Trade Union Membership Research Articles

Aspects of Strategic Decision Making in the Trade Unions of Latvia : Topicality and Problems

Introduction. The present situation in Latvia can be characterized by a high, persistent unemployment level, economic emigration, stress at the workplace and individualization of society. The aim of the paper is to reveal the aspects of strategic decision making in the trade unions of Latvia, their topicality and problems evaluating the involvement of the Latvian trade union members in strategic decision making and the comprehension of constant union goals. Methods. The theoretical and methodological basis of the research lies in the scientific literature published in the European Union states and the United States of America. The empirical research employs qualitative research methods: semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Material and results. The strategic decision making proces was characterized in the analysis of the theoretical sources. The practice of strategic decision making in Latvian trade unions was clarified in the empirical research.The paper concludes that the practice of delegation of strategic decision making should be improved to encourage members involving in the realization of the trade union’s goals and objectives. It is advisable to increase unanimity of chairpersons and members in the trade unions in Latvia, which can be ensured by promoting the comprehension about strategic decisions using the form of a dialogue between the chairpersons of the LBAS and the chairpersons of Latvian field/ professional trade unions as well as a dialogue between the chairpersons of Latvian field/ professional trade unions and union members, strategic decision making process, goals, trade union members

Relationship between Workplace Incivility, Job Attitudes and Muslim Religiosity Personality among Trade Union Members

Relationship between Workplace Incivility, Job Attitudes and Muslim Religiosity Personality among Trade Union Members

Trade union membership and power in comparative perspective

AbstractThe trade union movement around the world remains in the throes of a prolonged and deep decline, whether measured by membership and density, bargaining power in relation to employers or political influence over the ubiquitous neoliberal narrative that underpins the policies of many governments. Decline has not been arrested or reversed by the many strategic initiatives undertaken in recent years such as organising campaigns or coalition building, although it is possible that the state of the unions would be even more parlous if these initiatives had not been pursued. Against this bleak backcloth, there are some positive signs: unions representing specific occupations, such as school teachers, nurses and airline pilots, have retained high levels of density; and union confederations in many parts of Europe have launched successful general strikes against unpopular government reforms to pensions and welfare benefits. Unions need to position themselves as agencies that can help deal with the growing problems of wage stagnation, low wages, income inequality and insufficient economic demand. That in turn requires a coherent challenge to the dominant neoliberal narrative.

The changing nature of collective employment relations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to survey developments in four aspects of collective employment relations (ER) since the mid-1960s: collective representation and organisation; collective bargaining coverage and structure; the collective bargaining agenda; and joint consultation arrangements. It considers the reasons underlying change. Design/methodology/approach – A range of published sources are drawn on, including quantitative, survey based and qualitative, case-study and other evidence. Findings – The landscape of collective ER has changed markedly over the past half century. Membership of trade unions has fallen from around half of the workforce to one-quarter. Employers who mainly conducted collective bargaining through employers’ associations now negotiate, if at all, on a firm-by-firm basis. Collective bargaining coverage has sharply declined and now only extends to a minority of the private sector workforce. The bargaining agenda has been hollowed out. Joint consultation arrangements too are less widespread than they were around 1980. Originality/value – The paper contends that change has been driven by three underlying processes. “Marketization” of collective ER entailing a shift from an industrial or occupational to an enterprise frame of reference. The rise of “micro-corporatism”, reflecting increased emphasis on the common interests of collective actors within an enterprise frame. Finally, the voluntarism, underpinning Britain’s collective ER became more “asymmetric”, with employers’ preferences increasingly predominant.

The changing face of employment relations: equality and diversity

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore what has happened to the notion and reality of equal pay over the past 50 years, a period in which women have become the majority of trade union members in the UK. It does so in the context of record employment levels based upon women’s increased labour market participation albeit reflecting their continued over-representation in part-time employment, locating the narrowed but persistent overall gender pay gap in the broader picture of pay inequality in the UK.Design/methodology/approach– The paper considers voluntary and legal responses to inequality and the move away from voluntary solutions in the changed environment for unions. Following others it discusses the potential for collective bargaining to be harnessed to equality in work, a potential only partially realised by unions in a period in which their capacity to sustain collective bargaining was weakened. It looks at the introduction of a statutory route to collective bargaining in 2000, the National Minimum Wage from 1999 and at the Equality Act 2010 as legislative solutions to inequality and in terms of radical and liberal models of equality.Findings– The paper suggests that fuller employment based upon women’s increased labour market activity have not delivered an upward pressure on wages and has underpinned rather than closed pay gaps and social divisions. Legal measures have been limited in the extent to which they have secured equal pay and wider social equality, whilst state support for collective solutions to equality has waned. Its replacement by a statutory minimum wage initially closed pay gaps, but appears to have run out of steam as employers accommodate minimum hourly rates through the reorganisation of working time.Social implications– The paper suggests that statutory minima or even voluntary campaigns to lift hourly wage rates may cut across and even supersede wider existing collective bargaining agreements and as such they can reinforce the attack on collective bargaining structures, supporting arguments that this can reduce representation over pay, but also over a range of other issues at work (Ewing and Hendy, 2013), including equality.Originality/value– There are then limitations on a liberal model which is confined to promoting equality at an organisational level in a public sector subject to wider market forces. The fragmentation of bargaining and representation that has resulted will continue if the proposed dismantling of public services goes ahead and its impact upon equality is already suggested in the widening of the gender pay gap in the public sector in 2015.

