Trade Union Democracy Research Articles

Book Review: International and Comparative Industrial Relations: The Crisis of Social Democratic Trade Unionism in Western Europe: The Search for Alternatives

Book Review: International and Comparative Industrial Relations: The Crisis of Social Democratic Trade Unionism in Western Europe: The Search for Alternatives

Social democrats, unions and corporatism: Denmark and Sweden compared

A number of recent studies have documented weakening ties between social democratic parties and trade unions. This article is concerned with the effects of weakening party— union ties on policymaking. In many classic studies of corporatism it has been argued that this mode of policymaking depends on strong ties between social democratic parties and trade unions. In this article, we argue, in contrast, that strong party—union ties are potentially detrimental to corporatism, because in a polarized political environment unions may be tempted to exert political influence via political allies instead of bargaining with their counterparts. In order to evaluate this argument empirically, we present a detailed analysis of two countries with strong corporatist traditions (Denmark and Sweden) from the 1970s to the 1990s.

Book Review: Building Ships, Building a Nation: Korea's Democratic Unionism under Park Chung Hee

Book Review: Building Ships, Building a Nation: Korea's Democratic Unionism under Park Chung Hee

Building Ships, Building a Nation: Korea's Democratic Unionism under Park Chung Hee. By Hwasook Nam. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2009. xii, 372 pp. $75.00 (cloth); $35.00 (paper).

Building Ships, Building a Nation: Korea's Democratic Unionism under Park Chung Hee. By Hwasook Nam. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2009. xii, 372 pp. $75.00 (cloth); $35.00 (paper).

Building Ships, Building a Nation: Korea’s Democratic Unionism under Park Chung Hee

Building Ships, Building a Nation: Korea’s Democratic Unionism under Park Chung Hee

Introduction to “David Dubinsky, the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union and the Limits of Social Democratic Trade Unionism”

Introduction to “David Dubinsky, the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union and the Limits of Social Democratic Trade Unionism”

David Dubinsky, the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union and the Limits of Social Democratic Trade Unionism

Unlike Parmet’s (2005) well-written and thoroughly researched biography and many other generally admiring books and articles on David Dubinsky, the former International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) president from 1932 to 1966, this essay contends that even though Dubinsky initiated important developments within the ILGWU and fought heroically against Nazism and Fascism, his right-wing social democratic worldview was ultimately divisive to the achievement of national and international working class unity. Dubinsky’s political positions become evident through his vigorous anti-Communism which he engaged in with regards to his dealings with Communists in the ILGWU, the Congress of Industrial Organizations, and the American Labor Party. Moreover, the exporting of his anti-Communism abroad via the American Federation of Labor’s Free Trade Union Committee and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions damaged international working class unity through the sabotaging of radical trade unionism not only in Western Europe but in nations around the globe. Understanding Dubinsky’s anti-Communism is the key for ultimately comprehending the garment union leader’s politics.

The Crisis of Social Democratic Trade Unionism in Western Europe: The Search for Alternatives – By Martin Upchurch, Graham Taylor and Andrew Mathers

The Crisis of Social Democratic Trade Unionism in Western Europe: The Search for Alternatives – By Martin Upchurch, Graham Taylor and Andrew Mathers

Book Review: The Crisis of Social Democratic Trade Unionism in Western Europe: The Search for Alternatives

Book Review: The Crisis of Social Democratic Trade Unionism in Western Europe: The Search for Alternatives

The focus of the new trade union. Opinions of members and non-members regarding social differences and trade union priorities in the Netherlands

Trade union legitimacy at national level is increasingly coming under pressure due to the new social challenges arising from the shifting of decision making from national to both international and decentralised levels. In this article we discuss representative opinion research on the social differences perceived by Dutch citizens and the priorities on which trade unions should focus. This allows us to relate the emerging criticisms of the unbalanced composition of Dutch trade union membership to issues of ‘positive’ coordination and policy-making legitimacy in light of internal trade union democracy and the representation of younger labour market cohorts.

A Supreme Court challenge to Argentina's trade union model

Abstract.A November 2008 ruling of the Supreme Court of Argentina has challenged the country's statutory system of trade union monopoly. That the “most representative” union be granted such exclusive powers and rights as to marginalize others within the same industry was found to be inconsistent both with the principle of “free and democratic trade union organization” enshrined in the Constitution and with the position of the ILO's supervisory bodies. Recognizing the constitutional status of the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention, 1948 (No. 87), the Court rejected legislated union unity in favour of unity freely chosen by unionized workers.

The Crisis of “Social Democratic” Unionism

This article defines and explores the crisis of social democratic trade unionism in three countries in western Europe. The authors contend that a particularized form of postwar trade union orientation was socially constructed in Britain, Germany, and France in which a party union nexus gave special privileges to unions in return for compliance with state policies in the national interest. This arrangement has broken down in recent years under the pressure of global product market competition. As a result, trade unions are being forced to adopt alternative strategic orientations, involving both a fracture in the party union nexus and a willingness to work within wider civil society.

