Union Activities Research Articles

Who is to blame? Stories of European Union migration governance in Italian, Maltese, and Spanish newspapers

AbstractWhile scholars have investigated how media frame human mobility and securitize irregular border crossings, little research has been dedicated to how European Union (EU) actors are portrayed in media coverage of migration across the Mediterranean. By integrating framing into narrative analysis through the Narrative Policy Framework, our article fills this gap. Specifically, we provide a content analysis of Italian, Maltese, and Spanish newspapers and identify the key narratives underlying the portrayal of specific EU actors. We show that, overall, lack of EU solidarity is the prevalent issue in Italian, Maltese, and Spanish newspapers alike, followed by the alleged inefficiency of EU actors. Accordingly, the EU and its key actors are regularly narrated as either villains, responsible for the crisis and deserting member states in need of solidarity, or as weaklings unable to take effective action. These narratives appear remarkably consistent across countries, over time, and newspapers with different ideological orientation.

The Role Of Trade Unions In Health Protection And Provision Of Safe Working Conditions For Medical Workers.
 Part 1. Health And Safety Of Healthcare Workers As a Medical And Social Problem

Introduction. Healthcare workers are an important part of national healthcare systems ensuring its sustainability. Thus, it is necessary to introduce state mechanisms aimed at protecting their health and ensuring safe working conditions. Moreover, protection of rights and interests of healthcare workers is a matter of social justice. International and national public organizations and especially trade unions of healthcare workers play an important role in dealing with these issues.
 The purpose of the study is to consider examples of trade union activities on health protection and provision of safe working conditions in a number of countries upon the data on health issues that experience medical specialists as well as factors influencing these issues.
 Materials and methods. A content analysis of the official Internet pages of trade union organizations and their reporting documents for 2015-2024 was performed. Also, such methods as analysis, synthesis, secondary analysis and systematization of data were used.
 Results. Around the world, healthcare workers face occupational risks of infectious diseases, and are constantly exposed to various types of biological and non-biological hazards due to their working conditions, which are considered unsafe. Even cases of ill-treatment, threats, attacks or insults during the performance of professional duties are documented. Therefore, protection of health and safety of medical professionals, as well as their social and labor rights and interests is one of the main areas of trade unions as public organizations created on the initiative of healthcare workers.

Building a democratic expertise to inform labour’s struggle for a just transition

ABSTRACT Increasingly, the concept of a just transition is shaping labour’s view of environmental justice but the experience of trade unions working towards just transitions has been mixed, although much action has built on the existing relationships that trade unions have had with their members, other trade unions and civil society organisations. Recent analysis of trade union environmental action has found that a more radical approach is needed that will promote the long-term interests of labour in what has been described as the just transition. This paper argues that if trade unions want future, more transformative strategies, they will have to build their own expertise, building on their own research which has informed their own democratic expertise. This paper makes a contribution to this process by identifying ‘Three Pillars’ which could be used to inform trade union thinking and action. The Three Pillars are: (a) critical analysis of current net-zero policies, (b) new green, industrial strategies supported by social infrastructure, (c) changing labour-environmental relationships. The paper includes a case study of a trade union which is campaigning for a new National Climate Service.

Профсоюзы и производственные советы: конкуренция или мирное сосуществование в современных условиях труда и экономики?

The article deals with certain issues of the purpose of works councils as an effective mechanism for managing an organization, their interaction with trade unions. The theoretical basis and norms of German legislation regulating the activities of works councils and trade unions are analyzed. The conclusion is made about the need for a more detailed study of the theoretical framework and amendments to the Russian legislation concerning the definition of their powers of works councils, delineation of competence with the trade union.

Wages and Labor Relations during Francoist Developmentalism: The Role of the New Unionism

