Union Activities Research Articles

The Labor Angle: Reflections on the History of the Working-Class and Radical Press

The Labor Angle: Reflections on the History of the Working-Class and Radical Press

Strategi dan kebijaksanaan P4GN dalam menciptakan penggiat anti Narkoba di lingkungan kerja

Drug abuse in Indonesia has reached an alarming level. The largest proportion of drug abusers in 2017 was the group of private workers and laborers, which was 59%. BNNK Batam in collaboration with trade unions and academics conducted a workshop with the theme of strategies and policies on Prevention, Eradication, Abuse, and Illicit Trafficking of Narcotics (P4GN) in creating anti-drug activists in the work environment. The purpose of this workshop is so that the participants can become BNN activists in the local environment. The strategies that must be carried out by the company and the trade unions themselves in P4GN's efforts in the work environment include: conducting medical tests for employees; drug testing for employees suspected of being addicts, intensive information dissemination and advocacy to provide education to workers; Trade unions must encourage their members to be active in P2K3, include drug problems in the collective labor agreement (PKB), and for employees: active in spiritual activities, nature lover activities, social activities, in sports activities, trade union activities, adequate rest and relaxation with family on holidays.

Innovation of Trade Union Work in Colleges and Universities Based on Mathematical Modeling and Multivariable Optimal Design

The constant expansion of higher education has led to the continuous increase of the teaching staff and the complexity of the work in the modern era of education, forcing the traditional colleges and universities (it is abbreviated as CU in this article) to participate in trade union activities to open up the road of innovation. What kind of method can effectively and quickly optimize trade union work (TUW) and improve satisfaction has become one of the research topics that has attracted much attention. Aiming at this problem, it has great research significance for the field of CU to participate in trade union activities. With the in-depth research on the work of trade unions in CU, the research on multivariate optimal design in the work of trade unions in CU is gradually carried out, and its advantages are of great significance for solving problems in the work of trade unions in CU. The purpose of this paper is to study the innovation of TUW mode in CU based on multivariate optimization. Through the analysis and research of the multivariate optimization idea, it can be applied to the innovation of the construction of the labor union work model in CU, and the multiobjective linear weighting method is used to solve the objective function, so as to solve the problem of improving the evaluation of labor union work satisfaction in CU. This paper analyzed the TUW in CU (it is abbreviated as TUW in this article) and the multivariate optimization design, conducted an experimental analysis on the improved TUW mode in CU, and used relevant theoretical formulas to explain. The results have shown that the overall evaluation score of the college TUW method proposed in this paper is higher than the traditional college TUW method, and the difference between the two is 18.7%. It can be seen that the university TUW based on mathematical modeling and multivariable optimal design can meet the innovation needs of university TUW, and the satisfaction and work efficiency are greatly improved.

P01-15 National focal point network for physical activity promotion - experiences from the european union

BackgroundAn analysis of currently existing partnerships and cross-country collaboration for physical activity (PA) promotion is valuable for understanding how such partnerships operate, and how they impact national PA promotion efforts. This study aimed to outline the structure of the European Union's (EU) National Physical Activity Focal Point Network, to evaluate its outputs and benefits, and to describe its potential and challenges.MethodsWe employed a mixed methods approach with three components: (1) document analysis of network meeting reports, (2) semi-structured interviews with key officials who were involved in establishing the network, and (3) an online evaluation survey with the national PA Focal Points.ResultsThe PA Focal Point Network was founded in 2014, and its main task is to coordinate the collection of information for the EU's HEPA Monitoring Framework. Each of the EU Member States nominated a representative to the network. Focal Points usually meet twice a year to discuss issues related to the HEPA Monitoring Framework and to share best practices and plan activities for the promotion of PA within the EU. The results of the evaluation survey show that participation in the network helped members to specify goals for PA promotion, gain knowledge, and identify opportunities to promote PA in their country. From the perspective of the Focal Points, most helpful outputs of the Network activity are the country factsheets on physical activity, the connections within the Network and the opportunity to share their experience with colleagues during meetings and group discussions.ConclusionsThe study shows that the PA Focal Point Network may serve as an example of successful cross-country collaboration in PA promotion. The network has supported the monitoring of the implementation of the EU Council Recommendation on HEPA across sectors in particular and of PA promotion in the EU in general. It also had positive effects on national PA promotion efforts and on cooperation between countries. All in all, the PA Focal Point Network can serve as an example for other world regions or policy areas that set up similar networks.

