Union Power Resources Research Articles

Chinese investment in Central and Eastern Europe: Studying the evolution of industrial relations after the takeover of a Slovenian company

The article studies the approach Chinese investors apply to industrial relations at the company level in Central and Eastern Europe. The takeover of a home appliances producer in Slovenia by a Chinese state-owned enterprise and the trajectory of company-level industrial relations are analysed. Adopting a political economy approach, we examine the role played by market-related factors (especially FDI motivation), institutional context, trade union power resources and the Chinese state as an investor. The study contributes in two ways. First, it shows the inadequacy of market-based explanations as host institutions and actors modify transfer outcomes, blurring the ideal types, such as the ‘latecomer’ model and its apparent CEE counterpart. Second, the strategic interests of Chinese SOEs may unwillingly empower local actors struggling to influence transfer outcomes.

Differing industrial relations: The public and the private sector in Germany

AbstractThis article argues that industrial relations (IR) in the German public sector are not just a replica of private sector IR. It suggests that neither the structures, nor the outcomes can be sufficiently explained by derivation from private sector IR processes. Primarily, the specifics and developments of the public sector explain public sector IR. It is of fundamental importance whether trade unions operate in a profit‐driven market environment or a publicly financed environment that is under public control. Differences between the public and the private sector result not least in the distinct relevance and meanings of trade union power resources. This influences the ways in which industrial action in the private and the public sector works and is relevant for trade union strategies.

Production of nature and labour agency. How the subsumption of nature affects trade union action in the fishery and aquaculture sectors in Aysén, Chile

This research seeks to link labour studies with political ecology by studying how the subsumption of nature affects labour agencies in fisheries and aquaculture in Aysén, Chile. For this purpose, the time-space-form approach is used to compare their impact on the distribution of union power resources between these sectors. The findings indicate that the labour agency is impacted by natural materiality and the environment unequally according to the strategy of appropriation and commodification of nature. This relationship between labour and nature is mediated by the organisation of the labour process, because bio-geographical conditions set the process of resource appropriation and commodification and, consequently, shape the relationship between capital and labour.

Trade union revitalization in hard times: a mission impossible?

The relation between trade unions’ power resources and their ability to revitalize is contentious. One strand of literature claims that weak power resources prevent unions from undertaking efforts to restore their strength and influence, while another research strand argues that the depletion of power resources may stimulate unions to take such actions. This Special Issue tests these conflicting expectations with evidence from eight Central-Eastern European (CEE) countries. It focuses on the drivers and outcomes of different types of revitalization strategies that CEE unions employ to respond to challenges. By examining the link between union power resources and their revitalization strategies, it expands the scholarly knowledge on the preconditions and limits of union revitalization in adverse contexts.

Multiple strategies but small gains: Trade union revitalization and power resources in Central Eastern Europe after 2008

This study comparatively examines the relationship between revitalization strategies and trade union power resources in Central Eastern Europe. It shows that the post-2008 weakening of union power resources in the region served as a catalyst for a wide range of revitalization strategies, many of which included elements not documented in the revitalization literature. In most cases, union revitalization strategies involved the mobilization of organizational and societal resources and were geared towards (re)building statutory rights for unions and (re)establishing legal guarantees for workers. This ‘institutional longing’, however, left many organizations oblivious to membership decline, which may threaten their long-term survival.

Ryanair pilots: Unlikely pioneers of transnational collective action

In aviation, EU single market rules empowered Ryanair over three decades to defeat all pilot unions across Europe, regardless of the notionally strong power resources on which they were relying in their countries. Nonetheless, in December 2017, a transnational group of union-related pilots, the European Employee Representative Committee was critical in forcing Ryanair to finally recognize trade unions. This study shows that multinationals’ ability to circumvent national union power resources does not necessarily undermine transnational collective action. Hence, transnational union strength does not primarily depend on an aggregation of national power resources, but on union activists’ ability to exploit union-friendly peculiarities that the EU governance regime is also providing. We show that the apparently weaker institutional power resources at EU level provides more effective leverage for transnational collective action than apparently stronger power resources embedded within French, Danish, or Norwegian labour law. This requires an understanding of scale.

Trade Unions in Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives: What Shapes Their Participation?

