Trade Union Policy Research Articles

Kebijakan Perdagangan Uni Eropa terhadap Produk Logam Dasar

Trade relations between the European Union and China experienced rapid growth during the first two decades of the 21st century. The increase in trade relations is in line with the implementation of EU trade barriers through anti-dumping investigation reports at the World Trade Organization (WTO) against Chinese products. In the period 2001 – 2022, Chinese base metal products became the commodity with the most reported cases in antidumping investigations carried out by the EU at the WTO. However, in the same period, the value of imports of basic metal products to the European Union was lower compared to the value of imports of other products such as electricity & equipment as well as machine products, nuclear reactors and boilers. This article aims to explain the reasons behind the European Union's stance in making Chinese base metal products the most common commodity in antidumping investigation reports at the WTO. This article uses Alan Bryman's qualitative method, and the neoclassical realism theory proposed by Gideon Rose to analyze European Union policy towards Chinese Base Metal Products. The application of systemic pressure variables in neoclassical realism theory influences the European Union's position in the international system as an external factor, while there are other variables, in this case internal factors, which also influence the European Union's strategic trade policy-making process through the European Commission. The findings of this article show that China's dominance in world metals consumption and production since the early 2000s, especially in the 2013 – 2017 period, triggered the European Commission's perception that the European base metals industry was experiencing a decline in competitiveness and needed protection. In the 2013-2017 period, China's contribution to the world base metals market increased by 13% compared to 8% in the previous decade. On the other hand, the European Commission has maximized its influence in mobilizing national forces as outlined in the resolution document 2017/C399/12 to build a sustainable base metals industry. The European Union's trade policy in making Chinese base metal products the highest case report in antidumping investigations at the WTO over the last two decades, was driven by the European Commission, as the trade policy formulation unit in the European Union, to respond to systemic challenges in the global base metals market.

Renegotiating Skills, Wages, and the Right to Work: On the Gender of Labor Activism around Rationalization in the Bulgarian Tobacco Industry in the Early 1930s

AbstractStarting from the early 1930s, structural changes in the Bulgarian tobacco industry, prompted by the advent of the world economic crisis and German economic expansionism into Southeastern Europe, led to a deep restructuring of the labor processes, known in the terminology of the time as rationalization, in the Bulgarian tobacco industry. The introduction of the tonga rationalization technology had a deskilling and deeply gendered effect on the industry, making a significant number of skilled male workers redundant, disproportionately decreasing average male wages and leading, in turn, to a further feminization of an already majority-female workforce.The introduction of the new system provoked a strong response from the organized labor movement, which used a variety of tactics to fight against the new technology: from strikes to petitions to tripartite negotiations. Organized labor's reaction was deeply gendered, an aspect that only becomes truly visible if, in addition to gender and skill, we employ the analytical lens of scale. By following trade union policies on the local, national, and international levels, the article goes beyond the carefully crafted gender-neutral language in official documents to reveal tensions between the conservative attitudes of rank-and-file activists and the official trade union agenda. This is especially evident in communist labor politics, where Bulgarian trade union policies on the local and national levels provoked an intervention on the part of the Profintern between 1930 and 1931. The movement's internal contradictions resulted in a polyvalent, ambiguous, and non-linear trade union policy formed through the clash of and negotiations between local activists’ conservative notions of gendered work and family roles and the radical gender program of international communism.

An Assessment of the Significance of the 1947 Industrial Charter in Shaping One Nation Conservatism