AbstractThe relation between wage growth and the reconstruction of the labor movement in Spain, during the developmentalist Francoist regime (1957-1975), has been controversial. Applying the power resources theory in order to explain wage growth, this paper argues that the rise of the labor share was the result of the increased bargaining power of workers in spite of repressive policies of the Francoist government. The action of new trade unionism mobilized the following power resources. First, the structural power increased as a consequence of techno-economics transformations of Fordism and a generational change of the labor force. Second, the associational power increased due to new organizational forms, with more democratic modes of collective action and combining clandestine and legal actions, and the reappearance of collective bargaining with the Law of Collective Bargaining Agreements of 1958. These political opportunities opened up the possibility to the new trade unionist of developing the strategy of entryism that served as the driving force for worker mobilization.Consequently, the new trade unionists could mobilize their power resources in the three spheres, exchange, production, and politics, as a strategy by accelerating collaborative action, establishing a discursive and cultural framework, and allowing the articulation of the different trade union actions. In this way, internal solidarity was favored when a collective agreement was negotiated at the company or sector level (and not an individual contract, as it has been to date), due to the links with the social activities characteristic of the paternalistic management of labor relations and the presence of anti-Francoist organizations, the “network embeddedness” was strengthened. In turn, the successes in the consequence of wage increases and solidarity with other workers who were suffering repression increased the narrative resources that frame union actions. All this made it possible to counterbalance in part for the restrictions imposed by the dictatorship, which weakened the structural power of workers in the political sphere.The main contribution to the existing knowledge on the issue consists in explaining the apparent paradox between the wage policy of the Francoist government (oriented towards wage restriction) and the increase in labor share. This also serves to understand how labor markets and the wage-setting mechanism worked from a historical point of view. As a corollary, the previous analysis implies that the most important factor was the ability to mobilize workers successfully. The union strategy that combined democratic instruments of representation (assemblies) with clandestine and legal actions served as a catalyst for other productive and social changes. This reflects the primacy of the action of social actors for the worker mobilization theory.

Professional journalistic community of the Republic of Korea: government institutions, associations and organizations

The relevance of this scientific work is expressed in the need to determine the national characteristics of the professional journalism environment of the Republic of Korea (ROK) and to make an analysis. The object of the study was professional journalism in the Republic of Korea. The subject of this study is the activities of journalistic unions and organizations in the Republic of Korea, namely: the Korean Communications Commission, the Korean Broadcasting Advertising Corporation, the Association of Journalists of Korea, the Korean Association of Broadcasters, the Korean Association of Scientific Journalism, the Korean Press Foundation, the Korean Newspaper Association and other local professional associations. The collection of information on the functioning of Korean professional communities in the field of media and organizations controlling journalistic activities was carried out during the period from December 15, 2023 to January 15, 2024. The main research methods were the analysis of regulatory documents, qualitative content analysis, as well as the single-outcome case study method to determine the specifics of the experience of the Republic of Korea. As of 2024, in the Republic of Korea (ROK), control over professional journalistic activities is carried out using a centralized system supported and supervised by government organizations. The article presents an analysis of the activities of professional journalistic communities operating in the Republic of Korea. A general description of the five largest associations and organizations is given. The study showed that the actions of government institutions, organizations and associations of the professional journalistic community of the Republic of Korea are associated with the introduction of a model of integration control of regulatory authorities into the basis of the activities of the associations studied by us. As an illustrative example of the activities of a professional journalistic association, the Association of Journalists of Korea was chosen, whose activities were analyzed in accordance with the following criteria: features of the structure, areas of activity, international integration, interaction with government departments, educational activities, a system of support and material support for journalists.

EdTech-mediated outsourcing and casualisation of academic labour

Located at the intersection of scholarship on critical higher education (HE), the casualisation of the academic workforce and studies of digitalisation and online platforms in Higher Education (HE), this article examines the impact of online programme management companies (OPMs) on academic labour. OPMs partner with universities to provide core teaching functions while relying on the labour of increasingly casualised, often outsourced academics. We use a composite case study to illustrate how OPMs work in partnerships with universities to reorganise academic work. We discuss this model vis-a-vis the theoretical concepts in the digital HE, platform labour and sociology of work literature, elaborating on how the new forms of casualised labour in HE undergo real subsumption by technology-mediated programmes operated by OPMs. On this foundation, we discuss the possible implications and draw out questions for future research and trade union activity, two arenas where, we argue, more attention needs to be paid urgently to casualisation and the outsourcing of teaching through digital platform-mediated programmes.