Trade union membership and paid vacation in Germany

AbstractIn Germany, dependent employees take almost 30 days of paid vacation annually. We enquire whether an individual’s trade union membership affects the duration of vacation. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) for the period 1985 to 2010 and employing pooled OLS-estimators, we find that being a union member goes along with almost one additional day of vacation per year. Estimations exploiting the panel structure of our data suggest that a smaller part of this vacation differential can be due to the union membership status, while self-selection effects play a more important role.

In Praise of Collective Bargaining: The Enduring Significance of Hugh Clegg’s Trade Unionism under Collective Bargaining

Hugh Clegg’s Trade Unionism under Collective Bargaining was published nearly forty years ago. It is far from being just a work of antiquarian interest, however. Its core argument, that the main influence on trade-union behaviour is the structure of collective bargaining, which depends on the role of employers and their organizations, remains as challenging as it ever was. Its approach, comparative and historical, is a watershed in the theoretical development of industrial relations, paving the way for an emphasis on theory ‘in’ rather than theory ‘of’. It also implicitly raises two questions of enduring significance. The first is the wider contribution of collective bargaining and what its decline means not just for trade-union members but also society as a whole. The other is the conditions necessary for the survival of collective bargaining. The policy implication is that, if society wants to have the benefits of collective bargaining, there will be a need for legislation to boost collective bargaining’...

Outside the Equality Act

The ‘single’ Equality Act 2010 was intended to unify and simplify British discrimination law which had grown-up piecemeal over 40 years. However, a number of protections did not follow the standard model (as originally laid down in the Sex Discrimination Act 1975) and remained outside the unification process. Such grounds include trade union membership and the possession of whistle-blower status and past criminal records. This difference has been significant in the government’s reaction to the European Court of Human Rights’ decision in Redfearn v. UK regarding membership of political parties, where the government opted to expand these ‘other’ protections rather than amend the Equality Act 2010. This article considers the role and status of these other discriminations which remain outside the Equality Act 2010 in light of the government’s response to Redfearn.

Growth of Industrial Relations in India: A Critical Analysis

Growth of Industrial Relations plays an important role. If relations between employers and employees are good in Industry then growth can be achieved. The present paper focuses on Growth of Industrial Relations in India where, it is based on Secondary data where, post-reform period (1992-2012) has been undertaken. The Statistical tools used for the study are Average, Compound Annual Growth Rate and Percentages. The paper tries to examine critically the Growth of trade unions in India, growth of industrial sector in India, number of disputes taken place, cause for disputes and disputes by duration, number of permanent closures and workers affected in India. Where, the number of trade union membership is declining where Stable and strong trade union is essential for good industrial relations in India. Number of disputes are showing oscillating trend. Industrial growth is achieved only in few states in India, and Number of Industrial Disputes and workers involved is on the rise which needs immediate attention. Hence, Government should play an important role by formulating various policies for the betterment of employees and employers. If Growth is to be achieved in the country then Industrial Relations has to play an important role which needs immediate attention.

Young and unionised in the UK? Insights from the public sector

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between trade unions and young workers in the UK using the Young Members’ Network of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union as a case study.Design/methodology/approach– Findings are based on semi-structured interviews with 20 full-time officials and 39 lay officials of all ages, the collection and analysis of primary documents and observations at a range of union meetings.Findings– It is argued that PCS has developed a strong network of young activists and is leading the way in terms of engaging with and representing young workers. However, its success in the future may be limited due to changes to the external environment in which the union is trying to organise.Research limitations/implications– The research highlights the role of an under researched area of trade union membership. To provide additional insights, further research is needed into the practice of other unions.Originality/value– This paper provides significant qualitative analysis into this issue which complements the existing quantitative research in this area.