Following the Conservatives’ heavy defeat in the 1945 election, The Industrial Charter (1947) arguably demonstrated the Conservative Party had reconciled itself with a shift to the left in British politics. The Charter provided the basis for what would become the Postwar consensus, accepting the mixed economy, the advocacy of industrial partnership, social reform and achieving full employment in a free enterprise system. Although the degree of consensus is disputed within the existing literature, the Conservative governments of 1951-64 would utilize these concepts in their approach to economic, industrial relations and trade union policy, satirically labelled as “Butskellism” after Labour and Conservative Chancellors, Hugh Gaitskell and Richard “Rab” Butler respectively. This approach was later defended by those in the Conservative Party who would identify themselves as One Nation Conservatives opposing the Party’s adoption of Thatcherism in 1979. Contemporary depictions of One Nation Conservatism invoke notions of a more moderate, paternalistic and pragmatic Conservative Party when contrasted with the currently hegemonic and arguably ideologically led Thatcherite doctrine. This article explores the conceptional analysis of One Nation Conservatism, determining that One Nation Conservatism should be considered a product of its time, confined within the Conservative governments of 1951-64. This article will then examine the significance of The Industrial Charter on One Nation Conservatism as a political doctrine and demonstrate that The Industrial Charter asserted the Conservative Party’s compulsion to transform as a means of preventing an existential crisis and set the course for a decisive change of approach. In addition, those Conservatives who opposed Thatcherism, would coalesce around the ideas expressed in the Charter and subsequent writings published by the Party. This article then seeks to conclude that The Industrial Charter provided the platform for the Conservative’s approach to policy in the postwar period and remains a crucial milestone in the development of One Nation Conservatism.

Gender Sensitive Trade Union Policy to Address Workers in Informal Economy

The informal economy is diversified set of economic activities, enterprises, jobs and workers that are not regulated or protected by the state. It does not have any written rules or agreements and functioning merely on verbal understanding. There is no fixed wages or fixed hours of work and mostly relies on daily earnings and the workers are failed to come together and address their problems through an association or a group. The people working as small farmers, street vendors, hawkers, small traders, micro entrepreneurs, home based workers, cobblers, rag pickers, porters, laborers, artisans etc represent the informal sectors. Formal employment sector is limited both in size and varieties. On the other hand, informal economy is overcrowded by both the older and new entrant workers. Informal economy functioning outside government control and regulation, creates more vulnerability, precariousness, injustice and inequality in part of the millions of workers and even drags them to bondage and serfdom.

‘The enemy within': football hooliganism and the Miners' Strike

ABSTRACT During the 1980s Margaret Thatcher’s government attempted to reduce the economic power of the industrial working class by legislating against the trade unions and defeating the 1984–85 Miners’ Strike, which saw her brand the miners as the ‘enemy within’. At the time English football was an important part of male working-class culture, particularly for northern industrial workers and was coming under attack from the Government and press over football hooliganism. It has often been argued that Thatcher’s trade union policies were designed to break the economic power of the industrial working class. If, through comparison, a link between this policy and the treatment of football supporters is found it will determine whether this conflict had a cultural aspect. Scholars have anecdotally made this link previously, but there has not been sufficient analysis of the comparison. This treatment will not analyse any actual links between the trade union movement and football supporters, but will focus on the Government and press treatment of football and trade unions and assess whether the Government was seeking to bind the two issues together.

Oil in Ghana: The Work of the General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers' Union (GTPCWU)

Utilising elements of Coordination and Context-Appropriate Power Theory (CCAP) as a framework, this article assesses the efforts of the General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers’ Union (GTPCWU) in Ghana to defend the rights of workers in the oil industry. Whether the GTPCWU has been able to effectively employ structural, institutional and conditional forms of power is examined within the CCAP framework. The analysis is informed by first-hand knowledge of trade union policies and practices, as one of the authors is a GTPCWU official. The research also draws on interviews and email communications with other Ghanaian trade unionists and an academic specialising in labour issues. The findings indicate that the structured labour regime, in which the GTPCWU is embedded, makes it hard for the union to employ structural, institutional and conditional forms of power fruitfully. Nevertheless, agency on the part of union officials and members is significant. This is evidenced by the success of individual union actions, indicating that the GTPCWU possesses a degree of structural power. Utilising institutional power effectively is difficult for the union, as enforcement of labour legislation is weak, and lengthy legal processes ensue when cases do reach court. It is also burdensome for the GTPCWU to exercise conditional power, based on obtaining support from non-union individuals and groups, since its members are widely perceived to have well-paid employment in the formal sector. The GTPCWU’s need for assistance in supporting its members through the transition away from fossil-based systems of energy production is outlined. Capacity-building initiatives, including the construction of a training and conference facility, and recruitment campaigns, focusing on attracting more women and youth members, are discussed. KEYWORDS: Ghana; trade unions; oil industry; Coordination and Context-Appropriate Power Theory (CCAP); structural, institutional and conditional forms of power