Meeting the Need for a Discussion of Unmet Medical Need

As Europe and the world continue to battle against COVID, the customary complacency of society over future threats is clearly on display. Just 30 months ago, such a massive disruption to global lives, livelihoods and quality of life seemed unimaginable. Some remedial European Union action is now emerging, and more is proposed, including in relation to tackling “unmet medical need” (UMN). This initiative—directing attention to the future of treating disease and contemplating incentives to stimulate research and development—is welcome in principle. But the current approach being considered by EU officials merits further discussion, because it may prove counter-productive, impeding rather than promoting innovation. This paper aims to feed into these ongoing policy discussions, and rather than presenting research in the classical sense, it discusses the key elements from a multistakeholder perspective. Its central concern is over the risk that the envisaged support will fail to generate valuable new treatments if the legislation is phrased in a rigidly linear manner that does not reflect the serpentine realities of the innovation process, or if the definition placed on unmet medical need is too restrictive. It cautions that such an approach presumes that “unmet need” can be precisely and comprehensively defined in advance on the basis of the past. It cautions that such an approach can reinforce the comfortable delusion that the future is totally predictable—the delusion that left the world as easy prey to COVID. Instead, the paper urges reflection on how the legislation that will shortly enter the pipeline can be phrased so as to allow for the flourishing of a culture capable of rapid adaptation to the unexpected.

Battered by Geopolitical Winds, Bulgaria Struggles to Restart Much Needed Reforms

Battered by Geopolitical Winds, Bulgaria Struggles to Restart Much Needed Reforms

The Social Biographical Approach in Global Labour History

Luis Inácio Lula Da Silva, originally a metalworker and trade union activist, was president of Brazil from 2003 to 2010, leading the largest country of Latin America, with more than 212 million people. In 2020, social and labour historian John D. French, with a long career devoted to Brazilian labour history, published the much acclaimed biography Lula and His Politics of Cunning: From Metalworker to President of Brazil.1 In this book, French explicitly aims to give a bottom-up account of Lula's life.

New Challenges for Trade Unions in the Face of Algorithmic Management in the Work Environment

Algorithmic management is the subject of numerous scientific studies. This article attempts to answer the question of what kinds of new competencies and skills should be acquired by trade unions in the face of challenges related to algorithmic management. The author indicates two main areas of trade union activities: The first concerns the challenges associated with the process of explaining and transplanting artificial intelligence. The second concerns participation in the AI certification process. Considering that artificial intelligence algorithms’certification process is an entirely new undertaking, it should be based on a pragmatic search for peaceful solutions, encourage compliance with the law and limit the possibility of stiff administrative and criminal sanctions. For this purpose, the author considers using the theory of responsive regulation as a pragmatic approach for certification agencies and trade unions. The author considers the cooperation of artificial intelligence to be the main principle. In the working environment, there should be a principle of human importance—the focus of personalism.

The Economy in Profound Transition: The Disruptive Realities of the Pandemic and the New Industrial Revolution

The mass economic upheaval of the past 2 years created conditions in the labor market not seen for 70 years prompting many to ask, “Where have all the workers gone?” The absence of willing workers to enter the job market is indicative of worker dissatisfaction causing mass resignations, a reassessment of workplace conditions, positive migration, and a perceived position of newfound power. Such shifts in the economy suggest renewed worker interest in union activities that may usher in a period of aggressive collective bargaining and energized organizing campaigns not seen since the early 1950s.

NLRB Drops Hammer on Bad‐Acting Employer

Experienced union prevention professionals are usually well versed in many of the hallmark violations of the National Labor Relations Act. Can I terminate union activists? Can I engage in surveillance? Of course not. That hasn't changed. What is changing, however, is the remedies. Until recently, the remedies for many such violations were limited to a notice posting among other legal notices and possible reinstatement and backpay for discriminatees. A recent decision by the NLRB in Amerinox Processing Inc., 371 NLRB No. 105 (2022), demonstrates how remedies are evolving to be more onerous for some employers.

The Origins of the Swedish Wage Bargaining Model

AbstractThis paper revisits the development of the canonical Swedish wage bargaining model, from the 1930s to the 1950s. The question at the core of the debate is: how did Sweden achieve “good” wage bargaining institutions -- good, in the sense of facilitating investment, employment, and controlled inflation? The conventional account focuses on the actions of employers and trade unions in export industry, and a cross-class alliance between the two. This paper questions this account. The paper builds on archival sources in the Swedish Labour Movement's Archives and Library in Stockholm: the minutes from the main trade union confederation's yearly wage policy discussions, in preparation for bargaining rounds. In total, some 1,500 pages of wage policy discussion. I find that the export sector cross-class alliance played a very small role, and that macro-corporatist concerns, that the labour movement had to take responsibility of all of society and pursue a planned wage policy, was much more important. This has theoretical implications for the analysis of wage bargaining institutions in general and the Swedish model in particular.

