Shop Stewards Research Articles

The Flip Side of Organized Decentralization: Company‐Level Bargaining in Denmark

AbstractThe Danish collective bargaining system is often considered a good example of organized decentralization. It has been characterized as a centralized decentralization suggesting a reproduction of sector‐level bargaining relations at company level. A recent survey on company‐level bargaining in the Danish industrial sector confirms this hypothesis with regard to the experiences of local managers and shop stewards. However, part of the survey also questions whether the reproduction will continue in the future. Small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises and their employees tend to miss out on the mutual benefits obtained through company‐level agreements. Furthermore, shop stewards often find it difficult to gain employee support during negotiations, which jeopardizes their bargaining relations with management.

The “hollowing-out” of trade union democracy in COSATU? Members, shop stewards and the South African Communist Party

The South African labour movement’s strength has often been attributed to the vitality of local democratic structures and institutionalised mechanisms of worker control that govern unions affiliated to the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). Workers and shop-stewards continue to participate actively in local union activities and sustain democratic processes but, in an apparent contradiction, the arrival of political democracy has been associated with a decline in the intensity and vitality of local union democracy. As a result the model of union democracy is shifting from participatory to representative. This article draws on the results of the fourth leg of a longitudinal survey of COSATU members and shop-stewards and compares these results with surveys conducted in 1994, 1998 and 2003. The article explores the functioning of union democracy at the workplace and compares the attitudes of ordinary members and their elected representatives. At issue is whether this decline in the intensity of shop-floor democracy has resulted in a growing representation gap between workers and their elected representatives. The article concludes by examining the implications for union democracy of the recruitment of a large proportion of shop stewards into the South African Communist Party.

Nordic subsidiaries in the Baltic States: is model transfer possible?

PurposeThis research seeks to ask to what extent model transfer in employee relations (in terms of employee representation, participation and workplace bargaining) occurs between Nordic and Baltic countries from the principal firm to the subsidiary. It also looks into explanations as to why model transfer occurs – or does not occur – from the perspective of the Nordic industrialist's labour management strategy.Design/methodology/approachThis is a case study comprising three clothing manufacturers and three engineering shops in different Baltic States: Estonia (population 1.4 million), Latvia (2.3 million) and Lithuania (3.4 million). These production sites have headquarters in three Nordic countries: Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Semi‐structured (thematic) interviews are carried out among managers, shop stewards and employees of the subsidiaries.FindingsThere is little model transfer between the Nordic principal firm and the Baltic subsidiary, whereas the Nordic employer prefers local forms of employee relations. Modest model transfer derives from the desire for controlling the labour process, where the Nordic investor seeks to utilise differences between the regimes.Social implicationsThe Nordic industrialists' search for the distinction between different regimes and the Baltic drive at liberal market economy (LME) together may prove fatal for labour conditions. Such production policy will not improve the position of the Baltic worker.Originality/valueThe findings question the very idea of model transfer: where any labour management strategy existed, there was either an unambiguous assertion of indigenous solutions or adoption of “best practices” not peculiar to the Nordic labour relations regime.

Preserving the 'Contentious Alliance'? The Labour Party, the Trade Unions, and the Political Fund Ballots of 1985–1986

This article seeks to contribute to the argument surrounding the transformation of the Labour Party and the redefining of labour movement orthodoxies during the 1980s by providing a historical perspective on the political fund ballot campaign and its impact on the party-union partnership. Drawing on Lewis Minkin and Steve Ludlam's studies of the Labour-union alliance, the article is built around core components of the partnership. It uses Ross McKibbin's concept of inter-war 'conventional wisdom', which perceived trade unionism as a threat to civil society and the British state, to provide essential historical context. The article is underpinned by Margaret Thatcher's cultivation of a new 'conventional wisdom' which was intended to empower the 'silent majority' of moderate trade unionists and isolate militant shop stewards. The political fund ballot campaign tactics are reappraised through analysis of the activities of moderate and 'soft left' trade unions. This in turn raises the question of the extent t...