The Trade Union Sport Organisation in Communist Romania between 1973 and 1989: Workplace Gymnastics, Mass and Elite Sport

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the development of trade union sport organization, concept, structure, and policy during the last period of communism in Romania. Elite sport was extremely developed and successful. The concept was, however, centred on workplace gymnastics and ‘Daciada’, a national mass sport competition, which was adapted to communist ideology to increase nationalism, production and performance. The structure of workplace gymnastics introduced different terms such as gearing gymnastics, production break gymnastics, moment gymnastics and individual gymnastics. This had the responsibility to educate the masses for the practice of regular physical activities to develop elite sports (for the most talented) and mass sport (as leisure and healthy activity for the rest of the people). The conclusions highlight how workplace gymnastics was promoted only by propaganda. It was not really practiced by the workers. Some men preferred ludic or relaxing activities, while some women were interested in health and aesthetics.

RIGHT TO EDUCATION-A NEED TO MODERN SOCIO-POLITICAL SET-UP

The fundamental link between the right to work and the right to education established at the conferences on education policy held by the Federation of Geman Trade Unions in 1976 is one of those elements of trade-union policy in which, with education understood as “participation” in progress in science, research and “technology”, trade union policy necessarily assumed an anti-capitalist, democratic character. In it, education is no longer conceived as qualification alone, but as a human right, which is equated with the right to work and hence points, in the same way as this right to the limits to economic, capitalist and social organization.

EU Trade Policy: Principles versus Pragmatism. The Cases of Vietnam and Cambodia

ABSTRACT European Union (EU) trade policy has appeared rather contradictory recently towards countries in which there are instances of human rights violations, such as Vietnam and Cambodia. Given that principled pragmatism, set down in the 2016 EU Global Strategy, entails the view that the EU approach must fit the reality of EU interests, it is a useful lens for explaining why the EU treats its trade partners differently. This is important in view of the EU’s evolving foreign and security policy in the Southeast Asian region and its distinctive economic, security and strategic interests in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Tidskriften Arkiv bjuder in till dialog och diskussion om klass och jämlikhet

[Invitation to dialogue and discussion about class and equality from the journal Arkiv ] As a start to what we hope will be a whole series of articles on the subject, this issue features a newly written article on the concept of class written by one of the participants in the Swedish trade union policy institute Katalys’s class project, Mikael Stigendal. Within the project he has contributed to the book Klass i Sverige. Ojamlikheten, makten och politiken i det 21:a arhundradet (Arkiv forlag 2021, “Class in Sweden. Inequality, power, and politics in the 21st century”) with a study of the city of Malmo. Stigendal’s new article emerged from discussions in connection with the class project but was outside its main focus. The journal Arkiv is now eagerly awaiting more reflections on the class theme that has attracted so much attention in recent years. Whether contributions are analytical, conceptual, empirical, methodological, pragmatic or theoretical matters less. The editors are of course looking for articles with class and quality. Citation: Editorial (2021) “Tidskriften Arkiv bjuder in till dialog och diskussion om klass och jamlikhet”, in Arkiv. Tidskrift for samhallsanalys , issue 13, pp. 7–10. https://doi.org/10.13068/2000-6217.13.F