The jurisdiction of Military Justice in Brazil

In the scenario of the Brazilian justice system, the discussion surrounding the Homeland Military Justice emerges as a crucial point, often relegated to silence in our country's debates. Surprisingly, even within the military sphere, the subject remains in a state of relative obscurity, lacking a more profound and scientifically grounded approach. The time has come to align the practiced experience in military life with a thorough theoretical analysis, thus seeking to dissipate the aura of mystery surrounding this topic. In this context, the present study assumes a prominent role by proposing to rigorously analyze the competence of the Union Military Justice in the judgment of civilians in times of peace. With this purpose, the investigation is guided by a question of high relevance: to what extent does the competence of the Union Military Justice to judge civilians in times of peace align with the fundamental precepts established in the Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil? By exploring this intricate path, the aim is not only to promote a profound reflection on the subject, but also to contribute to the enrichment of the national legal panorama. The integration of practice and theory emerges as a powerful tool to elucidate the nuances of this competence, facing the challenges that arise and paving a more solid ground for future debate. Therefore, it is under this premise of deepening and clarification that this study proposes to navigate the intricacies of the Union Military Justice, unveiling the foundations that govern it and investigating its consonance with the constitutional principles that govern our nation.

Industrial democracy between neocapitalism and postfordism. The political and intellectual trajectory of Bruno Trentin (1926-2007)

During his long political trajectory Bruno Trentin (1926-2007) never ceased to question the relationship between work and democracy. The Italian intellectual and trade union leader denounced the domination of the «productivist ideology» of scientific management over the entire social and political Left. According to this ideology, trade union action was reduced to the animation of distributive conflict, while the political struggle was played out outside the economic sphere, through the conquest of the state. Contrary to this vision, the 1960s were the source of a new self-management political culture, born of the encounter between the Marxist, Christian and libertarian traditions of the labour movement, which aimed to make workers and their unions «political subjects» in their own right by gaining real decision-making power over the organisation of work. The decline of Fordism offers an opportunity for a new "contract" in which work can achieve its political recognition and autonomy within the workplace and not from outside. It is from this history that Trentin draws to defend the actuality of a project of liberation from subordinate «work». In this article I reinscribe Trentin's reflections in the long history of his career as an intellectual, trade unionist and political activist, as well as in the controversies and the impasses that have shaped his life and the history whole Italian and European labour movement during the twentieth century.

Perspective. The mirage of Europeanising industrial relations. What possibilities for East-West trade union cooperation?

This article outlines possibilities for deepening relationships between trade unions from the so-called old EU Member States and those from Central and Eastern Europe. We set out the possibilities for what we describe as enhanced multi-union transnational cooperation. By this we mean multilateral rather than bilateral cooperation that is deep enough to include the joint definition of goals and strategies, and willingness to build a transnational dimension to industrial relations, including, ultimately, conducting collective bargaining on some topics. A critical analysis of the so-called Europeanisation of industrial relations is the background to our discussion. We find the participation of trade unions in this process to be limited to responses to external impulses which results in the degree of enhanced multi-union transnational cooperation in areas of core trade union activity being low. We present the thesis that in-depth cooperation may be possible in relation to new challenges for the world of work, where the transnational dimension is of key importance and where trade unions are less bound by their own national traditions and industrial relations practices.

National Policy Index (NPI) for worker mental health and its relationship with enterprise psychosocial safety climate

National occupational health and safety (OHS) policy (e.g., legislation) underpins worker health protection and is imperative for healthy and safe working populations. In the interest of bolstering mental health through decent work, this study undertakes a global analysis of OHS policy for worker mental health and develops and validates a short tool quantifying national policy approaches—the National Policy Index (NPI, for worker mental health). Data were collected across 45 countries from 164 global experts (and/or expert groups) to capture policy presence, priority action areas, and drivers and barriers surrounding policy implementation. Analysis revealed top global psychosocial concerns are harassment, mobbing or bullying, work overload, discrimination, and poor work-life balance. Policy priorities are harassment, mobbing or bullying, discrimination, and physical violence. The psychosocial hazards/risks that are most addressed in policies or regulated are physical violence, discrimination, harassment, mobbing or bullying. The main driver for managing hazards is workplace senior management support and having specific national regulations, and the main barrier is poor resource availability. Further, the NPI was developed through exploratory factor analysis and validated through significant correlation with a national policy audit and to the 2019 European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks data, which reports enterprise level psychosocial safety climate (PSC, organisational policies, practices, and procedures for stress prevention). The correlation between the NPI and enterprise-level PSC highlights the critical role of national policy in protecting worker population mental health. Yet above and beyond national policy, national union density also related to enterprise PSC indicating that social action is also imperative. Findings suggest that global mental health can be reinforced via decent work outlined in national policy approaches, particularly legislation, as well as via senior management support, and collective approaches such as union action.

