Union Model Research Articles

The influence of the political attitudes of workers and the effect of the Great Recession on the decision to join a trade union in Southern Europe

One of the distinctive characteristics of the trade union model in Southern Europe is the clear political persuasion of the dominant confederations (mainly left-wing) and, with the exception of Italy, their low membership density. The Great Recession ushered in a period of confrontation between unions and governments over the application of austerity policies and radical reforms deregulating the labour market, creating a hostile environment for unions, which responded by intensifying their discourse and socio-political action in order to call for the support of workers and alliances with other left-wing organisations. This article, based on data from the European Social Survey, analyses the importance of the political attitudes of workers as a determining factor of unionisation in Italy, Portugal and Spain over a significant period, from 2002 to 2018. The results obtained reveal an important influence of political attitudes on unionisation in Southern Europe, especially in Portugal. However, other variables also affected unionisation, notably the negative influence of precarious forms of employment and the conjunction of the recessionary economic cycle and neoliberal reforms that took place during the Great Recession.

Anti-Communist Solidarity: US-Brazilian Labor Relations during the Dictatorship in Cold-War Brazil (1964–1985)

The last decade has witnessed a crusade by the Brazilian Right, losers of four consecutive presidential elections, to seize power through extralegal means. At the center of this was Operação Lava Jato, which used politicized corruption allegations to discredit the center-left Workers' Party and culminated in the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, the imprisonment of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and the election of the far-right Jair Bolsonaro. Although it has only gradually become clear, the United States played a key role through efforts to influence Brazilian prosecutors and judges via training programs and informal collaborations.Larissa Rosa Corrêa's monograph on US efforts to influence Brazilian trade unionism during the 1964–85 military dictatorship is thus remarkably timely. Anti-Communist Solidarity sheds light on the softer forms of power used by US empire. In the 2010s, US efforts to influence the Brazilian judiciary had little to do with eliminating corruption and everything to do with restoring US hegemony in an emerging oil-producing and diplomatic power. Similarly, as Corrêa conclusively demonstrates, efforts to bring collective bargaining to Brazil were less about empowering the Brazilian working class than weakening communists. These efforts were carried out by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and its American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD), whose goals under George Meany were inextricably linked to those of US empire.Despite their history of mobilization against the military coups of the 1960s and the Central American wars of the 1980s, in recent decades US Latin Americanist scholars have de-emphasized explanations focused on empire. Thus, it is unsurprising that this vital book was written by a Brazilian, as Brazilian scholars have remained more attuned to the deleterious effects of US imperialism. This focus on US policy by a non-US historian is the book's greatest strength, not only in terms of theoretical orientation but also in terms of the sources consulted. As Alex Lichtenstein points out in his perceptive foreword, through her close examination of Portuguese sources produced by Brazilian trade unionists Corrêa complicates narratives that might assert a unidirectional flow of power from North to South. Despite AIFLD attempts to convince Brazilians of the superiority of the US model of collective bargaining, even some of the most conservative Brazilian trade unionists continued to assert the superiority of their own corporatist labor structure, particularly the labor courts.This final point emerges clearly over the course of the narrative, whose chapters unfold roughly across the administrations of four Brazilian presidents. Chapter 1 demonstrates how the AFL-CIO sought to promote a US trade union model as an antidote to the perceived communist sympathies of the labor movement during the turbulent years preceding the 1964 coup. Chapter 2 shows how US labor ideals were given their fullest expression under the pro-American government of Humberto Castelo Branco, the first military president. In chapter 3, we see how AIFLD began to clash with more nationalist currents in the Brazilian regime that questioned the assumption that a US model was directly applicable to Brazil. After a close analysis of Brazilian labor leaders' oft-critical reactions to the US labor model in chapter 4, chapter 5 shows how AFL-CIO influence in Brazil diminished in the 1970s, as the repression of the “years of lead” closed off opportunities for even capitalism-friendly, US-style labor mobilization.Despite the title, which indicates that Corrêa's book covers 1964–85, the narrative closes in 1974. This decision can be attributed to the fact that US influence over Brazilian unionism waned under more nationalist Brazilian governments. In addition, one set of sources vital to the book—the records of the US Department of State—had, as of the time of Corrêa's research, only been declassified until 1976. However, this means that the most obvious question—the relationship of North American “free and democratic unionism” to Brazil's “new unionism” that appeared in 1978—ultimately remains unanswered. How to explain the fact that Lula and a new generation of left-wing unionists advocated for direct collective bargaining and a weakening of corporatist labor relations—precisely the values AIFLD attempted to inculcate among Brazilian unionists? To what extent did the United States attempt to influence the new unionism led by Lula? These provocative questions will have to remain for future scholars.In addition, two issues may limit the book's impact on an Anglophone audience. First, while the original edition of the book is written in excellent academic Portuguese, the excessively literal translation results in awkward, clunky English that is not particularly readable. Second, the $97.99 price point may be prohibitive to all but the most dedicated specialists. This would be unfortunate because Anti-Communist Solidarity is a must-read not only for historians of Brazilian and Latin American labor history but also for those interested in US labor history, US–Latin American relations, and the strategies of modern-day empires to protect their interests.