Unite meat workers: organising for justice

FOCUS □ ORGANISING ANDSUPPLYCHAINS Unite meat workers: organising for justice I workplace through identified was in The poultry stewards the casualisation agency the spectre increased key meat growing by leaders sector issue work shop and and of identified byshop stewards and workplace leaders inthe meat and poultry sector was the growing spectre of casualisation throughincreased agency work SHARON GRAHAM, Director of Organising, Unite. The mately poultry workforce 40,000 processing workers, ofthe sector UK the and stands majority Irish at meat of approxiwhom and poultry processing sectorstandsat approximately 40,000workers, themajority ofwhom areincreasingly basedatworksites ownedbyglobal multinational companies.In 2005,tradeunion membership inthesector stoodatapproximately 7,500consisting largely ofworkers intraditionallyunionised siteswithin thepoultry supply chain. Tradeunionorganisation outsideoftwoorthree companieswas limited, shopsteward and thereforebargaining co-ordination and strategy nonexistent . Theterms andconditions offered toworkersbypractically every major company were-and remain- comparatively poor and permanent employment was beingconsciouslyeroded by employers feeding-off EUaccessiontoincreasinglycasualisetheworkforce . Operating in western liberaldemocracies that are increasingly defined byliberalised freemarketcapitalism , trade unionsintheUKandIreland have struggled foroverthirty yearsto adaptto and confront a radically changedenvironment. The institutional poweroftradeunionshasbeen weakenedthrough neo-liberal entrenchment of flexible labourmarkets and therejection ofproduction capitalinfavour offinancial capital. This, coupledwith continued commodification through theprivatisation ofpublicand socialgoods,has ledtothetradeunionmovement beingforced to facea setofissuesandproblems that arevery different to thosefacedin theimmediate post-war period.One keyoutcomehasbeenthelongterm declineofboththescope and quality ofcollective bargaining. Thishasledtoa trade unionmovement with a broadly defensive outlook bothindustrially and politically. The meat and poultry sector inthe UKand Ireland Themeatandpoultry processing sector intheUK and Irelandreflected thechangedenvironment within whichtradeunionsremain forced to act. Wherecollective bargaining hadbeen previously establisheditwas increasingly localisedwithin rapidly globalising companies. This,together with thegrowth innon-union workplaces andcompanies ,presented a notuncommon challenge. Themeat andpoultry processing sector displayed characteristics ofearly21stcentury tradeunion presencein theprivate sector.Traditional trade unionpresence waserodedthrough declining bargainingpowercaused bytheformation ofnew entities devoidoftradeunionheritage. Thischaoticpicture ofdeclining collective bargainingcoverage ,whilstnot unusual, should demand a strategic response. Theprimary roleand representative force ofthetrade unionmovement istobe found attheplaceofworkandinitsabilityto facilitate theredistribution ofmeaningful powerto workers, we are left withseveralconclusions . 1.Theerosionofcollective bargaining isa critical issuethat needstobe addressed as without itwe arebereft ofa keytoolthat brings therelevance ofsolidarity toworkers. 2.Theaspiration tobuildmeaningful class powerrequires emphasis on thequality and scope ofcollective bargaining notjustthe level' ofbargaining coverage. 3.Without therepresentative force ofmajority bargaining thepolitical powerofthetrade unionmovement is critically undermined. A keyprinciple of 'forward' organising is the beliefthat tradeunionsaretheprimary andcriticalinstitutional actors through which workers can acquirejusticewithregard to wealthand power within a globalised capitalist economy. Ifthecause oftrade unionsistransformative change, then itis clearthat a strategy basedas a minimum oncomprehensive reform is a pre-requisite tothedeliveryofcoreobjectives . Challenge the market,buildthe movement Inthemeatandpoultry processing sector, theuse ofcoreforward organising principles informed a strategy consistent withourviewofwhatunions arefor: ■ Thedelivery ofsector-wide organising designedtogrowthecoverageofbargaining andtherefore thepowerofworkers. ■ Therebuilding ofourshopstewards movement, first locally, thenbycompany, followed bythenational sector andfinally globally. Theinitiation ofshopsteward coordination andthedémocratisation ofunion decision-making through industrial 'combines'. The development ofa comprehensive forward organising strategy within themeatand poultry processing sector was basedon ourviewofwhat trade unionsarefor andcritical organising principles .Inpractical terms this required a strategy that delivered theopportunity for theformation ofmeaningful poweratwork. Within theterms offorward organising itisassumedthat thedelivery ofmeaningful changewithin a neo-liberal capitalist economymakesconflict inevitable. Risingto a globál challenge maximising power throughproductmarkets Attheoutset themeat andpoultry strategy required certain coreconsiderations: INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 6Volume 18Issue 3201 1 FOCUS □ ORGANISING ANDSUPPLYCHAINS ■ Whattactical approachis neededtodevelop genuine bargaining power? ■ Whattotarget andwho? Asingleorganising 'campaign' isinsufficient to developpower.To be effective thetradeunion movement must looktofacilitate globalsolutions - cross-border productsupplychainstrategies thatchallengethepowerofdominant corporate interests. AtUnite, we target employers thatconstitute a minimum of75percent ofa domestic sector simultaneously for thepurpose oforganising. Wedothis tomaximise theability ofworkers toincrease their powerandtherefore realiserealchangeatwork. Ourobjective is alwaystocreateglobalorganisationthroughout a sector butourability toensure delivery remains localised.In themeatand poultry sector we targeted accordingly andimplemented theprinciple ofdevelopment ofa strong shop steward movement through theidentification of leadersand issuesto buildtradeunionpresence andpower.From a base of7,000themembership hasincreased toapproximately 25,000 andthenumberofaccredited Unite shopstewards hasquadrupled .Critically, collective bargaining coverage has dramatically increased withagreements covering all majoremployers in thesectorand spanning approximately 75 percent of the workforce employed byleadingmultinationals. The keyto delivery has been thesuccessfulpursuit ofthe motive offorward organising - meaningful change atwork. Byseeking changethrough challenge on issuescritical toworkers we buildtherelevance of coretrade unionconcepts - solidarity andjustice. The importanceof a productsupply chain approach isnotjustoftheoretical significance. The identification ofsharedissuesthatcrossdifferent workplaces, occupational groupsand employers requires a sector wideapproach todeliver change. The keyissue identified by shop stewardsand workplace leadersinthemeatandpoultry sector was thegrowing...

