Union Perspective Research Articles

Looking for Loyalty in All the Wrong Places: A Study of Union and Organization Commitments

Unionized public employees were divided into those who were (a) committed to the union, (b) committed to the organization, (c) committed to both the organization and the union, and (d) uncommitted. ANCOVA was used to assess the effect of differential impacts of commitment on organizational outcomes. It was found that two groups (the dually committed and the organizationally committed) generally had higher positive outcomes that the other two groups (the uncommitted and the unionists). For example, the dually committed and the organizationally committed report higher job satisfaction, supervisory effectiveness, occupational identity, and control over work as compared to the other two groups. However, when comparing those who were dually committed to those who were organizationally committed, it was found that there was only one significant positive outcome—enhanced union-management relations. In contrast, those who were dually committed compared to those who were unionists report higher job satisfaction, promotion satisfaction, occupational identity, community support, supervisory trust, supervisory effectiveness, enhanced control and improve morale. Therefore, from the organizational perspective, there may be some marginal value in fostering dual commitment. More importantly however, it would be counterproductive to use resources to compete against the union for employee loyalty. From the union perspective, it appears that their members would greatly benefit from being dually committed.

The State, the Bourgeoisie, and the Unions

Mexico’s unions combine features of a state institution, a party machine, and an employment service with those of corrupt and authoritarian unions. These hybrid institutions have been partners with the state and the bourgeoisie in disciplining the working class both in the workplace and politically. A number of features of union organization and perspective contribute to this controlling role. The state and the bourgeoisie have again enlisted labor officialdom to contain working-class discontent in the face of the crisis of the Mexican regime and of the neoliberal project. This recycling of the system of labor control is fully compatible with the interests of this hybrid and opportunist set of labor leaders, interests that are far from those of their membership and the vast masses of unorganized workers. Rank-and-file workers and the left have not yet been able to launch an effective challenge to this system of control.

Trade Union Perspectives on Diversity Management: A Comparison of the UK and Denmark

This article compares the viewpoints of trade union activists in the UK and Denmark on diversity management. While this concept is spreading rapidly across Europe, very different attitudes are revealed among equality activists and officials in the two countries. The article distinguishes between understandings of diversity management as a descriptor, theoretical approach, and policy approach. The main differences between the countries emerge with regard to diversity management as a policy approach, which is regarded with great scepticism in the UK and with great enthusiasm in Denmark. Explanations for these differences are offered, involving prior experiences of anti-discrimination activities, industrial relations approaches, and the wider political context.

The Future of Schools from a European Union Perspective: Selecting, Analyzing and Disseminating the Most Innovative Approaches towards the School of Tomorrow

What can we learn from European Union (EU) school projects about future learning approaches? The EU has invested massively in information and communication technologies (ICT) projects promoting innovative use of new technologies in school settings. The aim of the project ‘School Foresight’, with partners in Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Romania, the Czech Republic and Sweden, was to select and reflect on the best projects done so far. These projects were popularized and presented at the European Science Week in the autumn of 2004 and reached more than 10,000 students in five countries. This article describes and discusses the School Foresight project and the selection process of innovative EU projects showing the way towards the school of tomorrow. A number of best cases will be presented and discussed in a European, American and global context. The school of the future is both a question of what is possible and what is desired. Different scenarios might be preferable depending on local context, history, language, etc., or, are we all moving into the ‘global classroom’?

Prevention Strategies: New Departures A Union Perspective

This paper provides a trade union perspective on the changes to the New Zealand statutory framework for injury prevention during the 1990s, in the context of the political, social and economic environment of the time, and the measures taken since the election of the Labour led government in 1999 to legislate employee rights, foster applied injury programmes on an industry basis, and to acknowledge injury prevention as a community responsibility. It concludes that these "new departures" are essentially those identified by the Woodhouse Royal Commission in 1967.

International Conference on Climate Policy After Marrakech: Toward Global Participation - A Conference Summary