There is a growing concern about the extent to which multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs), designed to improve social and environmental sustainability in global supply chains, give a meaningful voice to less powerful stakeholders. Trade unions are one particular civil society group whose participation in MSIs has received little scholarly attention so far. The objective of this paper is to examine the determinants that enable and constrain trade union participation in MSIs. Based on interviews, focus groups, observations and document analysis we determine local trade union participation in three MSIs, operating at company, national and transnational level respectively, in the Costa Rican pineapple industry. To explain the limited encountered trade union participation, an analytical framework is developed combining structural and agency dimensions, namely the MSI design and trade union’s power resources. The findings show shortcomings in the representativeness, procedural fairness and consensual orientation in the design and implementation of the MSIs. These are, however, not sufficient to explain weak trade union participation as trade union power resources also have an influence. Strong network embeddedness and improved infrastructural resources had a positive effect, whereas the lack of internal solidarity and unfavourable narrative resources constrained the unions’ participation.

Framing, Resources and Repertoire of Local Trade Union Action for Health and Safety: A Study Conducted with a Quebec Central Labour Body

Employment and working conditions having an impact on health and safety are some of the most important concerns of workers. Amongst the various means by which trade unions contribute to prevention, the contribution of Worker Safety Representatives (WSR) is well-established and the most studied, including their participation in joint occupational health and safety committees (JOHSC). However, there are surprisingly few studies examining the place of OHS as an issue of workers’ collective action. Conducted with a large Quebec Central Labour Body, this study aims to understand why and how local-level unions concentrate upon these issues, the repertoire of means that they employ and the context that supports or hindus such actions. The conceptual framework is based on previous realistic evaluations of OHS preventive interventions and includes Levesque and Murray’s (2010) trade union power resources and strategic capabilities. In phase I, eleven semi-structured interviews were conducted with union staff members and elected representatives from different sectors, covering a wide array of activities such as unionization, training, negotiation, OHS prevention and compensation. Results also refer to five case studies (phase 2) of local-level trade unions identified by phase 1 respondents as particularly active in relation to prevention. The process by which working conditions having a negative impact on OHS are framed (or not) as trade union issues is examined. Levers and barriers are also identified. Factors affecting the presence of resources for trade union autonomous action aimed at prevention (like the integration of WSR to the union core structure, release time for prevention, etc.) are highlighted. A widely diverse repertoire of workplace-level trade union means of action for OHS is also highlighted by the interviews and case studies, not limited just to those provided by the Quebec OHS regime. It includes the recourse to labour relations mechanisms (e.g. negotiation and strike) and is based on an autonomous agenda, including mobilization. The potential of OHS issues for union revitalization is discussed, as well as the barriers that must be overcome.

Unions as “managers of precariousness”

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to argue that: in a context of global labour market competition and in the absence of new strategic repertoires, class trade unions are progressively becoming “managers of precariousness”. Thus, the paper challenges the compromise logic as the unique solution to corporate threats to relocation, since it undermines trade union power resources, mainly discursively and organisationally, and hinders trade union capacity to transform the balance of forces to their favour later, when the hegemonic discourse can more easily be challenged in periods of crisis.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws upon the doctoral fieldwork the author undertook in the city and province of Barcelona during Spring–Summer 2015. More than 30 semi-structured interviews to various union delegates and regional metal officials have been accompanied by an exhaustive review of primary and secondary documentation. In so doing, this paper gives a rich and nuanced account on the different “world-views” and strategies that union delegates pursue when bargaining against transnational corporations.FindingsThis paper shows how the conservative position that Spanish trade unions adopted to the 2008 financial crisis in the automotive industry is path-dependent to dynamics established during the 1990s when lean production techniques were implemented in exchange for higher salaries. It draws upon the collective bargaining history of the Nissan–Zona–Franca assembly factory in the outskirts of Barcelona to, crucially, explain how signing micro-corporatist pacts and portraying them as the unique solution to corporate threats to relocation undermines trade union power resources, and has two important drawbacks: that micro-corporatist pacts only postpone the recurring threat to relocation to the future by eroding, not improving, the conditions of the workforce, accepting corporate discourse erodes the solidarity among workers, and it also allows yellow unions to displace class unions.Originality/valueThis paper enriches and updates the literature on micro-corporatism, collective bargaining in transnational corporations, and the erosion of trade union power resources which dates back to the 1990s and early 2000s. Whilst the negative aspects that competitiveness pacts have on workers’ salaries and conditions have been widely reported, this paper provides a rich and updated explanation of how such pacts have negative repercussions on the discursive and organisational power resources that unions have at the workplace level. In that sense, the originality of this paper rests on engaging into a substantiated historical analysis on how trade unions change throughout time as a result, at least partially, of their own strategic choices. Moreover, this paper clearly shows that concessionary positions towards collective bargaining are self-undermining.