Factors And Principles Of Fair Pay

The article covers the issues of factors influencing the formation of fair wages. The principles on which the system of guarantees of realization of the rights of workers to a fair wage should be based are considered. There are two groups of factors in the formation of wages: a) market; b) non-market or socio-legal. The first group includes:
 1) changes in supply and demand in the market of goods and services in the production of which this work is used; 2) the usefulness of the resource of the entrepreneur; 3) the elasticity of demand for labor at price; 4) interchangeability of resources; 5) change in prices for consumer goods and services. The second group includes: 1) measures of state regulation related to the establishment of the minimum wage, minimum salary, subsistence level; 2) the level of wages and conditions of employment can have a significant impact on trade union policy, the strength of the trade union movement;
 3) the final results of the enterprise and the personal contribution of the employee;
 4) the existence of a system of guarantees for the realization of employees’ rights to fair remuneration. It is pointed out that we cannot study the institution of wages in isolation from the current economic situation in the country, so we need to know what factors affect the determination of the level of wages.
 There are four principles on which the system of guarantees for the realization of employees’ rights to fair remuneration should be based: 1) equality of remuneration;
 2) timeliness of remuneration; 3) completeness of payment of wages; 4) fair pay.
 It is concluded that the proposed and analyzed factors that affect the formation of wages should be studied and taken into account during the regulatory reform of the institution of wages.
 In our opinion, the principles on which the system of guarantees for the realization of workers’ rights to fair remuneration should be based must be enshrined in law. It is argued that the institution of wages needs comprehensive reform. And above all, it is necessary to pay attention to the principles on which it should be built, because these are the fundamental foundations.

Cross-border labour markets and the role of trade unions in representing migrant workers’ interests

New patterns of labour migration are reshaping labour markets and raising new challenges for labour market actors, especially trade unions. This article critically discusses unionization strategies targeting migrant workers and the political and organizational dilemmas involved, taking as an example the case of Luxembourg, a founding member of the European Union with a highly internationalized labour market. Relying on qualitative research and survey results, this article sets out the strategies adopted by trade unions to unionize migrant workers, before discussing the dilemmas and tensions related to the diversification of trade union policies and organizational structures in response to labour migration. It provides valuable insights into two broader issues: the socio-political and organizational dynamics involved in trade unions’ inclusion of migrant workers and the potential role of trade unions in building transnational links and cohesion in border regions.

Interpreting the Communist Party USA’s Historical Role in the US Trade Unions: Insights from the Early Institutionalist Theory of Industrial Relations

ABSTRACTFrom 1935 to 1945, the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) trade unionists were indefatigable and dedicated organizers for the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The objective of this article is to analyze the CPUSA’s role in the US trade union movement through applying the early institutionalist theory of industrial relations. This theory was selected because it provided the intellectual underpinning for New Deal trade union policy when the CIO was formed and continued to be the foremost US industrial relations theory for more than half a century. Based on institutionalist criteria, the CPUSA-led unions were much more effective in creating a dynamic trade unionism than the business unionists backed by the institutionalists. When the party actively organized the CIO’s industrial unions, it embraced a reformist viewpoint, adopting the Popular Front through its defense of democracy and its vigorous anti-fascism. If the CPUSA had not utilized this approach, it is uncertain if the early institutionalists’ New Deal trade union policy would have been achieved. In order to revitalize US trade unionism, twenty-first century left trade unionists can profit from studying the CPUSA trade unionists’ role in functioning as the CIO’s militant minority’s largest and most critical segment.

I diritti sindacali nell'era del caporalato digitale

After a preliminary description of the employment relationship in the so-called gig economy and despite the difference between the organization models, in this study the author attempts to analyze the possible exercise of some trade union rights provided for in title III of Law n. 300/1970 by workers involved in these particular employment relationships. Specifically, it is necessary to understand if norms such as articles 20 (right of assembly), 21 (referendum) and 25 (right of posting), which prima facie seem to require the existence of a production unit for their exercise can also be applied to the gig economy, which is characterized by the dematerialization of the workplace. Therefore, following a brief examination of these rules, therefore, the Author attempts to show that the idea inspired the legislator of 1970 to recognize the rights provided in that rules allows us to consider them applicable to on-demand workers. However, in this matter, it is essential an intervention of the trade unions. A reconsideration of trade union policies able to speak the same language of the digital platforms could, indeed, offer to the workers a real opportunity to meet each other and discuss, in a section reserved for them in the App, matters of interest to them even in the absence of the production unit (traditionally understood).

