Union Negotiations Research Articles

Resident Unions: Why Now and Will They Change Medical Education and Health Care?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, resident unions proliferated. While unionization resulted in increased compensation and benefits, the process of union negotiations may have created adversarial relationships between residents and their institutions' leadership, who residents depend on for supervision and the development of clinical expertise. Such adversarial relationships could affect the learning environment, which is critical to the delivery of high-quality care. In this commentary, the authors suggest that academic medical centers should offer residents an authentic seat at the institutional care delivery leadership table, ensuring residents' full participation in key organizational decisions. Doing so represents an alternative to unionization, with its potentially adversarial relationships, while still achieving a key goal of residents-to be included in the decisions that affect them and the care they provide. In this way, residents can use their unique understanding of the institutions' strengths and weaknesses to improve the quality of patient care and the learning environment. Such engagement can also help residents achieve competence in systems-based practice and provide a vital link between institutions and the patients and community they serve through health policy and advocacy activities.

HR directors in India: navigating institutional incoherence for HRM stability and change

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the strategic and evolving role of human resource management (HRM) directors within the context of underdeveloped institutional arrangements. The study focuses on India and conducts a comparative analysis of the roles of HRM directors in both multinational enterprises (MNEs) and domestic firms.Design/methodology/approachSurvey-based data from the HRM directors of 252 enterprises were gathered for the comparative analysis, including both multinational and domestic enterprises.FindingsHRM directors in MNEs lack the proficiency required to effectively fulfil their strategic role. In addition, there has been a notable shift in the responsibilities of HRM directors in MNEs, with increased emphasis on labour movements and trade union negotiations, as opposed to traditional human resource (HR) activities. This shift suggests that the role of HRM in MNEs operating in India has been influenced by local isomorphic forces, rather than following a “pendulum swing” between home and host country institutional pressures. The prevalence of informality in the Indian institutional arrangements may act as a strong counterforce to integrating the strategic agency of MNEs' home country HRM directors into the organizational structure. Despite facing resistance from the local institutional context, HRM directors in MNEs are responding with a pushback, prioritizing labour movements and trade union negotiations over core HRM activities.Research limitations/implicationsThe study highlights the broader implications for theory and practice, shedding light on the challenges faced by HRM directors in navigating incoherent institutional arrangements. It emphasizes the need for a deeper understanding of local forces in shaping HRM practices within multinational settings.Originality/valueWe contribute to the comparative HRM literature by elaborating on power struggles that HRM directors face amid the dichotomies of formal power and authority that are encoded in the organizational structure versus culturally contingent power that can be accrued from engaging in informality. We also highlight their engagement in prolonged institutional mediation and change, which serves as a compensatory mechanism for the institutional shortfalls they encounter within the context of emerging markets.

United we stand: a principle-based negotiation training for collective bargaining

PurposeThis study aims to identify effective behaviors in labor-management negotiation (LMN) and, on that basis, derive overarching psychological principles of successful negotiation in this important context. These empirical findings are used to develop and test a comprehensive negotiation training program.Design/methodology/approachTwenty-seven practitioners from one of the world’s largest labor unions were interviewed to identify the requirements of effective LMN, resulting in 796 descriptions of single behaviors from 41 negotiation cases.FindingsThe analyses revealed 13 categories of behaviors critical to negotiation success. The findings highlight the pivotal role of the union negotiator by illustrating how they lead the negotiations with the other party while also ensuring that their own team and the workforce stand united. To provide guidance for effective LMN, six psychological principles were derived from these behavioral categories. The paper describes a six-day training program developed for LMN based on the empirical findings of this study and the related six principles.Originality/valueThis paper has three unique features: first, it examines the requirements for effective LMN based on a systematic needs assessment. Second, by teaching not only knowledge and skills but also general psychological principles of successful negotiation, the training intervention is aimed at promoting long-term behavioral change. Third, the research presents a comprehensive and empirically-based training program for LMN.

Do union strategic influence, job security and the industrial relations climate matter for the adoption of high performance work systems?

