Collective Interest Representation Research Articles

Union membership and the willingness to prioritize environmental protection above growth and jobs: A multi‐level analysis covering 22 European countries

AbstractThis article contributes to debates about trade unions and the environment by studying differences between union members and non‐members when asked to prioritize between environmental protection and jobs and economic growth. Differences are explored in a multi‐level framework based on European Values Study data from 2017, covering 22 European countries. The empirical results show that members are more pro‐environmentally inclined than non‐members. This is demonstrated to be attributable to a large extent to the fact that members tend to be more left‐leaning politically, a disposition which tends to be associated positively with environmental concern. While those employed in transport and manufacturing generally are least likely to be willing to prioritize environmental protection, membership has the most pronounced positive effect in this group. The tendency for members to be more pro‐environmentally inclined is consistent across the studied countries. The article also shows that both members and non‐members in countries with higher collective bargaining coverage tend to be more pro‐environmentally inclined. Implications of the findings are discussed in terms of the political nature of collective interest representation with which unions are concerned, broader debates about union renewal and the importance of unions in garnering workers’ support for a greener economy.

Ideas, coalitions and compromise: reinterpreting EU-ETS lobbying through discursive institutionalism

ABSTRACT Collective political action among divergent interest groups is not always easy. It requires coordination, compromise and, often, the persuasive action of a policy entrepreneur. Coalition strategies are often shaped by participants’ skill in mobilising ideas. Business-environmental coalitions – often considered ‘strange bedfellows’ – have proved to be important in emissions trading policy-making. In 2013, chronically low emissions prices meant that the EU’s climate policy flagship, the EU-ETS, was holed beneath the waterline. But, within two years and against the odds, ambitious reforms were agreed to steady the ship. Crucial to the rescue were the actions of a pro-ETS business lobby, orchestrated by environmentalists. We draw on thirty-two in-depth interviews to construct a discursive institutionalist account of collective interest representation in relation to the reforms. We highlight the ability of policy entrepreneurs to fashion a ‘change-but-no-change’ pro-reform narrative attractive to businesses, despite the fact that such discursive strategies risked marginalising alternative and more disruptive ideas.

Bad Jobss Recovery? European Job Quality Index 2005-2015

This new Working Paper offers a detailed look at the quality of jobs held by European workers, and shows what aspects of work improved or deteriorated over the last decade. It updates the European Job Quality Index (JQI) – a measure that encompasses a broad range of work and employment characteristics, including wages, non-wage aspects of employment and work organisation, and collective interest representation. The results indicate a decline in non-wage job quality over the past decade and sluggish real wage growth in the years following the crisis. There is great variation across EU member states, with an indication of deepening polarisation on some dimensions of job quality. Moreover, the paper points to a strong positive relationship between job quality and job quantity in the EU.

Collective interest representation of the European workforce in European Works Councils

In this article, I draw on case study evidence to assess different aspects of the representativeness of European Works Councils. First, I consider how representativeness is framed by external sources of legitimation, such as the legal framework and the founding agreements. Second, I examine the internal legitimacy that can be derived from their membership. Third, I explore the reciprocal construction of legitimacy through linkages with local employee representation structures. Finally, I discuss their role in relation to trade unions and the further Europeanization of industrial relations.

Contemporary Employer Interest Representation in the United Kingdom

Focusing on employers’ organizations in the United Kingdom, this article contributes to the literature on employer interest representation by advancing three interrelated arguments, which reflect how the methods, structure and interests of employer representation have evolved. First, the primary method of collective interest representation has shifted from collective bargaining, nowadays only pursued by a minority of employers’ organizations, to political representation, now the most frequent form of collective interest representation. Second, the structure of employer interest representation has evolved and is fragmented between a small number of large, general employers’ organizations, a large majority of sectoral employers’ organizations, regional interest representation in the devolved nations, which has become more important, and a new type of employer body, the employer forum, which focuses on corporate social responsibility. Third, the shift in collective interest representation is complemented by a broadening of individual interest representation, with employers’ organizations having developed a wide range of services.

The Challenges of EU Discrimination Law for Old Labour Law

The paper uses Belgian labour law and its response to EU non-discrimination law as a case study for the tensions between EU Non-Discrimination Law and traditional labour law (“old labour law”). The author conceives of this as a productive tension, because non-discrimination law in general responds to current workers’ citizenship claims in a knowledge and information society with its ever more flexible and individualised employment relationships. These citizenship claims tend to focus on individual rights, and demand the modernisation of labour law (“new labour law”). However, the author also considers trade unionism and collective structures (which remain exceptionally strong in Belgium) as an indispensable element of labour law and submits that there will always be tensions between collective interest representation and discrimination law. He proposes a number of ways on how this tension can be used productively by including non-discrimination principles and mechanisms for mainstreaming equality in collective bargaining processes at different levels.

Ocularcentric Labour: “you don’t do this for money”

This article is a response to Lansbury’s call (2009) in this journal for a re-conceptualization of work and employment. It supports Lansbury’s belief that the employment relationship cannot be understood in isolation from wider social change. Building on the tradition of emotional labour and aesthetic labour, this study introduces theoretically and empirically the concept of “ocularcentric labour” (the worker seeking the adoring gaze of the client as the primary employment reward). This paper seeks to establish: the empirical generalizability of ocularcentric labour; its conceptual differentiation with aesthetic and emotional labour; and the implications of ocularcentric labour for industrial relations and collective interest representation.Through a study of the employment relationship in the commercial health and fitness industry in Queensland (Australia), we identify this new type of labour as one in which the worker’s primary goal is to seek the psycho-social rewards gained from exposing their own body image. This quest shapes the employment relationship (both the organization of work and the conditions of employment). We argue that for many fitness workers the goal is to gain access to the positional economy of the fitness centre to promote their celebrity. For this they are willing to trade-off standard conditions of employment and direct earnings, and exchange traditional employment rewards for the more intrinsic psycho-social rewards gained through the exposure of their physical capital to the adoration of their gazing clients. As one worker said “You don’t do this for money.” Significantly, with ocularcentric labour the worker becomes both the site of productionandconsumption.The study draws on quantitative and qualitative data captured from the Australian health and fitness industry with one snapshot taken in 1993 and another in 2008. The conclusion draws together the key conceptual and empirical points and findings and examines the implications for the conceptualization of IR in the contemporary economy.