The Kyoto Protocol, as detailed in the Marrakech Accords, has now been rendered fit for ratification. In anticipation of the Protocol's entry into force, attention has focused on how Annex I countries can put a package of climate policies in place to meet their emissions targets. In the meantime, discussions of what comes next are expected to gain increasing legitimacy, given that the Kyoto targets are only the first step toward addressing the long-term global climate issue. Against this background, the East-West Center organized the international conference on Climate Policy After Marrakech: Towards Global Participation in Honolulu, Hawaii, on September 4-6, 2003. Sponsored by the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, the Japanese Ministry of the Environment, Industrial Technology Research Institute (Hsinchu, Taiwan), and Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (Kanagawa, Japan), this major event brought together senior technical bureaucrats, well-respected policy analysts, and experienced practitioners to 1) share their views on recent developments in climate policies and initiatives around the globe; 2) advance our understanding of the actions and policy frameworks that can contribute to compliance with Kyoto emissions targets; and 3) discuss the paths forward to a global regime of wider participation and deeper greenhouse emissions cuts. Presentations and discussions are organized under the following six session headings: Session I: Climate Change in Focus - From Science to Policy; Session II: U.S. Climate Policy and Perspectives; Session III: European Union Climate Policy and Perspectives; Session IV: Challenges for other Major Industrialized Countries; Session V: Issues Related to Developing Countries; and Session VI: Panel Discussions: Where Do We Go from Here?. This conference report provides a summary of each presentation and a comprehensive account of 7-hour discussions.

Who should code your conduct? Trade union and NGO differences in the fight for workers' rights

The debate over workplace codes of conduct has created tensions between trade unions and human rights NGOs. These tensions result from the inherent structural differences between interest‐driven trade unions and ideals‐driven human rights NGOs. The differences play themselves out in how these actors pursue social justice in a globalised economy. Human rights NGOs tend to see codes of conduct as a method to prevent violations, akin to their traditional work on legal reform and human rights monitoring. Trade unions assess codes for their potential to help empower workers, especially to help ensure freedom of association, which will lead to the realisation of participatory rights. In our understanding of human rights as a means of empowerment for vulnerable groups, we argue that the trade union perspective on human rights is a good long‐term approach. Short‐term successes, such as improving working conditions through outside patronage, seem useful only to the extent they serve this long‐term goal.

Negotiating and Teaching Workplace Drug Testing: A Labor Perspective

Workplace drug testing policy as an issue for collective bargaining is discussed from a union perspective. A framework of union values is recommended to guide labor's negotiations. Exhibits offer a pre-negotiations checklist, sample questions for employers on proposed drug testing policy, and a letter to union members to educate them about workplace drug testing. Labor educators are encouraged to assist unions by teaching classes on workplace drug testing. The study presents a list of potential class topics and gives anecdotal observations about unionists' responses to this teaching topic.

1990s – Decade of Change

This paper provides a trade union perspective on the changes to New Zealand accident compensation laws during the 1990s, in the context of the political, social and economic environment of the time, and measures those changes, including the changing structure of the statutory scheme and its delivery, against the original Woodhouse Commission principles of Community Responsibility, Comprehensive Entitlement, Real Compensation, Complete Rehabilitation, and Administrative Efficiency.

Alimentos funcionales y nutrición óptima: ¿Cerca o lejos?

El concepto de alimento funcional, aún no consensuado científicamente, surge en el seno de la Nutrición Óptima, encaminada a modificar aspectos genéticos y fisiológicos y a la prevención y tratamiento de enfermedades, más allá de la mera cobertura de las necesidades de nutrientes. Bajo la perspectiva de la Unión Europea, pueden ser tanto alimentos naturales como procesados industrialmente. Los alimentos funcionales más relevantes y sobre los que recae la más sólida evidencia científica son los probióticos, microorganismos vivos representados fundamentalmente por los derivados lácteos fermentados. Los prebióticos, como los fructanos tipo inulina, son el sustrato trófico de los probióticos y potenciales selectores de la flora colónica. La asociación de un prebiótico y un probiótico se denomina simbiótico. Se conocen innumerables sustancias con actividad funcional: fibra soluble e insoluble, fitosteroles, fitoestrógenos, ácidos grasos monoinsaturados y poliinsaturados, derivados fenólicos, vitaminas y otros fitoquímicos. Los alimentos funcionales ejercen su actividad en múltiples sistemas, especialmente el gastrointestinal, cardiovascular e inmunológico. Se comportan como potenciadores del desarrollo y la diferenciación, moduladores del metabolismo de nutrientes, la expresión génica, el estrés oxidativo y la esfera psíquica. La construcción de alegaciones sanitarias dirigidas al consumidor debe cimentarse en el conocimiento científico y la regulación legal. Es preciso encontrar biomarcadores eficientes del efecto biológico, analizar las posibles interacciones y realizar estudios válidos en humanos. El objetivo prioritario, sin embargo, debe ser la dieta en su conjunto. Emerge así el futuro reto de una dieta funcional.