PurposeThe paper aims to explore the role of union strategic influence on the adoption of High Performance Work Systems (HPWS) in organisations and examines how the effects of job security and then in turn the industrial relations climate, mediate this relationship in a serial manner.Design/methodology/approachThe research analyses an original quantitative survey of union negotiators and representatives in 382 workplaces in England. The analysis employs structural equation modelling techniques to examine the relationships between union influence, job security, industrial relations climate and HPWS.FindingsUnion strategic influence has a positive effect on the take up of HPWS in unionised workplaces. Job security and the industrial relations climate demonstrate a serial mediation effect between union strategic influence and the take up of HPWS: union strategic influence has a positive effect on job security, which in turn positively impacts the industrial relations climate, thereby increasing the likelihood of the adoption of HPWS. The findings for the industrial relations climate are particularly strong.Practical implicationsFindings suggest that organisations will benefit from focussing on the development of positive industrial relations, where unions have genuine strategic influence, because this maximises the likelihood that HPWS can be adopted and sustained.Originality/valueThe paper provides a novel focus on the take up of HPWS within unionised workplaces. It focusses on the role of union strategic influence and the mediating effects of job security and the industrial relations climate, which are contextual factors that have been underexplored in the HPWS literature to date.

Rules to Win by : Power and Participation in Union Negotiations by Jane F.McAlevey and AbbyLawlor. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023, 312 pp., ISBN: 9780197690468, £19.99, h/b.

Rules to Win by : Power and Participation in Union Negotiations by Jane F.McAlevey and AbbyLawlor. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023, 312 pp., ISBN: 9780197690468, £19.99, h/b.

Feudal Law and the Unionist Writings of Thomas Craig

Amidst the flood of unionist literature that followed the accession of James VI to the throne of England, Thomas Craig's De unione regnorum Britanniae stands out as the largest, at around 95,000 words, and the most sophisticated in terms of its argumentation. This article examines Craig's argumentation in detail and shows that he understood British history as a repeating cycle of internecine conflicts between the peoples of Britain followed by invasion and conquest by continental powers. For Craig, the existential threat to Britain was Spain, the dominant Catholic power of the day. While negotiations for an end to the long war between England and Spain were contemporaneous with union negotiations, the De unione can still be seen as a warning about the ongoing dangers of disunity among British Protestants. It is shown that Craig's solution to the lingering historical antagonism between England and Scotland and the unwillingness on either side to compromise their fundamental national identity lay in an idealised version of the feudal-legal relationship as the foundation for the union.

Union Dues Rising to Pay for Organizing

A major theme in any organizing campaign is union dues. Employers commonly pose the following question to employees: “Do you want to vote for union dues, which may be automatically deducted from your paycheck under a union contract.” Union dues can be expensive. Depending on the union, they can exceed $1,000 per year. Union organizers generally counter the argument by assuring employees that those dues go toward representing them during grievances and the costs of negotiating a collective bargaining agreement. Employees choosing to hire union negotiators to represent them at the bargaining table are likely to accept that argument. After all, negotiators are not going to work for free.

Coping With Turbulence: EU Negotiations on the 2030 and 2050 Climate Targets

This article analyses European Union (EU) negotiations on the European Climate Law and the 2030 Climate Target Plan in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. Adopting Ansell and Trondal’s (2018) conceptualisation of turbulence, it argues that the pandemic intensified the environmental turbulence within which European policy makers had been operating following Brexit, the rule of law dispute with Poland and Hungary, and the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States. Organisational turbulence within EU institutions also affected the negotiations, particularly due to the reliance of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the political support of East-Central European governments that are sceptical of ambitious climate action. Moreover, the Commission, the European Council and the Parliament have taken different positions on the 2030 climate target and on the governance to pursue subsequent targets. Turbulence of scale—reflecting the nature of the EU as a multi-level actor—became relevant too, as the EU found it difficult to agree on its 2030 climate target due to disputes between member states and European institutions. European decision makers responded to turbulence through major policy initiatives, such as the EU Recovery Plan, the Green Deal agenda, and making funds conditional to the respect of the rule of law. They also pursued intra-EU compromises that accommodated different positions—for instance, on the Climate Law. Nonetheless, turbulence continues to pose a formidable challenge to the progress of the EU’s climate agenda.