Prekäre Vergemeinschaftung und verrückte Kämpfe

Two case studies in multinational service enterprises (fast food and transport sector) show that strategies of corporate culture are quite efficient for management control of precarious and 'poor work'. The article discusses the problems of individual and collective interest representation within these special kind of employment relations, the reasons why struggles for respect and justice seem to be 'crazy conflicts' there and in which context nevertheless occur ruptures in the system of absolute management control.

Transnational Networks, International Organizations and Political Participation in Cambodia: Human Rights, Labour Rights and Common Rights

Much international attention has been focused upon the promotion of a civil society in Cambodia, able to demand transparency and accountability from the Cambodian government. This article argues that international agencies, although apparently supportive of civil society, have in fact undermined the representation of collective interests in Cambodia through insistence on highly regulated and atomizing modes of participation, aimed at demobilizing and depoliticizing contentious groups in Cambodian society, and routing contentious politics through internationally sanctioned sites of participation. This trend in international engagement is traced across three issue areas – human rights, labour rights, and common rights in the forestry sector. In each case, it is argued, international agencies promoting neo-liberal agendas have taken the lead, at the expense of potentially radical transnational networks. The international backing awarded to local organizations has been highly conditional, and these organizations have consequently found it difficult to find political space to develop as autonomous actors. Because of this, an increasingly authoritarian state has been able to isolate and repress radical individual leaders. The result has been a dramatic shrinking of space for public participation in politics over the past ten years.

Workers' representation at company level in CEE countries

Current workplace relations in central and eastern European candidate countries are strongly influenced by the legacy of fragmented workers’ interests and at best undeveloped semi-autonomous forms of collective interest representation. In addition, most trade unions have been unable to develop adequate strategies to cope with the pressures of radical marketisation and to forge collective identities. In this environment the mechanical implementation of social dialogue institutions could trigger opposition from the trade unions, conflicts between unions and works councils in companies where autonomous trade unions exist, and even serious damage to the unions. The social dialogue institutions will only have the desired effects in CEE companies if they are developed on the basis of trade unions that have been strengthened, or even, in the case of non-unionised companies, created. This article draws on empirical research into the operation of trade unions and works councils in the CEE countries, in particular Hungary and Slovenia.

Community Service Programs in High Schools

SALLY A. RASKOFF [*] RICHARD A. SUNDEEN [**] I INTRODUCTION Numerous observers have commented on the need to increase civic participation, including volunteering, as a means of strengthening our democratic system. [1] In the United States, with its strong tradition of volunteerism in the provision of services, the creation of social capital, and the representation of collective interests, the inclusion of young persons in volunteer roles is extremely important. [2] Consequently, the socialization of youth into community service roles has become a topic of considerable interest in the United States, and educational policymakers, educators, and the media have begun to focus their attention on the role of community service in school settings. This article examines youth socialization and civic participation through community service among high school students, with special focus on southern California. Along with the contributions that volunteerism makes to society, the younger volunteers also purportedly benefit from increased self-esteem, academic skills, career and occupational direction, community involvement, and political skills. [3] The resulting effective socialization of its younger members will ensure that society has a sufficient supply of competent amateur policy implementers and active citizens. Without effective socialization, in the cautionary words of a recent observer, we are in danger of producing a whole generation of children with [civic] and philanthropic retardation. [4] The agents of socialization through and from whom young persons usually learn about the values and behavior appropriate for volunteer roles include families, churches, schools, other community associations and organizations, peer groups, and the media. Earlier research, for example, found that adults whose parents volunteered or who volunteered with their family when they were young are more likely to volunteer than adults whose parents did not volunteer or who did not volunteer with family. [5] Also, in a national survey of teenagers, Sundeen and Raskoff found that, while schools, families, and churches all played important roles in shaping volunteer behavior by the respondents, the strongest predictive variable was attending a school that encouraged or required community service. [6] In addition, a recent study on political participation has underscored the importance of high school activities in contributing to adult participation. [7] Most schools provide their students with at least the opportunity to participate in service activities, and many now require participation or give class credit for it. For example, in 1995, nearly fifteen percent of the 130 largest school districts had a district-wide service requirement for graduation, and forty-five percent had at least one school that required volunteer service. [8] In 1998, nearly twenty percent of the fifty largest school districts required volunteer service, and nearly one-half provided the opportunity to earn academic credit for community service participation. [9] This article focuses on high school community service programs: their practices, their collaborative relations with community organizations for which the students volunteer, and the perspectives of students regarding their participation in these school-sponsored programs. CONTEXT AND TYPES OF HIGH SCHOOL PROGRAMS II A. History The current support for school-based volunteer service in the United States has developed along two lines that have occasionally intersected. One source of support has come from those interested in the educational and character-building benefits of service for students. The other source of support has come from governments, especially the federal government, but also some state governments. Support for educational programs can be traced to at least the early 1900s. …

Does economic transformation undermine union collectivism? The case of East German textile workers

There is a widespread hypothesis that union members in East Germany are strongly individualistic, passive and instrumental with regard to their collective interest representation. This article examines the extent to which East German union members can be thus characterised and reveals that people were difficult to classify as pure ‘individualists’ or pure ‘collectivists’.