순서형 로지스틱 회귀분석을 활용한 대구지역 플랫폼종사자의 집단조직화 영향요인 연구

With the expansion of the platform work as a new forms of employment, the social interests on the necessity of collective organizing the platform workers. But the platform workers are not regarded as a worker that can be protected by the Labor Standard Act, therefore, the ways to the collective organizing of platform workers also are varied from the point of view. This study analyzed the factors that are affecting to each models of collective organizing that can be differentiated as Cooperative Model and Trade Union Model.The data that was used in this paper was collected in 2021 by Daegu Social Economy Center to investigate the situations and status of platform workers in Daegu. This study have used the ordered logistic regression to analyze the main factors that are affecting the acceptance of the platform workers to the Cooperative Model and Trade Union Model as a means of representation of their collective interests.The results of analysis suggest that the delivery platform workers in Daegu who are married, more educated and have higher income, recognize more the necessity of the cooperatives. In contrast to that, the delivery platform workers in Daegu who are married, hold it as a main job and have higher income are more ready to be organized by trade union.

Organizing Informal Workers Globally: Comparing a Global Union Federation and a Global Informal Worker Organization Network

With economic globalization and with the precarization and informalization of work, efforts have increased to build global labour alliances among formal workers on the one hand and to organize informal workers on the other. These two endeavours overlap considerably. Global labour organizations have taken on a growing role in organizing and advocating for informal workers. I explore this overlap by comparing two global labour federations: one arising from heterogeneous networks of informal workers—the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF)—and a longstanding one of formal employees that has increasingly attempted to include informal workers—the Building and Wood Workers International (BWI). For both cases, I draw on five sources: secondary literature; archival material from the two federations; seven semi-structured interviews with experts on and members of these federations, plus a meeting with a small group of BWI leaders; and observations of several IDWF and BWI events. This comparison yields two striking findings. First, despite contrasting environments and historical legacies, the two federations show much convergence in strategy. Second, they clearly differ in their degree of adherence to the standard trade union model, as a result of differences in assets and challenges. The BWI is strongly wedded to the conventional model and struggles to reach informal workers, while enjoying a robust inflow of membership dues. The IDWF is committed to welcoming a variety of organizations and readily mobilizes informal workers, while suffering from an anemic inflow of membership dues. These challenges must be met not just for the survival of the BWI and the IDWF but also for the prospect of organizing globally to defend informal and precarious workers. Abstract With economic globalization and with the precarization and informalization of work, efforts have increased to build global labour alliances among formal workers on the one hand and to organize informal workers on the other. These two endeavours overlap considerably. Global labor organizations have taken on a growing role in organizing and advocating for informal workers. I explore this overlap by comparing two global labour federations: one arising from heterogeneous networks of informal workers—the International Domestic Workers Federation—and a longstanding one of formal employees that has increasingly attempted to include informal workers—the Building and Wood Workers International. The contrast reveals similarities, divergences and trade-offs, with important implications for the future potential for building global organizations of informal workers.

Mapping domestic workers’ organizing globally

Domestic workers face challenges for organizing, e.g. decentralization of the workforce, nature of the employment relationship. This article analyses, based on a multiple country-comparison, how domestic workers organize despite constrictions. We identify three forms of organizing: the trade union model and the association model (Shireen Ally). We propose, though, an additional third model, the ‘hybrid type’: domestic workers organize ‘amongst themselves’ in associations and at the same time these associations are linked to or integrated into trade unions, which provides representation, services and contact with other workers. Related to this finding, we see a trend of an ‘emerging trade unionism’. Which means that we tend to find more trade union-related forms of organizing than a decade ago. One explanatory factor is the “governance struggle” of winning the International Labour Organization’s Convention “Decent Work for Domestic Workers” in 2011, which led to an increased collaboration and trust-building between organized domestic workers and trade unions.

