Affiliated Unions Research Articles

Mobilizing Restraint: Economic Reform and the Politics of Industrial Protest in South Asia

The study draws on evidence from South Asia to explore how union partisan ties condition industrial protest in the context of rapid economic change. It argues that unions controlled by major political parties respond to the economic challenges of the postreform period by facilitating institutionalized grievance resolution and encouraging restraint in the collective bargaining arena. By contrast, politically independent unions and those controlled by small parties are more likely to ratchet up militancy and engage in extreme or violent forms of protest. The difference between the protest behavior of major party unions and other types of unions is explained by the fact that major political parties are encompassing organizations that internalize the externalities associated with the protest of their affiliated unions. Using original survey data from four regions in South Asia, the study shows that party encompassment is a better predictor of worker protest than other features of the affiliated party or the union, including whether the party is in or out of power, the ideological orientation of the party, or the degree of union encompassment. The analysis has implications for the policy debate over whether successful economic reform is contingent upon the political exclusion or repression of organized labor.

New Labour and the Trade Unions in Britain

This article examines the relationship between the British Labour Party and its affiliated trade unions under the Blair government. It shows that the party–union link in Britain, contrary to expectations, was not characterized by further institutional de‐linkage under Blair. The article explains why, using a political exchange model focusing on the unions’ supply of votes and finance in return for policy concessions. It is shown that the capacity to enforce deals is paramount in political exchange, but that the unions’ two major enforcement mechanisms – intra‐party and industrial power – were both diminished. In the absence of enforceable deals, exchange models predict the undersupply of resources, which happened as the unions withdrew funds. Once Labour’s continued reliance on union money became evident, the party offered a comprehensive policy bargain – the Warwick agreement – to guarantee union donations. The agreement, with its institutional innovations, entailed the partial re‐institutionalization of political exchange (‘re‐linkage’), with the possibility of further funding cuts if the party reneged on the deal. At present, only comprehensive state funding for parties could threaten the link.

“Pulled Apart, Pushed Together”

This is a study of horizontal and vertical solidarity within a national labour movement, based on a nationwide survey of members of affiliated unions of the Congress of South African Trade Unions. On the one hand, the survey reveals relatively high levels of vertical and horizontal solidarity, despite the persistence of some cleavages on gender and racial lines. On the other hand, the maintenance and deepening of existing horizontal and vertical linkages in a rapidly changing socio-economic context, represents one of many challenges facing organized labour in an industrializing economy. COSATU’s strength is contingent not only on an effective organizational capacity, and a supportive network linking key actors and interest groupings, but also on the ability to meet the concerns of existing constituencies and those assigned to highly marginalized categories of labour.

Labor Divided

In October 1973, delegates from the 113 affiliated unions of the AFL-CIO made their way to Miami Beach for the federation's quadrennial convention. Like a strange flock of migratory birds, the glaziers, the engravers, the boilermakers, and all the subspecies of American labor returned to the Florida shores they'd grown to know so well in the Age of Meany. But that fall, as the delegates headed south, their travels were disturbed by a blistering op-ed in the Washington Post entitled, "Labor's Battle with Itself." The piece had been written by Jerry Wurf, the much-aggrieved president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. During the 1950s and 1960s, AFSCME had helped shore up the house of labor by organizing hundreds of thousands of public employees, a group other unions had long neglected. But after seeing Wurf's union grow from a small band of Wisconsin state workers into one of the AFL-CIO's largest affiliates, the rest of labor honored the achievement by shamelessly invading AFSCME's public-sector turf and stealing thousands of government workers.

The Political Representation of the Labour Interest in Britain

AbstractThis article analyses the condition of the labour alliance of the Labour Party and its affiliated unions in the light of a recent typology of union–party links, and of Lewis Minkin's seminal study of the British union–party link. We conclude that, while the link appeared to have stabilized before the general election in 2001, it has become much more volatile since, although the new group of more left‐wing leaders of major unions remains determined to reassert the union position inside the party rather than radically change the union–Labour relationship.