Can trade unions become environmental innovators?

Lessons can be learned from the actions of the workers and shop stewards at Lucas Aerospace in the 1970s, who fought redundancies by developing a plan for alternative production to turn swords into ploughshares - to transform Lucas Aerospace from a company producing aeronautical and military systems to a company producing socially-useful products. The Lucas Alternative Plan failed for a variety of reasons, but the idea that workers can put forward alternative proposals for sustainable development - for a just transition - are suggestive of new ways for unions to participate in combating climate change. Recent developments of trade union policies towards climate change are discussed, with possible answers offered to some of the conflicts with which unions struggle in their attempt to garner more widespread support for their ambitious environmental policies.

Employees, Non-financial Reports and Institutional Arrangements: A Study of Accounts in the Workplace

Non-financial reports, such as sustainability, social responsibility and ethical reports, claim to make organizations accountable to a range of stakeholders. Yet, it has been argued that such reports are of limited value in the absence of structures that enable stakeholder response to the information provided and accordingly influence decision-making. The aim of this paper is to assess the materiality of non-financial reports to employees in the light of enterprise-level arrangements where employees potentially impact decision-making. The paper draws on interviews with Danish employee representatives and archival material in organizations that claim to be accountable to a range of stakeholders, including employees, through the preparation of non-financial reports. Denmark is an interesting empirical setting for this study as arrangements such as European works councils, employee board representatives, works councils and shop stewards are widespread and regulated. This paper suggests that, from the perspective of employees, formal reports represent a limited contribution to accountability and that institutional arrangements in the workplace appear more important for this stakeholder group. The paper illustrates that these arrangements are significant vehicles for employees to demand, receive and develop accounts of organizational affairs and that non-financial reports seem insignificant as a basis for pursuing impact on management decision-making.

Shop stewards as coordinators of employee-driven innovation: implications for trade unions

Recently, there has been an increase in the attention paid to innovation. However, most of the attention seems to be devoted to innovation which takes place between organizations or between organizations and their customers. It is therefore useful to stand back a little and think about innovation within organizations: how does it take place, who are the actors involved, and how is it coordinated at different organizational levels. This article presents the results of qualitative research among seven Danish organizations, which have revolutionized their ways of organizing the production process. The article shows that shop stewards have become crucial organizational actors in coordinating employee-driven innovation (EDI) inside the firm by connecting different organizational and institutional levels. This has several implications for the European trade union movement.