Trade union membership and sickness absence: Evidence from a sick pay reform

In 1996, statutory sick pay was reduced for private sector workers in Germany. Using the empirical observation that trade union members are dismissed less often than non-members, we construct a theoretical model to predict how absence behaviour will respond to the sick pay reform. We show that union members may have stronger incentives (1) to be absent and (2) to react to the cut in sick pay. In the empirical investigation, we observe more pronounced reactions to the statutory reduction in sick pay among union members than among non-members and find a positive relationship between trade union membership and absence due to sickness. These findings suggest that more flexibility in the use of paid absence due to sickness constitutes a private gain from trade union membership.

Trade Union Membership Retention and Workplace Representation in Europe

Based on a comparative survey of members of fourteen European trade unions in twelve countries, this working paper tries to answer the questions why people retain their trade union membership in times of declining unionisation.

What Do Unions Do in Times of Economic Crisis? Evidence from Central and Eastern Europe

Over the last two decades, trade union membership in Central and Eastern Europe has been in continuous decline and there is a common perception that trade unions in the region are weak. However, little is known about the actual relevance of trade unions for individual workers in the post-socialist world. We explore the role that trade unions played in protecting their members from the negative effects of the global economic crisis.Using data for twenty one post-socialist countries from the Life in Transition-2 survey, we find that trade union members were less likely than similar non-members to lose their jobs during the crisis. This beneficial effect of trade union membership was more pronounced in countries which were hit by the crisis harder. At the same time, union members were more likely to experience a wage reduction, suggesting that unions were engaged in concession bargaining. Overall, our results challenge the common view that trade unions in the post-socialist countries are weak and irrelevant.

Focus: Power from the people: why trade union decline should concern us all

INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 6 Volume 22 Issue 2 2015 The dismantling of trade union power and influence has been a plannedfor outcome of sustained implementation of neo-liberal policy agendas since 1979 The latest collection of essays4 from the Resolution Foundation focuses on this very issue, albeit with attention to the plight of young workers (and their relative absence from trade union membership) a large proportion of whom increasingly find themselves locked out of the UK economy on the ‘low road’ of poorly paid insecure work and lack of career progression. Power The dismantling of trade union power and influence has been a planned-for outcome of sustained implementation of neo-liberal policy agendas from the first Thatcher government of 1979, through the New Labour era, under the Coalition government, and these policies will be continued under the newly elected Tory government. This loss of influence has though had wider implications other than in the arena of pay and reward. As the IMF report suggests, the resulting economic inequality ‘could also hurt society by allowing top earners to manipulate the economic and political system’. This arguable manipulation is seen, for example, in the joint report of the House of Commons Scottish Affairs and Business, Innovation and Skills committees, into the collapse of logistics firm Parcel Link on Christmas Day 20145 . The firm maintained trading during the run-up to Christmas knowing of impending liquidation and that it was unlikely to be able to afford the minimum period of consultation prior to redundancy let alone notice of contract termination . Due to the complicated way in which City Link was purchased by private equity firm Better Capital it is the taxpayer left with the redundancy bill, and thousands of self-employed drivers are unlikely to see outstanding fees paid. Complicit in this manipulation, and using the mantra of ‘the fight against red tape’, was the Coalition government who in 2013 introduced fees to pursue a claim through the Employment Tribunal Service (ETA) for a case like that arising from City Link. To compound the situation of workers like those at City Link, in the year prior to the introduction of fees the Coalition reduced the period during which employers had to consult with unions over mass redundancies. It should be a profound concern that a firm like Better Capital can behave with such arrogant disregard to the welfare of its employed and selfemployed staff and face no judicial or governmental penalty as a result. Dependency The Conservative Party and parts of the UK media would have us believe that Britain suffers from a ‘dependency culture’ particularly in the W ho benefits from trade union decline, and what lessons can we draw from this analysis about the state of the political economy in the United Kingdom (UK)? Power from the people1 by established International Monetary Fund (IMF) economists, Florence Jaumotte and Carolina Osorio Buitron, provides an intelligent, robust analysis of the correlation between the reducing size and influence of trade unions as an institution of labour markets in advanced economies, the increasing wealth of the top 10 percent in these economies, and the shrinking value of wages for low and middleincome earners. Much of this analysis can be garnered elsewhere . For example the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) has charted the steep, persistent decline of the value of wages in marked contrast to increasing productivity and overall profitability of private sector business2 . What is of allied concern though, is what structural factors are at play that catalyse trade union decline, precipitate the increasing precarity of UK workers and have resulted in a profound imbalance in the status of the average UK worker relative to that of corporate power and influence. Pay Some economists argue that strong trade unions disrupt ‘market clearing’ influences which normalise and stabilise wages in free market economies. Jaumotte and Buitron unravel this well-worn trope, dismantling also the free market assumption that trade unions are a causal factor of high unemployment. ‘The empirical support for this hypothesis is not very strong, at least within the range of institutional arrangements observed in advanced economies .For instance, in an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) review...