Is the future of unionism in cyberspace?

V. Conclusions Cyber technology has been proposed as the panacea for the troubled Old Unionism, the expansion of the New Unionism, and to promote the political power of the Labor Movement. In furtherance of those objectives, the AFL-CIO created a web site on December 1, 2000, workingfamilies.com. The site is intended to provide 17 million union members and retirees access to the Internet; the Federation also offers them computers at low cost. The AFL-CIO’s web is intended to link the union’s members to each other, offer discussion forums, chat rooms, and e-mail networks which will allow workers to talk to each other regularly and mobilize their workplaces and communities for causes endorsed by the Federation (World Future Society, February, 2000). The new service is an extension of the Union Privilege Benefit Programs set up by the Federation during the 1980s as a way of reversing the unions’ faltering membership. Those programs include reduced attorney fees, lower cost life and accident insurance, participation in a motor-club, car-repair, and travel-club services, a Walt Disney World Hotel Discount, a parents’ college advisor, reduced cost for educational books and software, mortgage and real estate advice, and a dental program. The original package was offered to nonmembers for a small fee who become "associate members." It was hoped that the associate participants would become full members. A number of affiliated unions adopted similar programs. In 1995, the Federation added a credit card issued by Household International and for which it received $75 million each year for five years ending in 2000. The card has no annual fee and low monthly interest charges. How the Federation spent these sums is unknown.

Labor and the democratic party: A report on the 1998 elections

The nature of the relationship between organized labor and the Democratic party — still much debated among scholars —can be usefully examined through an analysis of the role of unions in the 1998 congressional elections. Evidence drawn from a wide range of sources shows that the AFL- CIO and its affiliated unions devoted considerable financial and organizational resources to mobilizing union members and allied con-stituencies to vote for Democratic candidates. Combined with the unions' direct finan-cial contributions to campaigns, this activity made unions important players in the elections and helped project an image of potency and effectiveness in the news media and among politicians. As a result, the labor/Democrat alliance remained stronger than one would expect on the basis of union density figures alone.

The British merger movement: the importance of the ‘aggressive’ unions

Union mergers in Britain are dominated numerically by transfers of engagements from minor unions to major unions. Just five major or acquiring unions were responsible for absorbing 79% of all transfers to TUC affiliated unions between 1978 and 1994. This study establishes the extent of this domination, examines the characteristics of the five unions’ aggressive merger policies and considers the consequences of the findings for theories of union mergers.

Union views of managerial prerogatives revisited: The prospects for labor-management cooperation

Using data from a survey of AFL-CIO affiliated unions, I compare union views of managerial prerogatives in 1997 with those reported in a 1968 study. Unions today desire more input into the firm's decision-making process than in 1968, particularly with regard to issues traditionally reserved to management. Given management's traditional resistance to “outside” interference, more cooperative relationships between unions and managment may be problematic.

The Effect of International Unions on Wage Determination in Canada

This article uses collective bargaining agreement wage data spanning 1964–92 to analyse the effect of international unions on wage determination in Canadian manufacturing. Real wage levels for international unions relative to domestic unions are estimated to decline from approximately 4 per cent higher in the 1960s to 4 per cent lower in the 1990s. International unions are also found to be more responsive to US economic conditions. Finally, affiliation with different union federations is a significant determinant of real wage outcomes with AFL–CIO affiliated unions having lower real wages, on average.

Centrais sindicais e atitudes democráticas

Mediante a análise de um survey realizado em São Paulo os autores examinam a representatividade das centrais sindicais perante os membros de sindicatos filiados. O foco da análise é dado pela questão da capacidade das centrais sindicais de efetivamente atingir suas bases e de converter seus discursos e suas práticas em fatores de constituição de identidades nos planos sindical e político. A resposta inicial é positiva: esse poder existe. A análise mais detida demonstra diferenças significativas entre as centrais sindicais, tanto no que diz respeito às atitudes e práticas políticas dos integrantes de sindicatos filiados quanto no tocante às atitudes e práticas sindicais.