Sustainable Development: A Trade Union Perspective

Sustainable development has become an important issue for trade unions around the world, but progress on sustainable development has been slow. Agenda 21, which came out of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, called on workers and trade unions to assume an active role. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) became influential players who represent more than 155 million members in 148 countries and territories. The implementation of Agenda 21 has been hampered by bureaucratic gridlock--a situation that trade unions propose to overcome through innovative strategies on workplaces and workers. They realize that sustainable development cannot take place without radical changes in production and consumption. Globalization is creating opulence on the one hand and grinding poverty on the other. ICFTU and TUAC propose a new "world order" that includes democratic decision-making, popular accountability, transparency, and local control. They have proposed priorities, outlined in this article, for an international approach to sustainable development.

Social protection in Europe: A European trade union perspective

Governments and social partners in the European Union (EU) look for ways and means to adapt welfare systems to new needs, to keep expenditure under control, and to find alternative and supplementary financial resources in order to cope with future financial commitments. The EU is actively involved in the search for solutions to these common problems. It becomes more and more evident that only an active economic, budgetary, taxation and social policy mix can provide a solid base for safeguarding social systems. The author presents the most recent figures relating to actual and future social protection expenditure in the EU, disaggregated according to function and showing significant differences between gross and net figures. Attention is also paid to coverage and replacement rates of social benefits and to the availability of social infrastructures. The article then shows the shifts in implicit tax rates on labour in comparison with the rate on other factors. The conclusion outlines a European trade union view on the future of social protection in Europe and suggests possible issues for social benchmarking.

Changing Work Relationships in Industrialized Economies

1. Preface 2. Introduction and Overview (by Zeytinoglu, Isik Urla) 3. 1. Changing Work Relationships: Enacting Gender, Race / Ethnicity and Economic Class (by Zeytinoglu, Isik Urla) 4. Part I: Changing Work Relationships in The United States and Canada 5. 2. Flexible Work Arrangements: An Overview of Developments in The United States (by Nollen, Stanley) 6. 3. Flexible Work Arrangements: An Overview of Developments in Canada (by Zeytinoglu, Isik Urla) 7. 4. Part-Time Employment and the Worker (by Gallagher, Daniel G.) 8. 5. Telework and Teleworkers (by Templer, Andrew) 9. Part II: Changing Work Relationships in THe European Union 10. 6. Changing work relationships in the European Union (by Delsen, Lei) 11. 7. European Employment Policies' Potential impact on Female Workers (by Meulders, Daniele) 12. 8. Regulating the distanced Work force: Self Employment in the United Kingdom (by Druker, Jan) 13. Part III: Changing Work Relationships in Australia 14. 9. Changing work relationships in Australia (by Quinlan, Michael) 15. Part IV: Views of the Stakeholders 16. 10. A Union Perspective on Emerging Trends in the wokplace (by Hinton, Louisette) 17. 11. Between strategic Choice and Adaptation: The Role of UNICE in the European Social Dialogue (by Stroby Jensen, Carsten) 18. 12. Atypical forms of Work in the European Union Experiences at the Establishment Level (by Bielenski, Harald) 19. 13. International Policymaking: The ILO Standards on Changing Work Relationships (by Zeytinoglu, Isik Urla) 20. Appendix: European framework Agreement on Part-Time Work 21. Biographical Sketches of the Contributors 22. Index

Workers' Democracy

Conventional definitions of union democracy are too limited to encompass the broad majority of people in and outside unions who are struggling for control over their workplaces. In particular, denotation of U.S. labor law and trade union perspectives of union democracy are far too narrow to give workers participatory power. Thus the concept of union democracy must be reinterpreted to include workers of all kinds (unionized workers, nonunion workers, and farmers); protection of the rights to strike, picket, and slow down; and the demand for worker‐community ownership. This article examines two recent examples of workers' democracy: the Serbian revolution of 2000 and the Zapatistas' ongoing struggle in Chiapas, Mexico.

Whistleblowing at Work

The law relating to whistleblowing whistleblowing and business ethics whistleblowing in accountancy whistleblowing and human resource management whistleblowing in the Health Service whistleblowing in local government whistleblowing in education a trade union perspective on whistleblowing a whistleblower's perspective providing advice on whistleblowing by public concern at work.

