Legitimacy Of Unions Research Articles

Barriers to Trade Union Participation among Rural Migrant Workers in China: An Analysis of Labor Disputes, Employment Characteristics, and Socio-Demographic Factors

This study aims to understand the potential for migrant workers to join trade unions by analyzing labor disputes, employment characteristics, and socio-demographic factors. Utilizing data from a survey of 823 migrant workers conducted in Shanghai and nine other cities in China, this research examines both the associational (organizational membership) and behavioral (activity participation) aspects of trade union participation. The results indicate that rural migrant workers exhibit a low level of union participation, contrary to expectations based on their labor market position and the recruitment efforts by Chinese unions. Three primary barriers to union participation were identified: (1) migrant workers in state-owned firms are significantly more likely to participate in unions compared to those in private firms, where union presence is weaker; (2) occupational and employment status discrimination within workplaces hinders rural migrant workers from joining unions; and (3) trust in trade unions is relatively low among Chinese migrant workers, likely due to the close relationship between unions and the government, which may undermine union legitimacy and impede worker engagement. These findings highlight the systemic challenges that rural migrant workers face in engaging with trade unions in China.

Conflict and demobilisation: lessons on legitimacy and associational power from Poland’s 2019 teachers’ strike

ABSTRACT In 2019, Poland experienced a massive teachers’ strike that lasted three weeks. Although the strike had a great impact on many teachers, in the end, this three-week action failed to obtain any of its demands. Using the concepts of workers’ associational power and union legitimacy, I argue that one of the reasons for the loss was a crisis of legitimacy within the main union that organised the strike. Based on interviews with the strike participants, I analyse the dynamics of changing workers’ associational power during the strike due to a crisis of legitimacy of the strike organiser – the Polish Teachers’ Union (ZNP). I show how the union faced a legitimacy crisis in four critical areas: perceived injustice, perceived effectiveness, union availability, and internal democracy both before and during the strike, and discuss how these insights might benefit trade union renewal.

Analysis of Interfaith Marriage Legalized by The Central Jakarta District Court (Determination Number 155/Pdt.P/2023/PN.Jkt.Pst)

The concept of interfaith marriage is not uncommon in Indonesian society, which is diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, culture, and religion. Law Number 1 of 1974 Governing Marriage governs marriages in general, however, it makes no distinctions for marriages based on specific religions. This paper examines the Central Jakarta District Court's rulings on interfaith unions and how they relate to the relevant legal statutes. This study uses a descriptive qualitative approach to analyze data gathered from primary legal sources, such as court decisions. The purpose of the analysis was to determine if the Central Jakarta District Court's ruling accords with Law Number 1 of 1974's Article 2 Paragraph 1 on marriage. The court granted the request for an interfaith marriage based on the Population Administration Law's Article 35 letter a and the Supreme Court's decision in Case Number 1400 K/PDT/1986, according to study findings. Despite taking into account both legal and societal factors, the judgment falls short of meeting all of Law Number 1 of 1974's conditions for a valid marriage. This research contributes to our understanding of Indonesian interfaith marriages and the future direction of family law. It is crucial to have more debates and analyses regarding the legitimacy of interfaith unions as well as to pass legislation that addresses this matter. To facilitate just interfaith weddings, coordination between religious, legal, and social organizations must also be taken into account.

The Industrialists: How the National Association of Manufacturers Shaped American Capitalism

The Industrialists: How the National Association of Manufacturers Shaped American Capitalism

Innovative Usage of Grid Solutions with a Technology Behavior Model in a Medium-Size Enterprise