When actions do not match aspirations - comparison of the European Union policy claims against what has been negotiated for health services, trade and investment

BackgroundObligations arising from trade and investment agreements can affect how governments can regulate and organise health systems. The European Union has made explicit statements of safeguarding policy space for health systems. We assessed to what extent health systems were safeguarded in trade negotiations using the European Union (EU) negotiation proposals for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the negotiated agreement for the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).MethodsWe assessed if and to what extent the European Union policy assurances were upheld in trade negotiations. Our assessment was made using three process tracing informed tests. The tests examined: i) what was covered in negotiation proposals of services and investment chapters, ii) if treatment of health services differed from treatment of another category of services (audiovisual services) with similar EU Treaty considerations, and iii) if other means of general exceptions, declarations or emphases on right to regulate could have resulted in the same outcome.ResultsOur analysis shows that the European Union had sought to secure policy space for publicly funded health services for services chapter, but not for investment and investment protection chapters. In comparison to audiovisual services, exceptions for health services fall short from those on audiovisual services. There is little evidence that the same outcome could have been achieved using other avenues.ConclusionsThe European Union has not achieved its own assurances of protection of regulatory policy space for health services in trade negotiations. The European Union trade negotiation priorities need to change to ensure that its negotiation practices comply with its own assurances for health services and sustainable financing of health systems.

The Function of Social Constitucionalism Before Liberal Democracy

This paper aims to analyze the effectivity of Social Constitutionalism in the face of the movement so-called “liberal democracy”. This movement is responsible for the revitalization of the principle of legality into the Brazilian legal system. This outcome has started from legal amendment in Brazil Labor Code, which was introduced by Law 13,467/17. The new law enacted by National Congress has as its main purpose to increase the space of flexibility into labor law regulations. This proceeding allowed to use mandatory trade union negotiations upon several labor issues. There are some legal aspects that have breached specific constitutional commands, and these contradictions against the constitution should be controlled by the rules with social contend, namely Social Constitutionalism. Social Constitutionalism will be tested before the Brazilian courts as an effective framework to maintain the level of protection on social rights. This tool has been used to control the precarious scheme introduced into labor rules that has breached the constitutional principle of non regression on social rights. This new guidance is actually possible through the occasional congressional majorities formed in times of great political and economic turbulences, even though the law is the expression of liberal democracy represented by popular vote. The International Labor Organization (ILO), which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2019, has dire predictions about how the Brazilian government will lead with these changes into the law.

Bargaining, representation and organising in the Pandemic: Experience from the Financial Services Union

20 | International Union Rights | 28/2 FOCUS | A CHANGING POST-PANDEMIC WORLD FOR LABOUR Bargaining, representation and organising in the Pandemic: Experience from the Financial Services Union The global pandemic presents many new problems to trade unionism. Social distancing and home working, for example, introduce real challenges to union organisation rooted in the physical workplace. Moreover, while online communication platforms were the natural response for many organisations, it is unclear whether the fundamentals of trade unionism - building collective identity, collective organising and collective action - are conducive to online dynamics. Unions are not known hotbeds of technological adoption. The face-to-face meeting, a word in the ear of a relevant party, collective meetings with members and - where called for public demonstrations, are the stock-in-trade of what unions do. Union negotiators need to ‘read the room’, make eye contact and watch body language to be effective negotiators. Likewise, union organisers in recruiting and developing new members need to build rapport and establish trust and confidence, best achieved by face-to-face, interpersonal contact. Although societies are making meaningful advances in the return to some pre-pandemic normalcy in 2021 and beyond, much remains uncertain. Reliance upon online communication platforms may, by necessity, retain their importance. To that end, it is helpful to reflect on the shift to online unionism amid the pandemic, considering what worked and what did not, what to retain even if social distancing recedes and what might present on-going obstacles to navigate where it persists. As part of this effort, we offer insights from the Financial Services Union (FSU), a union representing staff in the financial services sector in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Great Britain, with approximately 15,000 members. Almost overnight in March 2020, FSU, like so many others, turned from a union based in offices and workplaces to a virtual union operating online and remotely. Below we look at how FSU dealt with the challenge of shifting operations online and reflect on the experience of bargaining, engaging the membership and organising new members. Becoming an online union All trade unionists will testify 2020 brought some unique challenges for representatives and members. Ensuring that the turn to home working was mindful of childcare difficulties, supports for selfisolation , maintaining socially distant workplaces with adequate ventilation and cleaning facilities sat alongside more familiar issues like pay bargaining and job protection measures. Representatives in FSU, as elsewhere, had to tackle these issues headon , albeit remotely, while simultaneously adjusting to a new environment of engaging with employers online via new technology. Compounding these challenges was the need to coordinate and respond to the needs of a now dispersed membership: some working from home, others on-site in highly controlled environments. Thankfully, the union had - by pure luck- in 2019 and early 2020 upgraded its phone systems and internal software packages, including adding Microsoft Teams and installing VPN’s (virtual private network) software to facilitate remote network access. Consequently, only a small number of laptops and upgrades were required to support all staff and officers working from home. There was minimal disruption to the union’s day-to-day operations as a result, and the union quite quickly adapted to the technical requirements of going online. However, having the hardware and software available does not necessarily mean everyone can and will use it. The union utilised its online education platform (https://unionlink.org/) to develop Microsoft Teams training modules. Here, staff and officers worked in virtual groups to complete training modules involving individual and teamwork exercises. Notably, the prospect of remote working within FSU impelled greater urgency in taking steps to deepen staff interactions in compensation for the loss of in-person dynamics. Officers instituted more team and all-staff meetings than previously done in person in the office – which was often not possible when staff were engaged in different activities on sites or in representations with employers, civil servants or politicians. The industrial relations team began meeting twice a week, with specific communications meetings at the end of the week, while the organising team began meeting once a week. In part, the union’s General Secretary drove this change, moving the focus away from longer-term work plans...