As Organizações Sindicais no Sistema Internacional de Cooperação para o Desenvolvimento

Este artigo trata da participação das organizações sindicais no Sistema Internacional de Cooperação para o Desenvolvimento (SICD). Identifica e analisa os atores e os processos envolvidos nas políticas solidárias sindicais (Norte-Sul e Sul-Sul) conhecidas como Cooperação Sindical para o Desenvolvimento (CSD). Trata, também, do papel e do posicionamento das organizações sindicais nos debates sobre a substância e a arquitetura do SICD. Realizamos um estudo qualitativo, distinguindo o nível de análise nacional – onde a CSD é uma política sindical vinculada, em maior ou menor medida, à política governamental de CooperaçãoInternacional para o Desenvolvimento (CID) – e o nível sistêmico, no qual a CSD opera como sub-regime do SICD. Utilizamos fontes documentais das próprias organizações sindicais, literatura secundária e, para o caso da cooperação da Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT) brasileira, entrevistas com os responsáveis pelo Instituto de Cooperação (IC-CUT). No nível nacional, concluímos que, com exceções (entre elas a do Brasil), a CSD está bastante integrada às políticas nacionais de CID. No nível sistêmico, observamos que o movimentosindical internacional tem se esforçado para estabelecer diretrizes comuns para a CSD e para inserir suas demandas na agenda internacional sobre o desenvolvimento, em particular os Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (ODS).

A socialization paradox: trade union policy cooperation in the case of the enforcement directive of the posting of workers directive

AbstractThe formulation of common political positions from the trade union movement at the European Union (EU) level mainly takes place at the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). In the case of the Enforcement Directive of the Posting of Workers Directive, a central cleavage line runs between neither countries nor political parties, but between different vertical levels of the system of European labor relations—the sectoral and interprofessional levels. Here, due to both horizontal and vertical differences, trade unions were unable to effectively formulate and pursue joint positions. On these grounds, we aspire to provide a theoretical argument on political dynamics in the EU’s multilevel system. While the ETUC representatives internalize supranational norms through their embeddedness in the EU’s institutional landscape, this socialization process does not advance—but rather prevents—integration by disrupting trade union power at the supranational level.

Syrian refugees in Turkey and trade union responses

ABSTRACTThis article discusses trade union responses in Turkey to Syrian refugees against a background characterized by shrinking boundaries of union inclusion. The analysis is based on semi-structured interviews with trade union executives from confederations and affiliated trade unions in textile and garment, construction, local public services, commerce and metal sectors, and focus group discussions with union members in the workplace. At the confederation level, Turkey’s trade union movement generally adopts a solidaristic rhetoric regarding Syrian refugees and attempts to shape trade union policies accordingly. However, there is little articulation with sectoral unions and the work-place level. Sectoral unions who do not encounter Syrian workers in the workplace do not place refugee issues on the trade union agenda. Instead union-level responses foreground the negative effects of Syrian refugees on the labour market while humanitarian considerations remain secondary. Unions demand formal employment of Syrian refugees should be ensured to eliminate these problems to prevent competition with local labour leading to a race to the bottom regarding pay and working conditions. Members at the workplace level oppose Syrian refugees with an exclusionary and somewhat hostile attitude, alleging that they damage the labour market, urban security and social life.