The European Green Deal and the social market economy

The European Green Deal is an attempt to transform the European Union's economy in order to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. This is to counteract undesirable climate change and environmental degradation. In this context, an interesting question is whether the implementation of the European Green Deal is in line with the European Union's model of the Social Market Economy. In order to be able to answer this research question, this study is divided into five parts. The first is an introduction to the analysed issues. The second part presents the basic assumptions of the European Green Deal. The third presents the most important assumptions of the Social Market Economy in the context of climate policy. The fourth part analyses the coherence of the European Green Deal with the model of the Social Market Economy. The study ends with a summary containing the conclusions of the conducted research.

The European Union's model of Integrated Border Management: preventing transnational threats, cross-border crime and irregular migration in the context of the EU's security policies and strategies

ABSTRACT Transnational threats, cross-border crime and irregular migration require comprehensive, multidimensional, collective and well-coordinated responses that are well integrated. The consistent application of the principle of legality and the implementation of effective control mechanisms enables each jurisdiction to enforce access for persons, goods and services through effective control and regulation. These activities have an immediate bearing on territory, personnel, communication, technology, equipment, training, collaboration at the intra-agency, inter-agency and international levels. The Union's integrated border management represents a mature model of cooperation and coordination in the form of a comprehensive, multidimensional and collective response among a highly diverse set of countries with differing norms, interests and priorities.

Policy Approaches Toward Combatting Venereal Diseases in the Soviet Occupation Zone in Germany (1945-1949), the German Democratic Republic (1949-1989), and the Polish People's Republic (1945-1989).

The spread of venereal diseases after the Second World War constituted a grave public health danger in Europe. Especially in all four occupation zones in Germany and the Polish People's Republic high morbidity rates were observed. In order to limit the spread of diseases, respective administrations adopted specific regulations. The aim of this research is the analysis and comparison of legal regulations for controlling and combating venereal diseases in these countries. We have analyzed legislative and administrative acts concerning combatting venereal diseases issued by the official organs of the Soviet Occupation Zone, the German Democratic Republic, and the Polish People's Republic from 1945 to 1989. Subsequently, the analyzed sources were evaluated in light of the existing literature on the topic. Our analysis shows that policy approaches in both countries were based the Soviet Union's model for fighting venereal diseases. Visible are similarities of the approaches. They include organization of anti-venereal services, compulsory hospitalization, and actions against social groups perceived as sources of venereal diseases. Beside the purpose of breaking the spread of the epidemics, the approaches had also a political aim of sanctioning behavior that diverged from prescribed socialist moral norms.

The Platform Review Alliance Board: designing an organizational model to bring together producers and consumers in the review and commissioning of platform software

Digital networking technology has helped to bring about the platform economy, in which online networking sites mediate between individual freelance workers and their temporary employers. However, the digital platform economy undermines traditional forms of collective action, particularly trade unions. Following reflections on 15 years of trade union software quality assurance initiatives, particularly the Swedish UserAward program, we realize that there are potential benefits in combining aspects of cooperative, guild, and trade union models in the context of the platform economy. We examine the role that these models could play in enabling new forms of collective action and we bring them together in the form of a conceptual model which we have called the Platform Review Alliance Board. We articulate the Platform Review Alliance model as a set of design patterns, which we invite stakeholders to comment on, refine, and ultimately subscribe to. We then apply these design patterns in the domain of transport. In this domain, we show how software producers, users of the software, and other stakeholders, including individual transport providers, can participate in a Review Alliance Board for the commissioning, production, and review of software platforms for transport systems. The contribution we make is to propose how membership in a Review Alliance Board can be an alternative strategy for both software producers and trade union representatives in taking collective action to assure the quality of workplace software in the context of the growing platform economy.