Integrating technology innovation within human behaviour challenged a new paradigm shift during business uncertainty. Virtualized grid server implementation is still in its infancy for the “Medium Size Enterprise” that is sandwiched between financial constraints and growing economies of scale opportunities. Grounded by the “Technology Acceptance Model” with the “Theory of Planned Behaviour”, the proposed “Technology Behaviour Model” is developed. A “convenient sampling” method was applied to gather feedback through mixed methods from various enterprises in Malaysia on several considerations that influence technology and behaviour. The research applies “PLS-SEM” with statistic triangulation, exploratory, and cross-sectional analysis. The results show that the adoption of the BOINC share-product solution to structure the returns, by encouraging monetary savings, utilized composed interworks which were consequently further developed. In ascertaining union legitimacy, the extensive unwavering quality is more noteworthy than 0.9, and the mean Average Variance Extracted is above 0.85. The Hetero-Trait-Mono-Trait relationship proportion above 0.85 is normally used to assess the Dependent Variable, with a time span of 95% arriving at 1. This new model uses “Exostructure as a Service” organic server virtualization to drive digital transformation that relooks into the infrastructure overheads. From the tested hypothesis at the Slightly Critical and Most Critical correlation, further theoretical and management contributions were elaborated.

The populist challenge to European Union legitimacy: Old wine in new bottles?

The populist challenge to European Union legitimacy: Old wine in new bottles?

Party contestation and news visibility abroad: The 2019 European Parliament election from a pan-European perspective

We ask whether and why European political parties receive election news coverage abroad and investigate this phenomenon by combining theoretical stipulations regarding the politicisation of European integration and the horizontal Europeanisation of national public spheres. Based on a content analysis of 64 newspapers in 16 European Union countries following the 2019 European Parliament election, we argue that contestation over European integration increases the likelihood that foreign journalists report election results from a particular member state. Eurosceptic parties are more often visible abroad than Europhile parties, unless they stood for election in a highly polarised party system. Our results have important implications for the European Union's legitimacy as contestation over European integration increases the chances for citizens to learn about election results in other European countries.

Trade Union Legitimacy and Legitimation Politics in Australia and New Zealand

The following article for this Special Issue was published in an earlier Issue Wright, Chris F. and McLaughlin, Colm. 2021. Trade Union Legitimacy and Legitimation Politics in Australia and New Zealand. Industrial Relations 60(3): 338–369. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/irel.12285

Taft-Hartley and the Contradictions of Republican Anti-unionism

Taft-Hartley and the Contradictions of Republican Anti-unionism

Trade Union Legitimacy and Legitimation Politics in Australia and New Zealand

This article analyzes how engagement in legitimation politics in Australia and New Zealand has enabled unions to influence the industrial relations policy process. It demonstrates how enhanced moral legitimacy with the wider public positively impacts unions’ pragmatic legitimacy with governing political parties. Drawing on Grant’s insider–outsider typology, we show how enhanced legitimacy can increase unions’ power resources as insider groups with center‐left and, to a lesser extent, center‐right governing parties, which can enable greater influence over industrial relations policy.

Condotta antisindacale e collaborazioni autonome: tre decreti a confronto

The paper addresses the issue of the current ability of art. 28 Workers’ Statute to safeguard the constitutional rights involved in industrial relations. The analysis starts from three decisions of the Court of Florence, Milan and Bologna concerning digital platforms’ conducts that the Trade Unions considered harmful to the freedom of association and to collective bargaining. Particular attention is also given to the legitimacy of Trade Unions to take legal action under art. 28 when the anti-union conduct affects autonomous platform workers (especially riders and shoppers).

New Labor Actors Under Corporatism: Complementarity and the Renewal of Class Representation for Precarious Workers

Labor scholars identify increased roles of “new labor actors,” such as civil society organizations, in workers’ representation. Previous work found their increasing tendency to cooperate with unions, opening these up to inclusion of precarious workers. Praising these cooperative relations, research has understated other interactions that might develop between labor actors and their contributions to workers. Focusing on the relations among new labor actors and unions in the context of Israeli corporatism, this article analyzes conflictual interactions among labor actors and their implications of these for union legitimacy as well as for workers’ representation. Comparing two cases—of noncitizen Palestinian construction workers, and of subcontracted cleaning and security workers—the article argues that “conflictual complementarity” persists in the relations between labor actors in corporatist contexts. Conflictual complementarity is identified as based on sectoral traditions, contributing to transformations in union representation of precarious workers.