The Death of Neo-Corporatism: Trade Union Pluralism in Germany

In July 2017, the German Constitutional Court issued an important judgement concerning trade union freedom. To understand its significance, it is necessary to know its context. An atmosphere of fear and insecurity In 2002 and 2003, the German economy was in a difficult situation. Unemployment was high, economic growth was low and investments were quite scarce. The rating agencies declared that Germany could only keep its triple A–rating if ‘some rigidities’ in the labour market were corrected. The government started reforming industrial relations in order to reduce labour costs. Unlike the strategy followed in Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Greece some years later, the government adopted an indirect approach. First, temporary agency work was deregulated, making it possible to recruit temporary agency workers for an indefinite time. After the ‘reform’, this sector expanded from 150,000 to 700,000 persons. Many permanent employees could be – and often were – replaced by temporary agency workers. Their wages were one-third below the level of comparable ordinary workers. In 2003, the unemployment insurance system was also reformed. Before then, unemployment benefit (about 67 percent of the former salary) could be paid for between one and two years. If still unemployed at the end of this time, ‘unemployment aid’ (between 52 and 57 percent of the former salary) could be paid for an indefinite time. With the reform, unemployment aid was abolished. If the unemployed had not found a job after one year, they could only get social aid, which guaranteed a modest margin of subsistence. To qualify recipients had to sell all their assets (with some modest exceptions). These measures had an important influence on collective bargaining. When unions asked for wage increases, there was no power behind them because people were anxious. Real net wages decreased by 2.5 percent between 2002 and 2010. The system of collective bargaining as such remained untouched, but its real functioning was much weakened. Officially, the dominant trade unions of the Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB, English: German Trade Union Federation) protested against these measures. But some insiders speculated that there was a deal between unions and the government; that in order to protect the system of collective agreements and ensure it remained legally unchanged – especially at sectoral level – the unions had to ‘collaborate’ in the field of temporary agency work. The new law had established the principle of equal pay and equal treatment for temporary and permanent workers, but unions and employers could deviate from this principle by collective agreement. The unions used this opening clause in the law and concluded collective agreements which maintained the former wage level of temporary agency workers – consistently one-third below the level of ordinary workers. Until now, the reasons for this are officially unknown. The trade union policy was unacceptable for some professional organisations. Trade unions of pilots, air controllers, flight attendants and hospital doctors were founded. These had existed as professional organisations and had authorised the large unions to conclude collective agreements for them. Now they withdrew this authorisation and started their own collective bargaining. As their members were specialists necessary for the enterprises they achieved rather good results, without making the concessions the large unions had made. The engine drivers’ union became active, too, and concluded strong agreements without reducing wages. One plant – one agreement Under German law, collective agreements only bind the members of the union and the employer or the employers´ association. If two unions exist in a plant this does not create a big problem: the members of union A are bound by the collective agreements concluded by union A, the members of union B are bound by the collective agreements concluded by union B. Since 1956 however, the labour courts had decided that in such cases only one collective agreement could be applied in an enterprise, referring to a so-called ‘principle of order’ (which has no legal basis). This meant that the agreement better adapted to the conditions of the plant prevailed. In practice, the plant level agreement always prevailed against any sectoral agreement. When the new professional unions first arrived they had some difficulty in having their right to strike recognised because a strike is only legal if it aims at a...

Things Fall Apart Without Roads! How Fair Taxation Laws Pave Roads and Builds Economic Infrastructure in Developing Countries

Without self-sustaining commerce, developing countries cannot move towards the recognition of basic human rights and twenty-first century living standards. The purpose of this article is to explore the legal and economic theories of taxation and tariffs applied to the elements of civic infrastructure: a robust physical transportation system and an economic structure. This article advocates for conforming trade union policy towards an efficiency hypothesis method dubbed “tax minimalism theory” that espouses tax theory norms: fairness, efficiency, and simplicity of administration. Applying this theory, this paper will critique newly implemented tariff laws in West Africa by the Economic Community of West African States for its adverse effects on the transportation sector and laissez-faire trade liberalization in Ghana and Nigeria.

Citizenship at work. A guiding principle for social and trade union policy

In the fraught relationship between capitalist economy and political democracy, the latter often comes off second best. Have we come to accept that democracy ends at the factory gates? This article argues the contrary – that there are reasons enough today to establish and enforce the status of citizenship for employees at work. Today’s working people have such diverse personal circumstances and working conditions that only their status as ‘citizens’ gives them a common social bond that fosters solidarity. The demand for ‘reconciliation’ of work and life outside of work is now being formulated more radically: namely that people should not remain objects of economic authority, but instead that labour relations should be remodelled according to human needs. Citizenship at work is a step towards the democratic humanization of working life. Individual citizen rights are not a substitute for collective employee participation, but give it an indispensable foundation. This article traces the development of the concept of citizenship at work and outlines its prospects of becoming a reality. It draws on progressive democratic and republican values and impulses for change and sets them against a still often autocratic corporate culture.