Trade Union Organizing Free from Employers' Interference: Evidence from Vietnam

IntroductionThe reforms (doi moi) initiated in 1986 by the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) to transform a centrally planned economy to a socialist market economy has created significant changes in the Vietnamese labor market. Before the innovation most people of working age were employed in state agencies or state-owned enterprises. Today, the majority of the employed population works for the private sector (approximately 41 million persons are employed in local enterprises and approximately 1.6 million persons are employed in foreign-invested enterprises) (Vietnam, General Statistics Office [GSO] 2010). Vietnam still has a socialist political system and trade union policy: the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL) is the only trade union. Workplace trade unions (cong ðoan co s?), immediate upper-level trade unions (cong ðoan c?p tren tr?c ti?p co s?), and other trade unions of different levels must follow the Statute of VGCL. Workers from different sectors have the right to voluntarily form, join, or participate in unions in accordance with the law. The trade unions are open to Vietnamese salaried workers and self-employed Vietnamese,1) irrespective of their occupation, gender, or religious belief. However, they are only entitled to form, join, or participate in trade unions affiliated with the VGCL2) since independent trade unions operating outside the umbrella of the VGCL are not legally recognized.3) The change in labor structure has led to a shift in the VGCL's focus regarding union organizing in the private sector, dominated (97 percent) by small and medium enterprises (T? Cucmg 2012). In 2003, the VGCL set a target to gain 1 million new trade union members in the period 2003-08 and 1.5 million new trade union members in the period 2008-13. Accordingly, by the end of 2013, workplace trade unions should be established in 70 percent of the eligible enterprises under the provisions of the VGCL Statute, gathering at least 60 percent of the workers (Nguyen Duy Vu 2012). By the end of 2011, the number of new trade union members had increased by over 1.3 million. This brought the total number of trade union members in the whole country to over 7.5 million, scattered over 111,319 workplace trade of which the private sector accounts for 74.2 percent (ibid.).Despite the sharp rise in trade union memberships and trade union organizing, there has been a constant increase in wildcat strikes4) since the enforcement of the first Labour Code of 1994, which came into effect on January 1,1995.5' According to VGCL's statistics, in the period 1995-2010, there were 3,402 wildcat strikes (Vietnam, VGCL 2011b, 32). The global economic recession led to thousands of workers losing their jobs in 2011. The number of wildcat strikes that year (978 cases) was double that of 2010, concentrated in foreign-invested enterprises in the key economic provinces and cities in the south (Quang Chinh and Vi?t Lâm 2012). The percentage of wildcat strikes occurring in organized enterprises is high, for example, 70.99 percent in 2010 (ibid., 36). Current practices of trade union organizing is one of the major causes of wildcat strikes. Despite the increase of workplace trade unions over the years, several established workplace in fact yellow unions, formed and influenced by the management of the enterprises in order to serve the employers' interests (see the following sections for more details). In the face of increasing wildcat strikes, the VGCL has attempted to conduct trade union organizing free from employers' interference in the private sector. This effort, which is seen as a pilot initiative, has been carried out in a small number of targeted private-sector enterprises in Hai Phong city, Binh Duong province and Ho Chi Minh City since 2011.6) These are representative localities in terms of a high concentration of private-sector enterprises, a large workforce, and a high percentage of wildcat strikes. The aim of this effort is to establish trade unions with democratic participation of workers, based on a bottom-up principle of organizing and minimal influence of employers in the process. …

Workplace representation, its impact on trade union members and its capacity to compete with management in the European workplace

Drawing on questionnaire-based survey data comprising responses from the members of 14 trade union organizations based in 12 European countries, this article explores the impact of workplace representatives on perceptions of the performance of trade unions among members. The article shows that large numbers of members are dissatisfied with the quality of representation, even if a workplace representative is located at their place of work. When there is a workplace representative present, it is apparent that members view the performance of the union to be superior to that of management on a wide range of workplace tasks. When there is no workplace representative present, the performance of management is generally superior to that of the union.