We are all the people of the Vega Baja now

Immediate Struggles: People, Power, and Place in Rural Spain By Susanna Narotzky and Gavin Smith (Berkeley, CA: California University Press, 2006,250 pp) For a while in modern European history, urban worker protest milieus had almost by definition been dependent on the involvement of two special types of worker intellectuals. The first was the journeyman printer; the second the artisan in the shoemakers' trade. The latter was commemorated by Hobsbawm and Scott as the (1984). Political shoemakers were a particular nineteenth century breed of urban artisans, with much independent control over their means of production, a proclivity for reading and conversation, and a peculiar air of radical republicanism that shaped a working-class urban public sphere of cafes, bistros, reading societies, underground circulations, and associations. That air sprang from their reading habit and their autonomy, but also from their gradual loss of control over the conditions of their trade and life. Throughout the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, entrepreneurs all over advanced Europe were shifting shoe production out of the older urban centers into emergent rural agglomerations unaffected by political regulations or working class organization. The manufactur? ing agglomerations that emerged?Northampton in the UK, Pirmasens in Germany, the Langstraat in the Netherlands?surely were places with surprisingly bristling popular cultures, but within them the fight for the public sphere of the political shoemakers had given way to bread-and-butter unionism, defensive fights over gender and the exploitation of mothers and daughters, and the desire of core workers, often unionists or shop stewards, to escape downward pressures and become entrepreneurs themselves (Kalb 1997). From the 1950s onwards, these northwestern centers were themselves dismantled in another round of relocations

The roles and functions of shop stewards in workplace partnership

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the roles and influence of shop stewards under workplace partnership regimes in five case study firms in the Republic of Ireland. It aims to assess the dynamics and potential longevity of partnership relationships.Design/methodology/approachA framework is utilised which analyses the scope, breadth and depth of union influence in terms of the structure of partnership processes and the capacity of agency to affect relations among shop stewards, union members and plant management.FindingsThe findings show that while union representatives view partnership in a positive light, there remain problems as to the longevity of partnership owing to management control and a disconnection between national (government) and local (workplace) support mechanisms for partnership. The paper concludes that social partnership is a process that remains anchored in a relationship of both antagonism and accommodation between capital and labour.Originality/valueMuch of the extant literature tends to focus on the outcomes of partnership in terms of the gains or losses to either management and/or unions. In this paper, the focus is on the way the “processes” of social partnership shape the behaviour and roles of workplace union representatives. A number of theoretical and policy implications are discussed.

Between the state and market

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the changing perspectives of Chinese trade unions towards labour rights and interest, through exploring the nature of Chinese trade unions from the aspect of shop stewards, or enterprise union cadres. These opinions can explain the nature and orientation of unions towards representation and rights protection for workers.Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based on a survey of 1,811 enterprise union chairpersons, which is analysed by variable interaction analysis through statistical package for social sciences.Findings – Enterprise trade unions have realised the importance of labour representation and are willing to undertake actions for labour rights and interests in the companies. Enterprise union cadres tend to change the union for more autonomy and effectiveness in safeguarding collective labour rights at the workplaces. The enterprise union chairpersons have been learning how to use this multiple role of the Chinese trade union for pursuing the r...

Actors' Interests and Local Contexts in Intrafirm Conflict: The 2004 GM and Opel Crisis

Research on industrial relations in MNCs remains limited to aggregate concepts and dominant actor groups. Focusing on a case study of the 2004 wildcat strike at GM Bochum, Germany, this paper argues for the inclusion of genuinely local, micro-level perspectives and marginalised actors. It makes use of an extended framework of actor embeddedness, which introduces interests and situations as core variables. The case analysis shows how diverging interests of Opel shop stewards, workers and works council members led to a multiplication of conflict lines and the development of competing rationalities within the workforce.

WHY BECOME A SHOP STEWARD? EVIDENCE FROM AUSTRALIAN UNIONS

Shop stewards are crucial to the vitality of unions, yet our understanding of why workers take on this important role is incomplete. This qualitative study seeks to contribute to addressing this gap by exploring the factors that influenced workers to become shop stewards in three dissimilar industries (construction, cleaning, and higher education). It draws on earlier research to investigate the explanatory potential of two sets of influences—personal factors and social processes—in interviews with 20 shop stewards and officials from three Australian unions. The study's findings support this conceptual approach, but suggest scope for its refinement. Finally, avenues for further research are identified, and policy implications for unions discussed.