Equal in East and West? Regional anti-gender discourses and heterogeneity of the European Commission’s discursive protection of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans* and intersex rights

Recent research shows that lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans* and intersex (LGBTI) rights have become a core value of the European Union. Concurrently, hostility towards LGBTI rights is increasing across the European Union, including through anti-gender mobilisations, which reject ‘gender ideology’. This study employs sequential discourse analyses to discover: (1) the regional specificities in anti-gender discourse; and (2) whether the European Commission is discursively responsive to these differences. We find that the European Commission adapts its LGBTI discourse to actual and expected regional specificities, both in the issues discussed and in the frames employed. These conclusions are relevant because they show that European Union discourse on LGBTI rights is not homogeneous and may be strategically adapted to regional contexts, which has implications for the purported universal protection of LGBTI rights in the European Union. Additionally, these findings shed light on the important but neglected role that social mobilisations play in sensitising European Union actors to regional variation in political attitudes and values.

Protection of labor rights of medical workers by trade unions in the Republic of Kazakhstan

The article covers the practical activities of a number of Kazakhstani sectoral trade unions of healthcare workers to protect the social and labor rights of medical workers. Once the activities of these trade unions were studies, the authors drew attention that in recent years they are guided by international standards, conclude contracts for implementation of various projects with the International Labor Organization, which not only determines ways to build the potential of trade unions and stimulate social dialogue in the field of health, but also shows shortcomings in the activities of trade unions and offers effective measures to prevent them in the future. At the initiative of the trade unions of the industry, now Kazakhstan intends to ratify a number of ILO conventions with essential value for healthcare development. Some attention is paid to the activities of trade unions during COVID–19 pandemic, in particular to the protection of medical workers serving patients with covid infection and who did not receive the lump-sum payments for this. The article includes positive experience of trade unions that developed "Memo on legal protection of healthcare workers, organized the activities of the group of lawyers "Medical Lawyer", "Salary calculator". It analyzed individual and collective complaints received by the trade union, mainly concerning non-reflection of provisions of the Sectoral Agreement for 2020-2022 in the collective agreements of medical institutions regarding the establishment of increased official salaries, increased surcharges for certain categories of medical workers. It is noted that in the whole country, there is unserious attitude of employers not only to the drafting of the content of collective agreements, but also to the conclusion, extension of their validity, additions and changes due to various socio-economic factors, changes in labor legislation.

К истории ответа А. Блока на анкету СДХЛ (1918): на материале переписки Ф. Сологуба, С. Кондурушкина и других

The article examines A. Blok’s response to a questionnaire of the Union of Fiction Figures (UFF), written in May 1918 for a one-day newspaper on the theme “The Ways for the Revival of Russia” (not published). The analysis of the state of the issue reveals insufficient study level of the history of the text and contradictory information about it in the research literature. The article proposes to analyze Blok’s note in the context of his attitude to the UFF in 1918 on the material of unknown correspondence between Union activists (F. Sologub, S. Kondurushkin, An. Chebotarevskaya, etc.). The published set of letters for the first time makes it possible to concretize the history of the making of UFF, to reconstruct the main idea of the newspaper, and the reasons that prevented its implementation. It turns out that in addition to objective reasons (closing of non-Bolshevik publications, problems with printers), there were also internal ones, in particular, the refusal of the newspaper editor to further edit because of the heterogeneity of the collected material. The article assumes that Blok’s note played no last role in this decision since the poet deliberately contradicted the main idea of the newspaper by replacing the survey question “What should a Russian citizen do now?” with the one “What should an artist do now?” The presented research proves that Blok’s “answer” was of polemical way, firstly, towards the creative intelligentsia protesting against the Bolsheviks; and secondly, towards the writers who declared a boycott of him after the publishing of his poem “The Twelve.”

Особливості комунікаційної системи профспілкової організації як громадської організації

The purpose of this study is to analyze and systematize the features of the communication system of a trade union as a public organization, taking into account its role in protecting the rights and interests of employees, highlighting the impact of these features on the internal dynamics of the organization and the effectiveness of achieving its main goals. The work uses general scientific methods and approaches. The key scientific approach that we used for the selection and justification of the methodology was socio-communicative. We studied all the sources and works of scientists using the analytical-synthetic method. With the help of a system approach, a single theoretical basis for own research has been created. We used the comparison method to highlight unique features that are unique to the communication systems of trade union public organizations. The inductive method was applied when comparing the views of researchers and scientists on the main concepts and terms of research. The study proved that the communication system of trade union public organizations is special and has its own characteristics. It was found that there are differences in the communication system of public organizations and the communication system of trade union public organizations in information transfer technologies and the number and types of stakeholders. It has been observed that this is influenced by the peculiarity of the Ukrainian legislation, which concerns public associations and the sphere of activity of trade unions. It was determined that «strikes» and «trade union bulletins» belong to the special technologies of information transmission in the communication system of trade union organizations. Also, a unique feature and one of the features in the communication process in trade unions is such a stakeholder as the «employer».