The Impact of Cross-Industry Pollution, Consumer Environmental Awareness, and Corporate Social Responsibility on Industrial Environmental Policies

In this paper, I established a cross-industry pollution externality design and used the three-stage game analysis framework to discuss the issues linked to firm output, labor union negotiation wages, and the government’s optimal environmental tax. We show that with environmentally oriented corporate social responsibility, the government’s optimal environmental tax rate and firms’ residual pollution abatement level will decrease, which is conducive to environmental protection, and the negotiated wages of all firms will increase. With environmentally oriented corporate social responsibility, the profits and union utility of industry firms will increase, as will the overall consumer surplus and the social welfare level, but there will be no effect on the profit and union utility of firms whose productivity is reduced by pollution.

Папството, Константинополската патриаршия и Вторият Лионски събор (1274 г.)

The current publications present information about the history of church union negotiations in the second half of the 13th century. The mane goal of emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus is to stop the military campaign against Byzantium. At the Second Council of Lyons (6 July 1274) was declared a union between Catholics and Orthodox. This is the most significant opportunity for the unity of Christendom. But the union also became an occasion for final division. Then any attempt at rapprochement is doomed to failure.

Union negotiations, product market cooperation, and profits

AbstractWithin the context of a unionized duopoly with decentralized Right‐to‐Manage wage negotiations, this paper investigates how different measures of product market cooperation impact firms' profitability. In the presence of exogenous production costs, a classical result in industrial economics is that conjectural derivatives (CD) and conjectural elasticities (CE) lead to similar results, and CE reproduce exactly the same output decision level (and, therefore, profits) of the coefficient of cooperation (CC). These results show that wage bargaining alters those relations; in particular, the equivalence of the CE and CC no longer holds true.

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA’S RENEWABLE ENERGY POLICY AND PERSPECTIVE

Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the richest countries in the Balkans in terms of renewable energy sources. Although Bosnia and Herzegovina has energy sources such as geothermal, solar and wind, the primary sources of electricity supply are from hydroelectric power plants and thermal power plants. The share of these two sources in total consumption is 62%. Drina attracts investors in the sector with nearly 200 hydroelectric power generation projects located on big and other small rivers such as Neretva, Bosnia, Una, Trebisnjica and Vrbas. According to Bosnia and Herzegovina 2019 data, it has an electricity generation capacity of approximately 18,000 GW. It is ranked ninth in the world in terms of hydroelectric power. Also, renewable energy potential in Bosnia and Herzegovina, such as wind, biomass and geothermal energy, is quite high. Especially the southern part of the country has been identified as the corridor of wind energy. In the examinations made, it has been determined that Bosnia and Herzegovina's performance coefficient in wind energy potential is above 30% of the EU average. However, the country's population density includes sensitive situations for new energy investments due to migration and geopolitical reasons. Despite this, the successful progress in the European Union negotiations and the laws enacted in the field of renewable energy also offer very attractive investment areas. In this study, a prospective approach was made regarding the renewable energy policy of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the economic approach of the country to renewable energy and the renewable energy policies of the government were discussed.Keywords: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Renewable Energy, Renewable Energy Policy, Energy Perspective.JEL Classifications: Q2, O2, N74, F13.DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.9777