Filipina women’s resilience and survival strategies in the global economy: Focusing on Japan–Philippines relations since the 1970s

This article considers two cases of the interaction of Filipina women with Japan. The first section explains foreign direct investment has brought young Filipina women to work for wages in export processing zones. Despite the long working hours, their wages were suppressed to the minimum wage level, which did not allow them to be economically independent. So, they actively participated in illegal union activities to improve their working conditions. Japanese civil society as an international solidarity movement also supported their resistance. This was one of the triggers that made Japan reluctant to invest in the Philippines, but it also led to an increase in Filipina women’s migrants. The second section discusses Japan’s acceptance of Filipina women not as formal workers but as entertainers or “rural brides” to make up for the lack of wives among rural men. Japan tried to use Filipina women for its own convenience. Working abroad has various risks. Even if married officially, divorce and DV are not uncommon due to differences in values and language barriers with Japanese husbands. These Filipina women responded to various difficulties by forming Philippine networks in Japan, which collaborate with Japanese NGOs and people.

Demeaning face of politics and bureaucracy in labour movement in Kenya: A quest for an effective labour law

The Constitution of Kenya, 2010, the Labour Relations Act, 2007, and the Employment Act, 2007, along with several other labour statutes, are designed to facilitate the establishment of employer-employee unions that play a significant role in safeguarding the social, political, and economic rights/interests of their registered members. Employers and employees generally need a conducive environment to perform their daily duties. Of late, however, continuous interference from political and state machineries in the running of union activities has proved to be a bedrock for regular internal disputes between the management and employees of various institutions in the country. For instance, the Kenya National Union of Teachers has accused, on several occasions, the Teachers Service Commission and politicians of sabotaging the affairs of the union. This paper, therefore, aims to evaluate the constitutional and legal framework regulating the establishment and registration of trade unions in Kenya. Besides, with the aid of judicial pronouncements, it analyses the impact of politics and bureaucracy in exercising the right to freedom of association, an essential element in the survival of trade unions in Kenya. Finally, the paper proposes measures to counter the threat posed by external parties in running trade union activities.

ON THE ISSUE OF DEFECTS IN THE LAW OF THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN "ON TRADE UNIONS" (results of the analysis of legislation in the field of trade unions)

The legal status of trade unions in Kazakhstan is determined by a number of regulatory legal acts, in particular, the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Civil Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Public Associations", "On non-profit organizations", etc. The basis of the activity of trade unions in Kazakhstan is the new Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Trade Unions" adopted in 2014, which created a legal basis for expanding the representation of trade unions and their participation in social dialogue at all levels of social partnership. The article is devoted to the analysis of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Trade Unions", the practice of its application and is aimed at identifying problematic issues of improving legislation in the field of trade unions and developing scientifically sound recommendations for their resolution. At the same time, special attention is paid to the effectiveness of law enforcement practice. The analysis of legislation makes it possible to plan in more detail the main directions of legislative work, to identify areas of public relations that should be regulated by the norms of legislation, to justify the need to amend the current legislation and adopt new acts, to correlate them with the main directions of the state's legal policy. In this regard, the author of the study conducted an article-by-article analysis of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Trade Unions", investigated its systemic and social significance of application, identified corruption-related legal norms, assessed the effectiveness of their implementation, developed proposals to improve legislation in the field of trade unions. Thus, the relevance of this study is enhanced due to the objective needs of further improving the effectiveness of legislation in the field of trade unions, its consistency and consistency. The results of the study can be used in the formation of state policy in the field of legal regulation of trade unions and taken into account in legislative activity.

UNIONIZATION TENDENCIES IN PUBLIC EMPLOOYES: AN APPLICATION ON THE EDUCATORS

This research was conducted to measure the unionization tendencies of teachers and school administrators working in state high schools in the city center of Erzurum and to determine the factors affecting whether they are unionized or not. The sample group of the study, which was carried out with the survey application, consisted of 171 education employees who are union members and 128 education employees who are not members of any union, working in the 2019-2020 academic year. Findings from the research; It shows that the expectations of union member teachers are focused on "change and develop the institutional structures of public unions" and "increase their union activities". The main reasons why non-union educators did not become members of the union were the "limited strike and collective bargaining activities of the unions" and "the fact that their democratic structure was not at the desired level".