Staring into the abyss: A crisis of the rule of law in the EU

AbstractAcceptance of the meaning, operation and enforcement of the rule of law in the EU by its Member States is critical to the Union's legitimacy. Any perceived or real crisis in the rule of law thus merits careful consideration. This article focuses on how a crisis in the rule of law occurred within the EU and how the intended ambiguity of the rule of law has entrenched this crisis. This article argues that the primary cause of the crisis has been the EU's development of a unique ideation of the rule of law ‐ as a constitutional norm, policy instrument and value ‐ that 'hollowed out' the rule of law from a constitutional principle to an expedient policy tool. The EU institutions have entrenched the crisis in the rule of law and then tried to manage the chasm between what it deems as respect for the rule of law and certain Member States' conduct.

Impulsar la participación de los ciudadanos como factor de legitimidad en el proyecto de la integración europea

Desde hace unas décadas se ha tratado de impulsar la democracia participativa y, en general, la participación de los ciudadanos en la vida política de la Unión, a través de diversas vías, con el fin de luchar contra la acusación de déficit democrático e incrementar la legitimidad de la Unión. Una de las vías ha sido la iniciativa ciudadana europea, que permite a los ciudadanos participar indirectamente en la formación del Derecho de la Unión, pero que no está obteniendo resultados importantes en la práctica. Otra vía que se está tratando de implementar es la de que los ciudadanos puedan influir en el nombramiento del Presidente de la Comisión Europea a través del sistema de los Spitzenkandidaten, que se empleó con relativo éxito en las elecciones de 2014 al Parlamento Europeo, pero que no es seguro que se termine implantando de forma definitiva. Se están barajando otras vías, como la de establecer una circunscripción electoral común única o la de implementar convenciones populares, pero su eficacia deberá ser valorada en los próximos años.Recibido: 21 diciembre 2018Aceptado: 10 enero 2019Publicación en línea: 30 abril 2019

When Workplace Unionism in Global Value Chains Does Not Function Well: Exploring the Impediments

Improving working conditions at the bottom of global value chains has become a central issue in our global economy. In this battle, trade unionism has been presented as a way for workers to make their voices heard. Therefore, it is strongly promoted by most social standards. However, establishing a well-functioning trade union is not as obvious as it may seem. Using a comparative case study approach, we examine impediments to farm-level unionism in the cut flower industry in Ethiopia. For this purpose, we propose an integrated framework combining two lenses, namely a vertical one (governance and structure of global value chains) and a horizontal one (socio-economic context). We identify 10 impediments that point to three major dimensions contributing to unionisation. These three dimensions include awareness of and interest from workers, legitimacy of trade unions, and capacity of trade unions to act. Furthermore, our results suggest that private social standards may, in certain cases, be counterproductive for the efficient functioning of trade unions. Although we argue that there is no ‘quick fix’ solution to weak workplace unionism at the bottom of global value chains, we stress the importance of considering the dynamics of, and interactions between, the impediments when designing potential support measures that mitigate negative impacts.

Bread and butter or bread and circuses? Politicisation and the European Commission in the European Semester.

Does domestic contestation of European Union legitimacy affect the behaviour of the European Commission as an economic and fiscal supervisor? We draw on theories of bureaucratic responsiveness and employ multilevel and topic modelling to examine the extent to which the politicisation of European integration affects the outputs of the European Semester: the Country-Specific Recommendations. We develop two competing sets of hypotheses and test these on an original large-N data set on Commission behaviour with observations covering the period 2011–2017. We detect a twofold effect on the Commission's recommendations: member states that experience greater politicisation receive recommendations that are larger in scope but whose substance is less oriented towards social investment. We argue that this effect is best explained as an outcome of the Commission's institutional risk management strategy of regulatory ‘entrenchment’. The supranational agent issues additional recommendations while simultaneously entrenching on a stronger mandate substantively, which allows it to maintain its regulatory reputation and signal regulatory resolve to observing audiences.