Trade Union Congress Policy towards union mergers: a statistical analysis, 1960-83

This letter extends Elgar and Simpson's (1994) analysis on the working of the Bridlington Principles to the analysis of the working of TUC voluntary policy with respect to mergers among affiliated unions over the period 1960–83. Univariate analysis is applied to microdata to investigate the effectiveness of voluntary policy on mergers with respect both to the implementation and to the achievement of the underlying objectives of the policy. The results of the tests clearly show the achievement of the implementation of the policy in terms of when and how mergers occurred and the achievement of the policy objective of rationalizing the structure of affiliated unions; the results of the tests about the achievement of the policy objective of reducing competition for membership among affiliated unions are less conclusive. The results of our analysis on mergers broadly confirm Edgar and Simpson's results about the effectiveness of TUC voluntary policies.

U.S. backs down on plan for rejoining UNESCO

Ever since Bill Clinton was elected President, the Administration has been promising to rejoin the United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Now—perhaps to preempt congressional opposition from Republicans—the Administration has backed down. The State Department included $65 million for UNESCO membership in its fiscal 1996 budget request last fall to the White House Office of Management & Budget. But OMB apparently has now deleted this sum from the budget scheduled to be sent to Congress. UNESCO was founded in 1946 to further world peace and security by promoting cooperation in education, science, and culture. UNESCO gives substantial financial support to activities of the world body of science, the International Council of Scientific Unions, and its affiliated unions in chemistry and other fields. The U.S. left UNESCO in 1984, charging it was mismanaged, its budget was growing too fast, and its programs were politically biased. Since then, Spanish biochemist Frederico Mayor...

Union or commonwealth? The balance of power and the organisational structure debate in the Dutch Federation of trade unions

The stalemate that persists within the Dutch Federation of Trade Unions (FNV) concerning organisational restructuring is analysed from an interorganisational perspective. Data on power resources of the affiliated unions show that three large unions dominate decision making. Decreasing power of the federal organisation, bilateral arrangements and, possibly, amalgamations are expected.

The Union of the Future and the Future of Unions

Reports the results of a repeat survey on the financial performance and management of TUC affiliated unions. Data are available for 1989 and 1993, covering income, expenditure, the management of investments and wealth. Unions remain in a precarious financial position, dependent on subscription revenue and, moreover, on the threatened check‐off mechanism to deliver it. The management of expenditure remains a critical issue, since the net worth of many unions remains small. Financial management is becoming more important and more sophisticated. Unions continue to centralize resource management, but many of these changes remain constrained by the political nature of financial management within voluntary organizations.

Parliamentary and Extra-Parliamentary Labor: New South Wales 1941 to 1965

Although Labor in N.S.W. had shown itself quite successful at winning elections, one of the main reasons the Party failed to entrench itself in office before 1941 was internal conflict: both within the Parliamentary Party and between the Parliamentary and extra-Parliamentary Party. It is the purpose of this article to examine how relations in these two areas were handled during Labor's 24 years of government from 1941 to 1965 and, if there was a significant improvement, to look at the reasons why. The theoretical model of Labor's structure (or the 'Labor myth' as L. F. Crisp has put it)1 in brief outline goes something like this: the branches of the Party and the affiliated unions (numerically the dominant group) make up the Party Conference. The Conference is the supreme body in the Party structure and the annual Conferences determine the Party's policy. The Conference also elects the Executive as its delegate to oversee the running of the Party between Conferences. The Parliamentary Labor Party's function is to implement the policy of the movement as determined by Conference. Some discretion, however, is allowed to the Parliamentarians as to the timing of implementation of policy. A further means of ensuring the sovereignty of the rank and file is the Caucus. This body elects the leader and ministers and should approve all major decisions of a Labor Government.