Challenges and Possibilities for Democratic Grassroots Union Elections in China

In 2001 and 2002, Reebok facilitated democratic trade union elections at two of its supplier factories in China. After initial successes in one factory in bargaining with management to improve conditions, in the end the experiment failed. This article describes in detail the election process, the elections’ aftermath, and the power dynamics of the actors involved (Reebok, the supplier companies’ management, the workers, their newly elected trade union committees, the district-level trade unions, and the Chinese trade union federation). The article analyzes the reasons behind this failed experiment and concludes by arguing that in a new changed climate today, both within China and within the international trade union movement, the Reebok experiment is worth reexamining.

Globalization and Labor

This study is a critical analysis of neoliberalism as a class-based ideological project that established the domination of labor by global capital. It proposes democratic trade unionism to promote the working classes as a strong counterhegemonic force against global capital. It analyzes the current state of globalization, and discusses the viability of community-based initiatives as an alternative to corporate-led globalization. Finally it introduces an extended version of Wallerstein's core/periphery model, arguing for a strong and democratic local and global trade union movement to free the working classes in the core and periphery from the hegemony of capital.

Rebels with Causes: White Officials in Black Trade Unions in South Africa, 1973–94

This article argues that white officials in black trade unions in South Africa during the 1970s and 1980s were rebels with numerous causes. These causes were to help build a democratic and powerful black trade union movement, to work towards social and economic justice, and to secure their own long-term future in South Africa. The argument is based on presenting a historical overview of the two major black trade union federations that emerged in South Africa during the 1970s and 1980s. One was non-racial and accepted white intellectuals as officials. It eventually grew into COSATU, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, which played a major role in the mass democratic movement during the transition to democracy in 1994. The other black trade union federation was Africanist with some black consciousness orientations and appointed only blacks as officials. It eventually grew into NACTU, the National Council of Trade Unions. It never matched COSATU in size, strength or strategic leadership. The non-racial federation grew much stronger than the Africanist federation by focusing on building active democratic shop steward structures in the workplace. This was part of a deliberate strategy by white intellectuals in the unions to put control of the unions into the hands of black workers, who gradually rose through the ranks into positions of leadership. They and other black intellectuals replaced the white intellectuals in the unions who could then proceed to serve their country in other ways. One of them, Alec Erwin, is presently a minister in President Mbeki's cabinet. Far from having been rebels without a cause, white intellectuals in black unions had the privilege of working towards political reconciliation as well as the search for social and economic justice in South Africa.

Book Review: Black Freedom Fighters in Steel: The Struggle for Democratic Unionism

Book Review: Black Freedom Fighters in Steel: The Struggle for Democratic Unionism

External Contradictions of the Chinese Development Model: export-led growth and the dangers of global economic contraction

China's development model faces an external constraint that could cause an economic hard landing. China has become a global manufacturing powerhouse, and its size now renders its export-led growth strategy unsustainable. China relies on the US market, but the scale of its exports is contributing to the massive US trade deficit, creating financial fragility and undermining the US manufacturing sector. These developments could stall the US economy's expansion, in turn triggering a global recession that will embrace China. This is the external constraint. These considerations suggest that China should transition from export-led growth to domestic demand-led growth. This requires growing the economy's demand side as well as its supply-side. To avoid stalling the US economic expansion, which is critical to China's growth, China should significantly revalue its currency as part of a generalized East Asian upward currency revaluation. Longer term, China should raise wages and improve income distribution. Under export-led growth, higher wages undermine employment. Under domestic demand-led growth, they support it. The challenge is to raise wages in an efficient decentralized manner. History shows that this requires independent democratic trade unions. However, such unions are currently unacceptable to the Chinese political leadership. Creating a domestic demand-led growth regime therefore requires solving this political roadblock.

They are not Machines: Korean Women Workers and Their Fight for Democratic Trade Unionism in the 1970s (review)

They are not Machines: Korean Women Workers and Their Fight for Democratic Trade Unionism in the 1970s (review)

Hegemony and Hamburger: Migration Narratives and Democratic Unionism among Mexican Meatpackers in the U.S. West

Hegemony and Hamburger: Migration Narratives and Democratic Unionism among Mexican Meatpackers in the U.S. West

Hegemony and Hamburger: Migration Narratives and Democratic Unionism among Mexican Meatpackers in the U.S. West

This essay considers how the narrated experiences of immigrant workers in the United States could help promote organized labor’s participation in a transnational movement to democratize globalization processes. I draw on interviews with immigrant meatpackers working for the Tyson Corporation, who since the late 1990s have mounted an impressive and unusual effort to democratize their workplace and union as well as to improve worker safety and dignity. Although the union has elaborated an effective discourse concerning injustice in the workplace and the need for action to remedy these problems, it has not developed any comparable interpretation of workers’ migration experiences. Workers’ migration narratives often reinforce the liberal assumptions guiding the union’s campaigns as well as the U.S. labor movement in general. They occasionally intimate, however, how migration processes can aid in the formation of counter-hegemonic subjectivities, developing these workers’ practical orientations toward resisting mistreatment both individually and in solidarity with others. Thus, creating more institutionalized spaces for workers to communicate about their migration experiences not only could help unions achieve their organizational goals—it also could help shift the political orientation of the labor movement toward a more transnational, social-democratic approach to regulating immigration and capitalist production alike.