Local Labour Markets and the Reconfiguration of the Sugar Industry in Northeast Brazil

This paper focuses on a set of debates surrounding the working of local labour markets in the depressed sugarcane sector of Pernambuco, which faces strong competition from the Centre‐South of Brazil. Millowner, planter, labour and union perspectives on current problems in the sugar industry and their solution are reviewed, with particular reference to issues of low productivity, access to land and the potential for diversification out of sugar. Historical antagonisms between (white) landowner classes and (black) labour, and their reworking in recent years, complicated by competing economic rationalities between these groups, make progress towards viable, sustainable socioeconomic improvement difficult. Employer attempts at reconfiguration of the labour market by relocating sites of labour reproduction (thereby breaking old social attachments) while retaining control over labour at sites of production bring continued conflict with the unions.

Antibiotics—New Indications

Objective: Antibiotics approved for use several years ago may still have noninformative sections of their Summary of Product Characteristics (SPCs) (eg, therapeutic indications). This article describes the process of updating and improving these SPC texts in Sweden. Methods: In the renewal procedure for nationally approved antibiotics in Sweden, the marketing authorization holders were requested by the Medical Products Agency (MPA) to suggest a detailed indication text for each antibiotic, supported by an expert report. Updated pharmacodynamic texts, in accordance with the newly approved European Union guidelines, were also requested. The documentation was then scrutinized by the MPA. Results: After a dialogue between the MPA and the marketing authorization holders new SPC texts for the antibiotics were decided on by the MPA. Conclusion: The Swedish updating of the SPCs for antibiotics is a pioneering work in the European Union perspective. It may serve as an inspiration for drug authorities or other organizations within the European Union, to improve the standard of product information relating to a group of drugs.

Effective Employee Discipline: A Case of the Internal Revenue Service

The role of employee discipline from a management, employee, and union perspective is examined using the Internal Revenue Service as a case study example. The concept of discipline is defined and contrasted with punishment. Also, two discipline models — progressive discipline and positive discipline — are compared and contrasted. A hybrid discipline model used at the Internal Revenue Service is discussed; the roles and responsibilities of management, the union, and the employee in the discipline process are included also. In particular, the roles of IRS managers and the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) are outlined. Results from the recently released IRS/NTEU National Equal Employment Opportunity Task Force Report are highlighted. Several discipline pitfalls are outlined including: cultural diversity issues, tolerance of poor performers, and lack of managerial training. To make the disciplinary process fairer and less stressful for managers and all employees, recommendations from the IRS/NTEU report are presented.

Worker participation and co-operative corporate management in international corporations from a trade union perspective

Worker participation and co-operative corporate management in international corporations from a trade union perspective

Civil War Arkansas: Beyond Battles and Leaders

Civil War Arkansas: Beyond Battles and Leaders. Edited by Anne J. Bailey and Daniel E. Sutherland. (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2000. Pp. x, 304. Acknowledgments, list of contributors, series editors' preface, introduction, illustrations, notes, index. $34.00, cloth; $22.00, paper.) In their introductory chapter to Civil War Arkansas: Beyond Battles and Leaders, editors Anne Bailey and Daniel Sutherland note that prior to the 1960s the Civil War in Arkansas and the rest of the Trans-Mississippi received about the same minimal degree of attention from historians as it had from the Confederate government (p. 8). But the renewed interest that accompanied the centennial celebration of the war precipitated dramatic increase in historical writing devoted to the war in Arkansas. In their endnotes, Bailey and Sutherland document approximately two hundred books and articles on the subject, making it undoubtedly the most written about topic in all of Arkansas history. Composed of articles revised and reprinted from scholarly journalsincluding the Arkansas Historical Quarterly-Beyond Battles and Leaders continues recent trend in Civil War historiography by exploring how events on the battlefield affected and were affected by social and economic forces in society at large and in individual communities. As this volume clearly demonstrates, the war had devastating impact both on those who served in the Union and Confederate armies and on the civilian population. It also reveals the extent to which Arkansans, despite the state convention's overwhelming vote for secession following the attack on Fort Sumter, remained severely divided in their sympathies. The state never presented united front during the conflict, fact that posed great dilemma for both Confederate and Union authorities in the state. Kim Allen Scott examines this problem from the Union perspective in chapter dealing with the conflict between two Federal commanders over the issue of the treatment of civilian property. Carl Moneyhon looks at the issue from the Confederate perspective in chapter entitled Disloyalty and Class Consciousness in Southwestern Arkansas, 1862-1865. Unionist sentiment in northwest Arkansas has been clearly documented, but Moneyhon examines the widespread hostility to Confederate authority in region of the state that had given majority to pro-slavery candidate John C. Breckinridge in the presidential election of 1860. He argues that this broad-based opposition, which ranged from draft resistance to armed encounters between Union loyalists and Confederate forces, was rooted in a growing antagonism among the region's lower classes against the elites (pp. …