Institutionalising critical pedagogy: Lessons from against and beyond the neo-liberal university

This article approaches the question of how far critical pedagogy can be institutionalised through a series of historical and contemporary examples. Current debates concerned with the co-operative university are examined, as well as histories of independent working-class education and the free university movement. Throughout this history, critical pedagogy has occupied a difficult space in relation to higher education institutions, operating simultaneously against and beyond the academy. The Deweyian concept of ‘democratisation’ allows the institutionalisation of critical pedagogy to be considered as a process, which has never been and may never be achieved, but is nevertheless an ‘end-in-view’. The article concludes by offering the Lucas Plan as a model of radical trade unionism that could be applied to the democratisation of existing universities and the institutionalisation of critical pedagogy.

The Twin Track Model of Employee Voice: An Anglo-American Perspective on Union Decline and the Rise of Alternative Forms of Voice

We present a simple framework for analyzing decline in union voice in the Anglo-American world and its replacement by non-union, often direct, forms of worker voice. We argue that it is a decline in the in-flow to unionisation among employers and workers, rather than an increase in the outflow rate, that accounts for this decline. We show how union decline is predicted by experience good and cost-disease models of trade unionism and is linked to specific institutional and policy constraints on union organizing in the Anglo-American world. We show how the co-existence of union and non-union forms of worker voice is predicted by transaction cost economics, while the growth in non-union forms of worker voice is aided by declining costs of employers ''making'' voice mechanisms. We draw on ''spurt'' theories of unionisation to help understand factors underpinning union decline, including falling costs of employer opposition to unionisation as density falls, as discuss possibilities for ''bottom-up'' growth in union-like forms of worker voice implied by ''spurt'' theories.

Evaluating the organising model of trade unionism: An Australian perspective

AbstractTo mark the 20th anniversary of the Australian union movement’s Organising Works programme, this article introduces a symposium discussing potential ways forward for unions. It overviews research regarding the challenges of union organising and renewal, both in Australia and internationally. It provides a broad historical perspective on the origins and progress of the grassroots Organising Works agenda initiated by the peak union bodies, the Australian Council of Trade Unions and Unions NSW. It explores how trade unions can best generate and sustain their spirit of mobilising and organising, while also ensuring the institutional legitimacy they require to effectively represent workers. Unions have had to manage the tension between two dynamics of trade union growth – the sense of movement involved in mobilising workers, and the institutional stability and legitimacy needed to represent workers. Unions have faced both the need to confront global capital restructuring through their own restructuring, and the need to renew and maintain a strong and democratic community base. To do so, they have built new networks and campaigning approaches, in order to organise an increasingly diverse and insecure workforce and build strong community links.

Is Another Unionism Possible? Solidarity Unionism in the Industrial Workers of the World in the U.S. and Canada

The article attempts to answer the question “Is another unionism possible?” by an examination of the theory and practice of Solidarity Unionism developing in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in the U.S. and Canada. In the study, Solidarity Unionism is considered as a variety of unionism with distinct and definable characteristics that set it apart from mainstream trade union models. Taking the model of Solidarity Unionism in the IWW as a case study, the work outlines the historical‐theoretical development of the model through the work of, among others, Staughton Lynd. The distinct and definable characteristics are elaborated and discussed and put into historical context. The research findings, gathered through interviews with IWW Solidarity Union organizers from the U.S. and Canada and a documentary/textual analysis of contemporary IWW literature, both official and unofficial, are organized under topic headings. These topics cover what Solidarity Unionism looks like and feels like; how it sustains participation and democratic involvement and the possibility of mainstreaming the model. The article concludes with a consideration of the prospects for Solidarity Unionism and the possibility of the Solidarity Union model, or elements of it, being adopted by the broader trade union movement in North America and beyond.

Extra-representational types of political participation and models of trade unionism: a cross-country comparison

Applying multi-level modelling to the four rounds of the European Social Survey currently available (2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008), our paper provides evidence of crosscountry divergence in the empirical association between extra-representational types of political participation and trade union membership. Cross-national differences in union members’ political participation of this kind, we argue, can be explained by the existence of models of unionism that differ with respect to the institutionalization of trade union activity and the opportunities for left-wing parties to gain access to executive power.