Coping with control? Retail employee responses to flexibilisation

PurposeThis paper deals with flexibilisation of work and employment in large‐scale retailing. Its aim is two‐fold: first, to highlight how an authoritarian workplace regime and normative forms of control interact, in the attempt to achieve workforce alignment to flexibility. Second, to explore how employees make sense of experienced workplace conflicts, and to what extent they are able to develop capacities to act and to influence their working conditions.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on a qualitative study undertaken in four large‐scale retailing companies in the Italian city of Milan. It is based on 45 semi‐structured, problem‐centred interviews with employees, shop stewards and union officers.FindingsAnalysis reveals how control manifests in “forced availability” based on individualised, informal daily flexibilisation, and sustained by resulting precarisation. Employees are active participants, as the functioning of the work organization depends on their capacity to balance in‐built contradictions. Yet, their capacity to act remains limited. They are trapped by individualised concepts of labour relations: a merit‐oriented understanding of work as a “fair exchange” and a personalised perception of social relations and interactions at the work place.Research limitations/implicationsThe research encountered challenges in accessing temporary employees due to their fear of negative repercussions. This makes the sample slightly biased towards permanent, part time and fulltime, employment. Yet, it is also an opportunity, as it makes it possible to map experiences of precarisation across different employee groups.Originality/valueUsing the concepts of “coping practices”, “common sense” and “capacity to act”, the paper proposes to go beyond the dualisms of the resistance‐control debate. It points at the contradictory and interlinked character of employees' coping practices of adaptation, appropriation, conflictive negotiation and resistance.

Nurses' shop stewards and their collaboration with management

This study investigates the collaboration between Danish nurses' shop stewai-ds and workplace management. The aim of the study is to track changes in workplace climate after a major structural reform of the health sector. The data source for the study is a comprehensive survey among union representatives in the health and care sectors. Generally, and not surprisingly, shops stewards maintain closer relations and a higher degree of loyalty to the nearest managers rather than management at higher levels in the hierarchy. It can also be demonstrated that more experienced shop stewards, those who have been employed in this position and in the workplace for the longest terms have more affirmative relations to management than less experienced shop stewards with shorter tenure. Those shop stewards who spend much time on the entitled duties are rewarded with positive collaboration with management. Hard times at the workplace and dissatisfied colleagues, who do not support their union representative, often result in less rewarding relations with management. Quite unexpectedly, the intensity of relations with management is not significantly related to structural or other changes that the workplace has experienced over the past two years. Changes are therefore accepted as inevitable and regular occurrences in the health sector. The response rate is very high in the survey. Further qualitative research may reveal details about the background and implications. PRACTICAL IMPLICATION: The study suggests that many shop stewards may suffer from a competence gap in terms of more advanced new public management strategies and tools. This gap has not yet been successfully filled by the services and training activities offered by the Danish Nurses Union. Results from the study are being taken on board in the union's strategies. The evidence is also helpful for the managers in the health sector, as they are seeking to develop a constructive the collaboration with the unions.

With A New Vision for Health Care, We Need A New Vision for Health Care Workers A Review of Never Good Enough: Health Care Workers and the False Promise of Job Training– By Ducey Ariel

WorkingUSAVolume 12, Issue 1 p. 159-163 With A New Vision for Health Care, We Need A New Vision for Health Care Workers A Review of Never Good Enough: Health Care Workers and the False Promise of Job Training– By Ducey Ariel Marilyn Albert, Marilyn Albert National Nurses Organizing CommitteeSearch for more papers by this author Marilyn Albert, Marilyn Albert National Nurses Organizing CommitteeSearch for more papers by this author First published: 10 February 2009 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-4580.2008.01225.x Marilyn Albert, RN, was a shop steward and organizer for 1199 from 1974 to 2003 and was personally involved in 1199's Labor Management Cooperation program. She now lives in Cleveland, Ohio and is an organizer for the National Nurses Organizing Committee. Email: marilynalbert@juno.com Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume12, Issue1March 2009Pages 159-163 RelatedInformation

Sygeplejerskers MED-indfl ydelse på faglig kvalitet

Hvordan fungerer MED-udvalg i sundhedsfeltet som kontekst for diskussion af påtrængende problemer i sygeplejerskers arbejde? Især de problemer, der drejer sig om sammenhængen mellem kvaliteten i arbejdsmiljøet og kvaliteten i arbejdet, der gøres for patienterne? Hvilken sammenhæng er der mellem de problemer, som medarbejderne rejser i afdelingen og i egne interesseorganiserede fora, og de problemer, der diskuteres i den formelle samarbejdsstruktur? Det er spørgsmål vi i denne artikel forsøger at levere svar på ud fra et nyligt afsluttet forskningsprojekt om udfordringer for sygeplejens tillidsrepræsentanter i betragtning af de store forandringer i sundhedsfeltet1.