Some issues of regulating the activities of trade unions of persons employed through Internet platforms in the Russian Federation

The article examines some of the issues that arise when determining the legal regulation of trade unions of persons employed through Internet platforms in the Russian Federation. The author notes that in the current conditions of the development of society and the state, the emergence of a category of precariously employed “workers”, who, by virtue of labor legislation, are not such, creates new challenges for the formation of a system for protecting their social and labor rights and interests. An analysis of Russian legislation has shown that de facto such persons can form traditional trade unions or other alternative trade unions to protect collective rights and interests. However, on the other hand, persons employed using Internet platforms cannot use all the instruments of labor law without being “employees”. For possible progress in solving this problem, the author proposes to amend the legislation of the Russian Federation on trade unions.

Siberian peasantry during the First world war and revolution: details of a social and political portrait

The article presents an analysis of the social and political processes that took place in a Siberian village during the years of World War I and the revolution of 1917. It is noted that migration from the central regions of the country had a great influence on formation of the rural population of the region at the turn of the 19th20th centuries, and the social structure of a Siberian village was more complex than in the center, in addition to traditional ones, there were such large social groups as old-timers and settlers, who differed not only in their property status, but also in their mentality. The absence of landownership and access to the Russian and world markets after the construction of the Siberian railway ensured the intensive development of agriculture. This was facilitated by the broad development of rural cooperatives. The World War I had a dual effect on Siberian peasantry. On the one hand, mass mobilization, having deprived villages of a million workers caused an acute labor shortage in the countryside, on the other hand, the rise in prices for agricultural products contributed to enrichment of villages and accelerated its social differentiation. The attitude of the peasantry to the key events of the Russian revolution is analyzed. The process of transformations in a Siberian village from March 1917 to May 1918 has been reconstructed. The struggle of political parties for the peasant masses is shown. The activities of rural self-government bodies (committee, zemstvo, council) and peasant unions are studied. It is concluded that the Siberian peasantry, after the overthrow of the autocracy, was drawn into political processes regardless of their desire, and more often in spite of it. In the mess of changing authorities, taking a wait-and-see position, it did not participate in the struggle of the opposing sides and, regardless of whoever was in power, evaded paying taxes and other obligatory contributions. Siberian villages remained aloof from social upheavals longer than the city. It not only relied on its own material resources, but in the conditions of the weakening of power verticals, it tried to find internal regulators of social relations, which included such archaic forms as rural gatherings and lynching. Material interest remained a priority for the peasants, against which moral norms could be subject to significant adjustments. Relations with the authorities and the outside world as a whole were built on these principles. The peasantry consistently defended the economic independence that they received after the overthrow of the autocracy from any external encroachment.

European Union Legislation and Actions

European Union Legislation and Actions

التنظيم القانوني للحق في العمل النقابي في العراق

Human rights and fundamental freedoms have been recognized for all individuals through divine religions, stipulated international agreements and rules, with the efforts of international and regional international organizations to establish these rights for all individuals. As well as the direction of national legislation that has had a major role in ensuring these rights, especially after regarding the progress of countries a measure of their respect for human rights. One of these rights is the right to union action. After the increasing importance of the role of civil society institutions, including unions, in public life, this right has become an important requirement for unions to defend the rights of their members and represent the professions and interests of the working class, as it is a link between individuals and public authorities, especially after the political changes that most countries have witnessed. With regard to the topic of the research “the legal regulation of the right to union work in Iraq,” this study was divided into three sections. The first section included a statement of the concept of union and union work. The study dealt with the definition of union and union work and types of unions and the difference between them, while the second topic included the objective provisions. The procedures necessary for the establishment of trade unions, membership in them, and cases of their termination were referred to the conditions, objectivity and formality of establishing unions and the conditions related to the persons wishing to establish them. The study reached a set of results, including that the Iraqi legislator has guaranteed the right of individuals to establish unions and join them under the constitution (Article 22 / Third). Each union has its own law that establishes and organizes its business and management, the method of electing its board of directors and its financial resources. The study also concluded that professional unions are considered as persons of public law, while labor unions are considered persons of private law.

Integrating Corporate Social Responsibility in Reforming Trade Union Recognition Process

Employees are one of the most important stakeholders in organisations but their interests are often neglected by employers, particularly from the perspective of trade unionism that plays an essential role in safeguarding employee interests. Currently, the existing legislation has discouraged trade union activities and this has directly deprived the employees of their rights for a better working conditions at the workplace. There is also an evidence of anti-union actions taken by employer in recognition claims in order to prevent collective bargaining with trade unions. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an important tool in an organisation where the interests of the stakeholders is sustained. This paper investigates the relationship between employer’s CSR practice and its role in reforming recognition process of trade union in Malaysia. Qualitative research is employed to achieve the objective of this study by way of analysing secondary data and conducting legalistic analysis of the case law and statutes related to the issue. Based on the findings of this study, it is found that trade union recognition process can be reformed through integrating CSR practice in the organisation.