Talent reward and gender wage gap in the hospitality industry

In this paper, we estimate the returns from human capital and the gender wage gap by applying Oaxaca and Ransom's decomposition method to a database of 2240 workers in the Spanish hospitality. The aim of this paper is to investigate the relative impact of talent and gender on wages and value generation among highly qualified white-collar workers in the Spanish tourism sector. Our results show relevant information on the attitude of firms toward talent management and reward and highlight the relevance of sectoral agreements in the hospitality sector. The results suggest a growing commitment among Spanish hospitality companies to the better management of talent and the commitment of workers with education as the best way to keep their job and improve their career. Our findings highlight union negotiations to reduce the gender wage gap, as well as with to improve significantly some variables related to human capital and suggests a commitment on the part of companies to retain talent. However, this increase differed by gender: more managerial positions were gained by men than by women.

Social media e relazioni industriali

What impact the social media instruments are having on industrial relationships and, in particular, on collective bargaining? This subject, despite the widespread use of such instruments, is only partially investigated.The theme is here observed from the point of view of an Industrial Relations’ operator, by trying to grasp some trends from the experience, in discontinuity with respect to the traditional schemes of the bargaining, which seem to be linked to the pervasive confirmation of new mass communication tools. The most evident aspects are the simplification of language, the focus of trade union negotiations on immediately perceptible issues as responding to the needs of workers, and the progressive disappearance of the liturgical aspects of the negotiations.In addition, a substantial lack of regulation about the use of social media in the framework of the industrial relationships is highlighted.

Innovazioni Tecnologiche tra forma e sostanza del Contratto Collettivo

The essay analyses the impact of technological innovation on trade union negotiations and contractual models.The Author offers a brief reflection by observing this evolution directly from the bargaining table.

The Bantu Presbyterian Church in South Africa and Ecumenism, 1940–1999

From 1940, ecumenical developments in the Presbyterian/Congregational corpus in Southern Africa became more tortuous and complex, with an expansion of the number of denominations involved in union negotiations to include the Bantu Presbyterian Church of South Africa (BPCSA, from 1979 the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa, RPCSA), the Congregational Union of South Africa, later the United Congregational Church of South Africa, the Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa and the Tsonga Presbyterian Church (TPC, later the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of South Africa, EPCSA). The problem statement centres around the complex situation that despite substantial similarities in doctrine, liturgy and polity, as well as involvement in the Church Unity Commission and the South African Council of Churches, the union proved to be elusive. The aim of this article is to investigate the dynamics of the developing relationships and hindrances to closer relationships in the wider South African context. This study is conducted from the perspective of the BPCSA and RPCSA, and the methodology is based predominantly on archival research.

Explaining the European Central Bank’s limited reform ambition: ordoliberalism and asymmetric integration in the eurozone

ABSTRACTWhile the literature on the eurozone crisis has focused on the increasing primacy of intergovernmental decision-making, the transformation in the role played by the European Central Bank (ECB) from technocratic actor to key political decision-maker has been less well studied. A discursive institutionalist analysis is applied to explore the ECB’s interactions during the European Union (EU) negotiations on EU fiscal governance reform. As well as locating ideas at different levels of generality during the eurozone crisis, the important role of macroeconomic ideology in informing different integration scenarios within the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) is made explicit. The dominance of ordoliberalism in framing the ECB’s diagnosis of the eurozone crisis, informing policy solutions, and in providing a decentralised integration path for officials to follow are key findings here. Finally, this article provides evidence that the key hypotheses of the new intergovernmentalism can be extended to include the ‘de novo’ institutions.