French Unions: Myths & Realities

This past spring, French president Nicolas Sarkozy published a "point of view" article in the French newspaper Le Monde entitled "For Strong Unions." After writing of his desire to enhance the "social dialogue," he expressed his support for measures that would promote the organizational strength and legitimacy of the trade union movement. Indeed, just a week before, on April 11, five union confederations, together with the three most important employer groups in the country, announced a "common position on representivity, social dialogue and the financing of the trade union movement." The agreement, by requiring a minimum threshold of electoral support in certain "social elections" (for shop stewards and plant committees, for example), would give legal standing to only the largest confederations; it would also require that collective agreements on wages and working conditions be signed by these same unions in order to be valid.

Labour Standards, Safety Nets and Minimum Conditions

One day in the 1990s, I found myself sitting in a hospital cafeteria with a group of people I had just met. We were eating cheese and tomato sandwiches, drinking terrible coffee and talking about work. The nurses in the group--midwives--were chatting about the challenges and rewards of shift work and delivering babies in their small Tasmanian town. About how scheduled shift times and the arrival of babies did not always mesh. I was in fact in the middle of one of the key processes by which the minimum standards for Australian workers have been fixed for about a century. The cafeteria group consisted of Commissioner Frawley of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC), representatives of nurses and health workers unions (from the Tasmanian branch offices and in my case the union's national office in Melbourne), local shop stewards from within the hospital, midwives, senior nurse managers, hospital management and senior health service industrial relations officials. The Commissioner was 'on inspection': informing himself by direct interviews with workers and managers at their workplaces about the 'dispute' which unions had 'notified' to the AIRC under the then federal Act. The dispute was about the intention of Tasmanian public hospitals to overturn the existing practice that an eight hour shift was inclusive of a paid meal break, and introduce a new arrangement where shift times would be eight and a half hours long to permit an unpaid half hour break in the middle. Later in the week, most of us were back in the Court buildings in Hobart in a formal arbitration hearing before Commissioner Frawley. We lost our argument to retain the 'straight eights', and it was decided that nurses in Tasmania should work eight hour shifts spread over an eight and a half hours. Through his decision, Commissioner Frawley added another brick to the complex, multi-patterned edifice of labour standards, or minimum conditions, or safety net (the terms are really interchangeable) created through the processes of conciliation and arbitration. He had added to the Australian legal regulation of working time in ways which changed the working lives of those nurses and the ways in which the service they delivered was organised. The Commissioner's decision altered the overall cost of nursing labour in Tasmania (a net saving to the Government because the span of the working day was extended), and impacted upon the productivity of this sector of the workforce in ways yet to be measured. It goes without saying that the decision was unmarked by anyone outside those directly concerned, and like virtually all such similar (and much more significant) decisions on working conditions, unexamined in the literature. I have perhaps already breached Professor Hancock's stricture that nostalgia is not helpful. This personal anecdote frames my response to the plenary sessions because it highlights some of the important aspects of standard-setting in Australia. In my opinion, the best of what used to be remains an option for the future development of institutions and processes for setting standards in this country. Nothing is to be gained by starting from the premise that Australian labour law fits neatly within a traditional picture of labour regulation, as so often is assumed. This traditional picture derives from labour law discourse in the British tradition, which sees two distinct categories of such laws. First, there will be laws which structure and permit collective bargaining, so that unionised workers may meet employers with a measure of power and thereby shape their own working lives. Professor McCallum re-articulates the relevance of this vision of labour law for twenty-first century Australia. Secondly, where workers are too weakly organised, law should step in and determine the conditions which should apply in the absence of collective bargaining. This subsidiary 'regulatory' role for law (or legally binding instruments) is also recognised in all the plenary papers. …

From Conflict to Shared Development: Social Capital in a Tayloristic Environment

The Danish slaughterhouse industry is known for its Tayloristic organization of work, poor industrial relations with frequent wild cat strikes, and a hazardous work environment. However, a few slaughterhouses show big differences in sickness absenteeism, labour turnover and frequency of strikes. These slaughterhouses were studied in order to understand the latitude for cooperation and improvement of the psychosocial work environment. The results revealed that three out of four slaughterhouses studied have moved from a culture based on conflicts and opposing interests to a culture based on mutual trust and respect, thus developing social capital. Developing trust between production managers and shop stewards was the key to the new situation. This happened without jeopardizing the traditional roles of management representatives and shop stewards. The study indicates that there are possibilities of improvement of working conditions under a Taylorized regime based on collaboration between local management and workers. An important factor explaining the results is the strong position of the workers and their unions in the slaughterhouse sector and the general acceptance of unions in the Danish society.