The Actu Congress of 1991

The biennial congress opened on Monday, 9 September, in Melbourne's cavernous World Congress Centre. As at the preceding congress,1 precisely 100 affiliated unions were represented at the opening session. In 1989 this initial figure, the product of an airline dispute, subsequently shot up to 120. In 1991, however, it rose no higher than 105;2 and the low attendance (by the standard of 1987, for example, when 142 unions were represented) was the outcome, not of some short-term contingency, but of the swelling sea change in the structure of Australian trade unionism which began with the reorganisation policy adopted by the 1989 congress.3 It was widely expected that a reworked version of this policy would spark the most heated debate of the congress; and so it did. But reorganization was not the only major source of tension in a congress with a distinctly defensive air about it. There was, above all, the deepening economic recession, with its soaring unemployment rates. To make matters worse, the Accord with the Hawke Labour government had been effectively suspended, owing to the refusal of the Industrial Relations Commission to endorse key elements; and the government's electoral fortunes, exacerbated by an unresolved leadership struggle and the rising confidence of a federal Opposition headed by J. Hewson, were in serious decline. The congress was marked by some noteworthy 'firsts'. It was the first at which a woman was elected to a full-time executive position; the first to be addressed by a private employer; the first to hear a speech from a non-Labour parliamentarian; and it was probably the first to open and end in song. There were also a number of notable retirements in particular those of L. Carmichael (ACTU assistant secretary) and J. Maynes (Federated Clerks) who, from opposite ends of the political spectrum, had played leading roles in the factional battles of a generation, and were effectively (in ACTU terms) the last of the old Cold War warriors. Appropriately, they not only retired together but did so in the year that the Soviet Union disintegrated. Equally appropriate in its timing, but more evidently remarkable in its implications for trade union politics, was the utter absence in this congress of open conflict that could be described in traditional, left and right, factional terms.

The decollectivisation of trade unions? Ballots and collective bargaining in the 1980s

Balloting has been held to undermine collective decision making within unions. This article, based upon analysis of the rule books of all TUC affiliated unions and case study material, outlines the law on balloting and collective bargaining, and examines the response to legislative changes. The authors argue that although legislation has led to greater formalisation and centralisation in decision‐making on collective action, decision‐making remains collective.

The ACTU Congress of 1989

When the biennial congress opened in the Sydney Town Hall on Monday, 25 September, only 100 affiliated unions were represented, as against the 142 that had attended the preceding congress.1 The number grew to 114 on the second day, and eventually reached 120; while a grand total of 815 delegates (934 in 1987) was officially recorded.2 The contrast with 1987 testified to the impact of the airline pilots' dispute that had crippled domestic air services since early August. But this dispute, despite its magnitude and the recurring references to it by congress speakers, was in fact ancillary to one of the two major themes that dominated the proceedings of the congress ?the fate of the Accord with the federal Labor government. The other theme was the fate of the trade union movement itself, as a representative body.

Training Trade Unionists in Britain

At the end of 1984, the Certification Officer listed 365 trade unions in Britain with a total membership of 10,753,993. Eighty‐nine of these organisations were affiliated to the Trades Union Congress (TUC) whose total membership at that time was 10,082,144 (p. 47), (p. 1). There are no up‐to‐date figures providing the numbers of full‐time officers and lay officials of TUC unions currently. But an estimate by the TUC in 1973/74 suggested that there were about 2,800 full‐time officers in affiliated unions at that time. There were also 400,000 voluntary officers in union branches or at their places of work, with an annual turnover of 20 per cent (p. 2). Given that TUC affiliated membership was just over 10 million at 31 December 1973, it can reasonably be assumed that there are similar numbers of full‐time officers and voluntary office holders today. The potential education and training needs of these 3,000 paid officials, but especially of the 300,000 work‐place representatives and 100,000 branch officials, as well as those of millions of trade union members generally, are very large indeed. And, given the limited resources available to satisfy them, they can only be marginally addressed by the trade union movement.