European social model and the harmonization of Macedonian labour legislation with the European Union community labour law

The European integration process accompanied by the harmonization of the EU member states' legislation will inevitably lead to the establishment of a European social model which has a 'sui generis' legal nature. European social model forms a part of the common legal heritage of the European countries and it can be defined as a system of values that include democracy and individual rights, free collective bargaining, market economy, equal opportunities for all, and social protection and solidarity. Subject of analysis in this paper are both, the essential components of the European social model such as: the social 'acquis communautaire' and the European industrial relations. The social 'acquis communautaire' is an integral part of the general 'acquis communautaire' and it encompasses the regulations arising from the primary and secondary labour law legislation of the EU, decisions of the European Court of Justice and other legal measures of the European Union with a binding or non-binding legal nature. European industrial relations encompass the key features of the European trade union models as well as the types of social dialogue in different EU member states. This paper pays attention to a profound elaboration of the harmonization of two EU labour law directives with the Macedonian employment legislation. The first Directive (Directive 91/533/EEC of 14 October 1991 on an employers' obligation to inform employees of the conditions applicable to the contract or employment relationship) may be classified in the field of individual employment relations, while the second one (Directive 2002/14/EC of 11 March 2002 establishing a general framework for informing and consulting employees in the European Community) can be subsumed within the field of collective employment relations. Finally, the authors illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of the Macedonian labour legislation in the process of harmonization with the relevant EU directives, indicating the possible areas for improvement of the quality of the labour regulations governing the individual and collective employment relations.

Tightening the Screws: Autonomy, Collective Action, and Violence in Puerto Real During the Second Shipbuilding Restructuring

In 1982, the Spanish government passed the Shipbuilding Industry Restructuring Act. In the mid-1980s, conflicts occurred at shipyards throughout the Spanish state. This article focuses on workers’ resistance to shipbuilding restructuring in the shipyard of Puerto Real (Cádiz, Spain). We discuss the causes behind the singularity of this episode of workers resistance to restructuring in Puerto Real during the 1980s, which stands out because of the size of the conflict and the radicalism of its collective action. We also explore social perceptions of violence among the parties involved in the protest and analyze the different trade union models involved in the conflict. We conclude that there is a strong relationship between the autonomy of workers’ structures and the radicalism of their methods of collective action.

Organizing for partnership: the influence of the American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial Organisations on the British Trades Union Congress 1995–2005

The influence of the ‘organizing model’ of trade unionism developed in America by the American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) on strategies to rebuild British trade unionism is often remarked. Scholars typically distinguish between adversarial organizing and collaborative partnership with employers as competing roads to union revitalization. This article demonstrates that the British Trades Union Congress (TUC) borrowed organizing principles, techniques and animating aphorisms from America, but not a model of trade unionism. The novelty of organizing lay more in its orchestration and recycling of familiar ideas than in its originality. In the hands of conservative leaders, organizing and partnership are not necessarily distinctive approaches. In Britain, as in America, organizing was proposed as a means to achieve partnership, not to prosecute conflict between capital and labour or create more democratic unions. It proved unsuccessful because of lack of resources, employer resistance and New Labour's unwillingness to provide a sufficiently pro-union public policy.

Trade unions and climate change: The jobs versus environment dilemma

Trade unions are actively engaging with the climate change agenda and formulating climate change policies. Although governments are placing considerable effort on changing consumer behaviour, arguably the most significant impacts on climate change will be through changes in production. Even changes in consumption will have consequences for production. Changes in production will affect workers through the loss of jobs, the changing of jobs, and the creation of new jobs. The jobs versus environment dilemma is a significant issue affecting workers worldwide. In this paper we focus on the ways in which international trade unions are conceptualising the relationship between jobs and the environment, which provide the point of departure from which climate change policies can be formulated. Extended interviews were conducted with senior policy makers in national and international trade unions. On the basis of their responses, four discourses of trade union engagement with climate change are discussed: ‘technological fix’, ‘social transformation’, ‘mutual interests’ and ‘social movement’, which are theorised in the context of the different international histories and models of trade unionism. All discourses imply a re-invention of unions as social movements but do not see nature as a partner in human development.

A Supreme Court challenge to Argentina's trade union model

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

Enabling ‘managed activism’: the adoption of call centres in Australian, British and US trade unions

This article examines how trade unions in different country settings have utilised call centre technologies. Rather than viewing union call centres as simply a means of service delivery, our research suggests they can also enable a more strategic approach to workplace organising. We explore the implications of union call centres for debates on servicing and organising models of trade unionism.