No / This article examines recent organising successes in the Carbones del Cerrejón coal mine, reversing the organisational crisis of the Colombian mining union, Sintracarbon. Using Wever's concept of ‘field-enlarging strategies’, we argue that these events were facilitated by the dissemination of organising experiences between affiliates of a Global Union Federation, International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which recently merged to form IndustriALL. Additionally, we argue that this articulation between international and national unions, based on the principle of subsidiarity, was facilitated through sustained ICEM educational project activity, providing multiple entry points for Sintracarbon to operationalise its strategy and re-establish bargaining with multinational employers.

En transférant aux pouvoirs publics la capacité de décider l'emploi de la Participation des employeurs à l'effort de construction (PEEC), la loi de mobilisation pour le logement et la lutte contre l'exclusion du 25 mars 2009 a transformé en profondeur l'organisation du 1 % logement. L'objet de la recherche est de mettre en lumière les facteurs à l'origine d'une telle inflexion. Pour cela, l'analyse s'efforce d'explorer le passé de l'institution afin d'en extraire les éléments à même d'éclairer cet épisode récent. Elle montre que les mécanismes à l'origine de la transformation du 1 % logement – processus ancien et graduel dont la réforme de 2009 constitue la dernière manifestation en date – alimentent deux dynamiques qui influent historiquement sur la forme du gouvernement et la production des règles relatives à l'emploi des fonds du 1 % logement. La dégradation de la légitimité de l'institution, conséquence de l'impuissance des syndicats à développer une capacité de représentation dans le secteur du logement, entraîne une remise en cause de la présence des acteurs paritaires à la tête de l'institution. L'émergence au sein de l'Etat d'une volonté de reprendre en main le dispositif, effet indirect du tournant opéré pendant les années 1980 dans la conduite de l'action publique, se traduit par le transfert sur le 1 % logement d'une part croissante du coût de la politique du logement en substitution au budget de l'Etat. Dans un contexte marqué par la crise du syndicalisme et le renforcement de la contrainte budgétaire, la permanence de ces deux processus interroge aujourd'hui sur la capacité du 1 % logement à conserver un espace d'intervention dans la politique du logement / By transferring to public authorities the capacity to decide on the employment(use) of the Participation of the employers in the effort of construction ( PEEC), the law of mobilization for the accommodation(housing) and the fight against social exclusion of March 25th, 2009 transformed in depth the organization of the housing 1 %. The object of the search(research) is to bring to light factors(mailmen) at the origin of such an inflection

This thesis is a case study about the choices and constraints faced by women clerical workers in a labour market where they have very little autonomy in negotiating their pay and conditions of employment. On the one hand, clerical work has developed as a feminised occupation with a history of being low in status and low paid. On the other hand, it is an ideal occupation for women wanting to combine work and family across their life cycle. How these two phenomena impact upon women clerical workers ability to negotiate enterprise agreements is the subject of this thesis. From a theoretical perspective this thesis builds upon Catherine Hakim�s preference theory which explores the choices women clerical workers� make in relation to their work and family lives. Where Hakim�s preference theory focuses on the way in which women use their agency to determine their work and life style choices, this thesis gives equal weighting to the impact of agency and the constraints imposed by external structures such as the availability of part-time work and childcare, as well as the impact of organisational culture. The research data presented was based on face-to-face interviews with forty female clerical workers. The clerical workers ranged in age from 21 to 59 years of age. The respondents were made up of single or partnered women without family responsibilities, women juggling work and family, and women who no longer had dependent children and were approaching retirement. This thesis contends that these clerical workers are ill placed to optimise their conditions of employment under the new industrial regime of enterprise bargaining and individual contracts. Very few of the women were union members and generally they were uninformed about their rights and entitlements.

In the 1960s, a large number of World Councils were founded in a number of industrial branches. One of the most recognized World Councils was established in the multinational glass manufacturer Compagnie de Saint-Gobain in 1969, in connection to an international trade union action against the company. The purpose of this study is to investigate and understand the origin and character of this World Council and international action. The study places great emphasis on the American participation in the Saint-Gobain World Council and the international action, but explores, in addition, the work and function of the World Council, the international action’s outcome in terms of wages and working conditions, the so-called vertical implementation of the trade union action, i.e. the integration of several trade union-organizational levels in a single action, as well as the wider contexts beyond the purely economic to which the World Council and the action can be linked. An essential point of departure is retrieved from the historical materialist tradition in order to understand the conflicts of interests and the ability to realize interests on the labor market, in the production, and within politics. An in-depth discussion on the structuring of overt conflicts and international trade union actions is undertaken based on four specific theories that are based on the assumption that trade unions and employers are rational actors. The survey consists of three main parts. The first empirical section identifies the action itself—its parties, origins, course of events, and aftermath. The second empirical section interprets the parties’ perspectives and interests in the long run. The third, and final empirical section examines the structural conditions in the United States for conflictual sentiments and international action. The study provides new perspectives on the structural background to the American union’s mobilization and international strategies. It also helps to explain why the World Councils were short-lived and, in the end, did not meet the high expectations placed on them. At the same time, the study displays the main achievements and shortcomings of the international campaign against Saint-Gobain and the postwar political context to which the action can be linked.

This thesis is a case study about the choices and constraints faced by women clerical workers in a labour market where they have very little autonomy in negotiating their pay and conditions of employment. On the one hand, clerical work has developed as a feminised occupation with a history of being low in status and low paid. On the other hand, it is an ideal occupation for women wanting to combine work and family across their life cycle. How these two phenomena impact upon women clerical workers ability to negotiate enterprise agreements is the subject of this thesis. From a theoretical perspective this thesis builds upon Catherine Hakim�s preference theory which explores the choices women clerical workers� make in relation to their work and family lives. Where Hakim�s preference theory focuses on the way in which women use their agency to determine their work and life style choices, this thesis gives equal weighting to the impact of agency and the constraints imposed by external structures such as the availability of part-time work and childcare, as well as the impact of organisational culture. The research data presented was based on face-to-face interviews with forty female clerical workers. The clerical workers ranged in age from 21 to 59 years of age. The respondents were made up of single or partnered women without family responsibilities, women juggling work and family, and women who no longer had dependent children and were approaching retirement. This thesis contends that these clerical workers are ill placed to optimise their conditions of employment under the new industrial regime of enterprise bargaining and individual contracts. Very few of the women were union members and generally they were uninformed about their rights and entitlements.