'An End to Cheap Labour' How a Public Campaign May Become a Turning Point for Czech Unions' Strength

The main Czech trade union confederation, the CMKOS, launched its campaign for 'An End to Cheap Labour' at a rally of 1500 trade unionists on 16 September 2015. The aim was to start closing the pay gap with Western Europe which, even after 25 years of transformation into a market economy and subsequent accession to the EU, left Czech wages about one third the level of richer countries of western Europe. It is not clear whether the campaign for 'An End to Cheap Labour' marks a complete turnaround in union fortunes, but it could mark an important first step in that direction. The following sections analyse the nature and effects of this campaign, starting with an overview of relevant aspects of the existing economic structure, followed by an assessment of the position of Czech trade unions at the time of its initiation based on the power resources approach. The results of the campaign, relating them to trade union power resources, are covered in subsequent sections.

Building solidarity at the flax-roots: standing committees for women, Maori and Pacific Island members inside the Wellington Hotel and Hospital Workers’ Union, 1979–1989

The Wellington Hotel and Hospital Workers’ Union successfully increased its membership participation and membership solidarity during the 1980s. It did this by implementing a union newspaper, delegate structure, delegate education, stopwork meetings and standing committees for women, Maori and Pacific Island members. We know that women’s structures increased female participation and leadership in trade unions, bringing about a partial ‘gender revolution’ by the end of the twentieth century. Drawing on a framework of union power resources, this article shows that despite some initial resistance implementing separate structures for Maori and Pacific Island members, as well as women, further increased Maori, Pasifika and women’s participation and leadership in the union, and led to increased union activism on social issues.

Employer strategies, cross-class coalitions and the free movement of labour in the enlarged European Union

The free circulation of workers and services in the European Union after its latest enlargements has been believed to foster a ‘race to the bottom’ in wage standards. This paper explains the strategies of national employer associations towards labour market regulations geared to protect national wage standards in the context of labour mobility. First, this article shows that employers in nontradable sectors confronted with strong trade unions support the regulation of wage standards in order to prevent foreign competitors from using lower wages as a competitive advantage. Second, the strategies of national employer associations (as protagonists, consenters or antagonists) are explained by sectoral power relationships within employer associations, trade union power resources and the risk of unilateral public intervention. A comparative case study analysis of regulation processes in Austria, Switzerland and Ireland shows that employer associations dominated by firms in non-tradable sectors are protagonists of wage regulation, while employer associations dominated by firms in tradable sectors consent to negotiate with trade unions about wage regulation in order to ensure labour acquiescence, or contain unilateral public intervention.

Trade union cross‐border alliances within MNCs: disentangling union dynamics at the local, national and international levels

ABSTRACTThis study identifies three types of workplace union strategy in the development of cross‐border relations within North American and European multinational companies: defensive isolation, risk reduction and proactive solidarity. Qualitative case studies of MNCs with operations in Canada and Mexico indicate that the nature and intensity of participation in cross‐border trade union alliances are shaped by the union dynamic at the local, national and international levels. A combination of greater workplace union power resources, notably discursive capacity, and of strong supportive approach of the national union, notably dedicated resources and space for bottom‐up initiatives, contributes to proactive solidarity strategies towards international union networks. The absence of these factors is associated with risk reduction and defensive isolation strategies.

Local Union Strategies in Cross-Border Alliances

Do the restructuring of production networks, the decentralization of collective bargaining, and the rearticulation of work sites one to another across borders prompt local unions to engage in cross-border solidarities? Drawing on three cases in Mexico and three cases in Canada, this study identifies three patterns of local union involvement in cross-border alliances: defensive isolationism, risk aversion, and proactive solidarity. Four factors are associated with greater union involvement in cross-border alliances: local union power resources, especially discursive capacity or narrative framing; the orientation of the national or industry union; the thickness of and resources provided by international regulation; and the articulation between these different levels.

No passage to India? Initial responses of UK trade unions to call centre offshoring

ABSTRACTThis article focuses on the first wave of call centre offshoring from the UK to India (2002–04). Trade union responses in five case‐study companies are documented. Drawing upon theories of union power resources, including international action, the relative efficacy of these union responses is analysed.

Post-Communist Workplace Relations in Hungary: Case Studies from the Clothing Industry

A decade after the fall of communism scholars widely agree that the transformation process of democratisation and marketisation in central eastern Europe (CEE) has left unions (new and independent and successors to the official communist unions alike) with little power to influence political and economic decision-making (Ost 1997; Thirkell et al. 1998). Typical explanations invoke economic factors such as privatisation, the restructuring of the economy and of firms, and the depressed labour market. They also highlight an increasingly hostile environment for unions created by a majority of the new private owners, which is supplemented by ‘distancing’ governments following neo-liberal policies (Pollert 1998). However, I argue that these factors as explanations for union weakness are not entirely convincing. For example, management behaviour and the political context clearly influences the power resources of unions but cannot entirely determine the position and policies of individual unions.