LEADERSHIP, COMMUNICATION AND UNION COMMITMENT IN LATVIA: DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

The aim of the paper is to analyse the contiguity between the strategic management and leadership of Latvian trade unions and to assess member participation in decision making, communication between members and union leaders, and union commitment. The tasks of the study are to analyse literature about leadership peculiarities in trade unions, and member participation in trade union management; to justify the methodology of the study; to analyse the results of the study in order to obtain conclusions about leadership in Latvian trade unions in the context of strategic management. The theoretical and methodological basis have been constructed using scientific literature, publications and online resources issued by the European Union countries as well as Canada, Finland, Australia and the United States. The authors have used a non- experimental quantitative research design that includes a cross-sectional design: comparative and correlational design. The results (N = 452) have been acquired by the means of a questionnaire, comparing two random groups’ opinions on the research question: trade union leaders (N = 170) and members (N = 282). In the literature review, the following issues have been analysed: the process of leadership in trade unions, its distinctive features in comparison to other types of organizations, the assessment of the impact between leaders and followers (emphasising the leadership role in the formation of a collective action), the interaction between leaders and members of trade unions forming a shared leadership to ensure democratic process management. The research provides an evaluation of contemporary (2003 - 2013) research on leadership and communication in trade unions. The research results analysis: the literature analysis showed that in trade union leadership investigations most attention has been paid to analysing leaders’ main personality characteristics and the extent to which leadership affects union members’ satisfaction with the organisation, however, leadership aspects in regards to communication have been little researched. The survey results indicate that there are statistically significant correlations between leadership and strategic management, meanwhile discovering that there are strategy at the enterprise trade union level is mostly influenced by enterprise trade union leaders’ opinions, showing lack of democratic leadership in these organisations. The overall level of enterprise trade union members’ participation in making decisions can be evaluated as medium or low. The results indicate an ineffective two-way communication between trade union members and enterprise trade union leaders, revealing a leadership problem: industry trade union leaders cannot or do not want to find out members’ opinions on significant issues about the trade union’s activities. The leadership issue affects member commitment, which can be viewed as medium or low. The discovered problems show the possible directions of Latvian trade union strategic management improvements. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.0.8.6990

Turkish trade unionists and Turkey’s membership of the European Union

In all the discussions regarding Turkey’s accession to the EU, little attention has been paid to the views of workers. This paper provides a statistical analysis of the views of over 6000 Turkish trade union members on Turkey’s EU membership. Parameters are estimated using multilevel probit models where the nested structures of workers into trade unions and federations were taken into account since they shared some joint characteristics because of belonging to these organisations. It confirms the extensive disillusion with the EU found elsewhere in Turkish society but more interestingly it disconfirms an idea that those inside the EU may too easily assume to be the case: that it is those with what might be considered modernist characteristics among the Turkish population who are most likely to be in favour of EU entry. The idea seems to chime well with assumptions that the EU is a progressive, modern force. But whatever the validity of such a view, EU entry is not in fact found to be the favoured goal of the young and the best educated: it is older workers who are the most likely to support entry and those who are educated to the highest level the most likely to oppose it. Amongst the main three trade union federations there is also a greater propensity of members of trade unions affiliated to Hak Is (the Islamic federation) to support entry than those in Turk Is (centre right) or DISK (historically the most militant).

Trade union membership retention in Europe: The challenge of difficult times

Throughout most of Europe, trade union membership is in decline, despite a vast range of initiatives intended to reverse this decline. This article explores why members retain their union membership, through surveys conducted in 14 union organizations in 12 countries. It highlights the importance of workplace representation for the provision of support to members. The article also assesses how the reasons that underpin membership retention might be incorporated into union organizing and renewal strategies.

A STUDY ON THE IMPORTANCE OF TRADE UNIONS IN ORGANIZATION

This research is going to cover the trade union activity and their importance to the employees and the organization itself at the public service management division. Trade unions are association of employees designed primarily to maintain or improve the condition of employment of its members. Trade unions are important in organization because they make sure the employee is satisfied with the working conditions and any violated from their rights and that they have a fair rate of pay of their services rendered to the organization.
 This project looks at the importance of a trade union in an organization and how the employees feel about their activities and how the management operate with the trade union in the organization and the advantages and the disadvantages of a trade union in terms of what the employees benefit from being a trade union member in the organization. The sample size that was used was 30 at the public service management division.
 The research will help me to gain slight on how trade unions operate in the organization. I used the questionnaire to gather data from the employees and the method that was used to collect information was the primary data and the secondary data. which helped to get the answers to my objectives.