the country-level, their lobbying effect is beneficial for permanent workers only

From the early 1980s, Western governments, led mainly by those in the United Kingdom, have pursued public choice ideas in managing their public sectors, often targeting the monopoly position of public sectors in delivering public goods and services and also the influence and position of public sector trade unions. This policy approach also underpinned the reforms to local government in Victoria, Australia that occurred between 1992 and 1999. The Victorian State Government pursued an agenda of reform aimed at reducing costs in local government, reducing the size and scope of local government in delivering public goods and services and also seeking to reduce the perceived high level of influence of trade unions. On the basis of a literature review of the experiences of public sector reform in the United Kingdom during the 1980s, this study sought to test two propositions about public sector reform agendas and trade unions, using the Victorian local government reform as the primary research context. This was an important research gap since trade unions were a major target of the reform agenda and little research information existed as to how the reform agenda impacted on local government trade unions. Although the Victorian State Government did not possess direct legislative power over trade union behaviour, a reform agenda similar to that imposed by the governments in the United Kingdom, could inflict negative outcomes through the consequential changes resulting from competition in the delivery of local council services. The first proposition was that public sector reform agendas underpinned by public choice ideas sought to inculcate competitive practices in the provision of local government services and consequently reduce trade union influence and position in local government. The second proposition was that the level of success achieved by governments on these dual objectives was determined in part by the responses taken by trade unions to the reform agenda and on the extent to which local councils adopted a competitive culture.Five major research questions and a number of sub-questions were developed from the literature to test these two research propositions. In addition, models of effects on trade unions arising from public sector reform and on trade union responses were developed. The models were important for visually showing the areas of impact on trade unions and the level of impact caused by the reform and to identify the options available and responses undertaken by trade unions during this period. An analytical framework was also established and served as a template for organising and recording findings in this study. The analytical framework served to show the main causal links between the reform agenda and outcomes for trade unions. The study adopted features of both positivist and interpretive methodological approaches to address these research questions. A positivist approach was applied in the development of research protocols to ensure researcher independence. In addition, the information collected was matched to the models of union behaviour and to the relevant elements in the analytical framework. The study also adopted features of an interpretive approach in respect of using small samples and in gathering data through interviews with key informants from three case study organisations, one trade union and two local councils.The information collected on the research questions enabled conclusions to be reached on the two research propositions. The findings supported the first proposition and confirmed previous research studies in the United Kingdom that showed how governments are able to target trade unions in indirect ways through the consequences of the promotion of competition in the delivery of local government goods and services. The study identified the negative effects arising for Victorian local government trade unions in areas of access and influence on government policy decision making, membership levels, bargaining outcomes and relations within and between trade unions. The findings gathered in this study also supported the second research proposition. The level of success by the Victorian State Government in achieving local government reform objectives was in part limited by the responses taken by trade unions and also by the extent to which local councils adopted competitive practices. These findings have contributed important insights into local government reform and trade unions, which had not previously been addressed by researchers. The study has also contributed models of union behaviour and an analytical framework for addressing contemporary public policy issues and trade unions. The amalgamation of local councils planned by the Queensland State Government provides a similar research context in which to further test the usefulness of the models of union behaviour and the analytical framework. In addition, the return of the Australian Labor Party to Federal Government, and their aim of dismantling the previous Liberal-National Party’s WorkChoices industrial relations legislation, provides a context for testing these models and framework under conditions where more direct legislative changes affecting union rights to organise and bargain are pursued.

The communication of information between employers and employees is gaining increased attention in the theory and practice of industrial relations. The views of trade unions on aspects of information communication have been neglected despite the ability of trade unions to affect the success or failure of attempts by employers to communicate with their employees. The purpose of this research report is to establish some tentative conclusions as to trade union views on information communication in general, and the more specific method of communication involving employee reports. Findings of the report are based on data collected by means of a mall questionnaire survey involving all unions affiliated with the Labor Council of New South Wales in May, 1979. Analysis is performed manually using non parametric tests in accord with the nominal characteristic of the data. The most significant finding of the report is that the majority of trade unions are in favour of employers issuing employee reports. This view is not affected by the size of the unions, the public sector concentration of the unions, nor the political ideology of the unions. Trade unions also believe that the most important information for inclusion in employee reports is safety and health information, closely followed by future employment levels and prospects, pay and conditions, and balance sheets.