Energetska tranzicija u domaćinstvima: analiza usaglašenosti Srbije sa paketom „Čista energija za sve Evropljane“

Due to its complexity and heterogeneity, the household sector represents an essential point in energy transition policies. In the European Union, household energy consumption accounts for about 26% of final energy consumption, while in Serbia, this sector has the largest share in final consumption, accounting for about one-third of final consumption. By implementing energy efficiency measures, significant energy savings can be achieved, which, together with the reduction and substitution of the use of fossil fuels, contribute to a lesser impact on climate change and significant reduction in air pollution. The package of legislative measures "Clean Energy for All Europeans" is a comprehensive set of laws defining European climate and energy policy after 2020. This package encompasses and links a series of topics related to the household sector. Through this package, member states are required to set high goals for energy efficiency and decarbonisation in the construction and revitalization of residential buildings, while simultaneously implementing measures concerning households affected by energy poverty. The Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings, the Energy Efficiency Directive, the Renewable Energy Directive, the Regulation on the Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action, and the Regulation on the Establishment of a Framework for Achieving Climate Neutrality cover the main issues related to energy transition policy in households in the European Union. As a member of the Energy Community and a candidate for membership in the European Union, Serbia has committed to harmonizing its energy policy and legislation, accepting technical assistance and support in implementing reforms to adapt the national energy system to European standards. The aim of this paper is to present the regulatory and strategic framework "Clean Energy for All Europeans" in the part related to the household sector and to analyse its transposition into key legal provisions dealing with this topic in the Republic of Serbia

ПРОБЛЕМА НЕФОРМАЛЬНОЙ ЗАНЯТОСТИ В РОССИИ И В ЕАЭС

The object of the study is issues of regionalisation and the formation of informal employment. The subject of the study is the public and private sectors of the EAEU member countries. The purpose of the study is to determine the degree of influence of regionalisation on the development of informal employment in the EAEU. The relevance of the work is due to the development of informal employment in Russia and the EAEU member countries. The scientific novelty lies in the attempt to explain the impact of regionalisation and the gig economy on the development of informal employment. To determine the degree of reduction in the relationship between employee and employer, data on the development of trade union activity and informal employment were used. The research methods are economic and comparative analysis of the degree of development of the creative economy, features of the development of trade union organisations, etc. The author concludes that accelerated regionalisation with low growth rates of real incomes of the employed population, without the development of public institutions and trade union organisations, contributes to the growth of informal employment.

Freedom of Association and the Right to Organize Trade Union Activities in Nigeria: An International Perspective

Freedom of Association and the Right to Organize Trade Union Activities in Nigeria: An International Perspective

Collective mobility power: Grassroots unionism in the Italian meat-processing sector

In the last decade, several sectors of the Italian labour market have witnessed a rise in conflictual union activities carried out mostly by subcontracted migrant workers. Taking two grassroots unions in the North Italian meat processing sector as case studies (SICobas and ADLCobas), this paper investigates why and how migrant workers organise themselves through rank-and-file unions. In particular, the paper aims at understanding whether and how migrant workers' mobility power interplays with and influences their associational power, shedding light on the nexus between labour mobility and its mobilisation. After illustrating how grassroots unions develop in the Italian context, the paper analyses how migrant workers enhance their mobility power through rank-and-file unions and how these unions, in turn, utilise members' mobility as a resource to broaden their organisations. In conclusion, the paper argues that the presence of a highly mobile labour force does not weaken and could even strengthen mobilisations. Consequently, mobility power can be conceptualised not only as an individual strategy but also as a collective resource.

ТИПЫ БЕЗРАБОТИЦЫ И ИХ ВЛИЯНИЕ НА ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКУЮ СТАБИЛЬНОСТЬ

The article discusses various theoretical approaches to explaining the causes of unemployment. In particular, the classic explanation is described, according to which high wages can lead to unemployment. A Marxist explanation based on the dynamics of capital development is also considered. The article also touches on the temporary causes of unemployment and the impact of trade union activities and legislation on the unemployment rate.