The Future of Unions and Worker Representation: The Digital Picket Line

Abstract

The Future of Unions and Worker Representation, written by Professor Anthony Forsyth, thoroughly examines four countries and industrial relations systems—Australia, the UK, the USA, and Italy—to assess and contrast their similarities and differences. The choice of these systems is not accidental. The author compares three industrial relations systems that are rooted in the common law and currently share a very fragmented collective bargaining structure with that of a civil law-based system that, despite recent attempts at decentralization, still maintains a more centralized structure. The interest of Anglophone scholars towards industrialized non-English speaking countries is relatively uncommon, making this element of the study original and valuable in itself in recent labour and industrial relations scholarship. In the book, Professor Forsyth offers a detailed and insightful description of the trends and developments in unionization and labour regulation in all four countries. His comparative analysis shows a deep understanding of the structures of their systems, their recent historical evolution, and the challenges they currently face, both shared and unique.