‘Justice for Janitors’ goes Dutch: the limits and possibilities of unions’ adoption of organizing in a context of regulated social partnership

Organizing has been adopted as a strategy for union renewal in the Netherlands, where the dominant repertoire has been consensus-based social dialogue. Certain Dutch unions have developed strategies inspired by the US ‘organizing model’ and have been relatively successful in recruiting and mobilizing under-represented workers. Despite some tensions emerging, the introduction of organizing resulted in the greater representation of workers in sectors such as cleaning, which has to an extent complemented social dialogue-based strategies. At the same time, the narrative and tactics of organizing have stimulated internal debate on union purpose and identity and indirectly contributed to a process of reform and democratization within parts of the union movement. The research demonstrates the pragmatic features of organizing as a strategy for union renewal in a context of regulated social partnership, but also points towards the potential for organizing to encourage shifts in the dominant sources of union legitimacy and power.

O Distanciamento do Direito do Trabalho com o Profissionalismo e o Problema do Desemprego

O presente estudo abordará o profissionalismo frente ao cenário socioeconômico brasileiro, relacionando-o com desemprego, qualificação profissional, salário, oportunidade de estudo, demonstrados através de dados estatísticos, bem como, a representatividade das profissões e a legitimidade dos sindicados e grupos sociais para representa-las. Tais elementos fundamentam uma análise do Direito Individual do trabalho na relação de trabalho e na relação de emprego; capitalismo, restruturação produtiva, globalização, novas tecnologias e Flexibilização. Abordará, a questão ética, da autonomia do grupo profissional, da autofiscalização e autopunição, o que refletirá não apenas na defesa do grupo profissional, mas, também, na proteção do consumidor ou do contratante.

When believing in the union is (not) enough: The role of threat and norms in intentions to act on union legitimacy and efficacy beliefs

Three field studies conducted with academics and students examined the dynamic role of threat and normative support for a union in qualifying the relationship between union‐related legitimacy and efficacy beliefs, and union intentions. There was evidence for interplay between threat and norms in facilitating people acting in accordance with their union beliefs, and in providing the conditions where those with weaker beliefs may be mobilised. In Study 1, students' perception of threat to group interests facilitated their preparedness to act on pro‐union legitimacy and efficacy beliefs. In Study 2, among academics who perceived low threat, acting on union legitimacy and efficacy beliefs was contingent on a pro‐union norm, while those who perceived high threat were prepared to act on their union legitimacy beliefs regardless of the normative environment. Finally, in Study 3, a pro‐union norm again facilitated acting on union beliefs in a low threat condition and overcame the importance of legitimacy and efficacy beliefs in a high threat condition. In sum, this research makes a case for the importance of union strategies attending to both the framing of intergroup threat and the communication of in‐group normative support for the union.

Letters to the Essex County Penitentiary: David Selden and the Fracturing of America

This article examines the political and cultural debate over public sector strikes in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s through a close reading of letters sent to the President of the American Federation of Teachers, who had been imprisoned for violating an anti-strike injunction in 1970. These letters help us to understand the relationship between the public sector labor movement, fears of cultural and moral degeneration, and the decline of New Deal liberalism. The article argues that Selden, figuring prominently in a series of advertisements sponsored by the AFT, served as an empty vessel for many other national debates. First, the letters show how public discussions over the crises brought on by teacher strikes fractured the American political center from the ground up as much as—as some historians have argued—from the top-down. Second, responses to Selden's imprisonment show how ideas about the legitimacy of unions changed during the tumultuous course of the late 1960s. Third, the often illegal action of striking by teachers led many to write to Selden that the United States was failing morally, and in a larger sense, culturally. Finally, the many advertisements defaced by newspaper readers and re-encoded with very different messages highlights a space in America's “right turn” that has been under-examined in the historiography—the space in which the individual interacted with the mass media. Taken together, these letters provide a historical window into the moment in which the origins of a new politics and culture emerged in the United States.