Trade Unions of the World

Abstract

REPORT ❐ NEW REFERENCE BOOK FOR THE GLOBAL LABOUR MOVEMENT in a country-by-country guide. The Seventh Edition will be a valuable resource with specific appeal to trade unionists, academics , lawyers, and policy makers, and to students and specialists in the fields of: corporate social responsibility; industrial relations; human resource management; and international relations . Trade Unions of the World is the essential guide to central trade union confederations of each country and the varied social, political and economic contexts they inhabit. Each entry includes an overview of the history and development of trade unionism locally and an outline of the political and economic circumstances within which it operates. A wide range of data is provided on the history, structure, membership and political and industrial role of the unions, with a level of detail in each case broadly corresponding to the scale and level of economic and industrial development of the country concerned. A final section profiles the key actors at global and regional levels , including the International Trade Union Confederation and the Global Union Federations. Where available, each report provides: ■ Political and economic background ■ Population and GDP ■ Overview of trade unionism locally ■ Postal, email and website addresses ■ Leadership details ■ Membership levels ■ History and character ■ National and international affiliations The new 2016 edition will prove an indispensable tool for understanding the current state of labour in the globalised economy, broken down into a country-by-country guide. Accessibly written and with a directory format, the book provides a contemporary snapshot of the legal and social structures of trade unionism, as well as a detailed history of the political and economic developments which produced these structures. Each country chapter contains a list of national trade union centres and all major trade union organisations (normally those with a membership of over 10,000 in the large industrialised nations, but much smaller thresholds are applied for smaller and non-industrialised countries). Each entry looks at the background of the most significant union organisations and discusses the roles they have played in social and political struggles. Pre-release advance orders TUW will retail at £145 per copy. For a limited time we are offering ICTUR affiliates the opportunity to place pre-release advance orders at Trade Unions of the World Trade Unions of the World - the comprehensive global reference directory of the world trade union movement returns in its Seventh Edition after a break of 10 years INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 16 Volume 22 Issue 4 2015 N ow well established as the objective and comprehensive global reference directory of the world trade union movement, Trade Unions of the World returns in its Seventh Edition after a break of 10 years. Vast geo-political changes have taken place in this time within the global union movement. Two global union centres have merged, with the ICFTU and WCL not only marrying their own networks of affiliation, but also encouraging others into the fold. A new entity, the Council of Global Unions, was formed. Meanwhile the remaining international confederation WFTU continued to tread its own path and significantly increased its activities following a relocation to Greece. Across North Africa and the Middle East the Arab Spring had major implications for trade unionism in the region. In South Africa the mass shooting of striking mine workers shocked the world and exposed bitter divisions in labour’s ranks. In the US the Change to Win federation broke away from the AFL-CIO. The Chinese ACFTU reported phenomenal membership growth while outside the union’s control an explosion of wildcat strike activity was reported. Across Europe models of austerity were declared and long-cherished national and sectoral bargaining models were torn apart. The Seventh Edition updates the highly-rated Sixth Edition (published in 2005, and co-edited by ICTUR working with the title’s founder John Harper of John Harper Publishing). The new Edition is now produced and published by ICTUR. As well as updating each country profile we have radically expanded the book to provide much more detail for each country. This work will help to raise awareness about the contribution of unions to broader social and political movements, by disseminating these experiences and linking historical and current struggles...