Women and the Labour Movement in France, 1869–1914

1986 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 809-832 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia J. Hilden
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Industrial Workers ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
European Trade

In histories of European trade union movements, the observation that women industrial workers were rarely found among the membership has become axiomatic. In virtually every developed nation, it seems that once the industrial order was established, predominantly male trade unions were everywhere the rule, and female unions and trade unionists everywhere notable exceptions.

Globalisation and the dilemmas of international trade unionism

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Gumbrell-McCormick
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Trade Union Movement ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Trade Unionism ◽  
Union Movement ◽  
Economic Developments

This article presents the author's reflections on the possibilities of a restructuring of the international trade union movement, on the basis of a collective research project to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) which seeks to open a debate within the movement over the lessons to be learned from its history as a guide for its future action. The most important question facing the trade union movement today is what is generally called 'globalisation', a phenomenon that goes back many years, both in terms of economic developments and labour struggles. From this perspective, the paper examines the basis for the existing divisions of the international labour movement, before going over the work of the ICFTU and of the International Trade Secretariats (ITSs) to achieve the regulation of the multinational corporations and of the international economy, and concluding on the prospects for unity of action in the unions' work around the global economy.

European trade union cooperation, union density and employee attitudes to unions

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 345-358
Author(s):  
Bengt Furåker
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Union Density ◽  
Employee Attitudes ◽  
Financial Resources ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
International Social Survey Programme ◽  
European Trade ◽  
Using Data ◽  
International Social

European trade unions have much to gain from cooperating with each other. Such cooperation does exist, but it is still fairly limited and many obstacles need to be overcome if cooperation is to be improved. According to our survey data, higher-level union officials regard differences concerning financial resources and national labour market regulations to be particularly substantial barriers to cooperation. The enormously varying union density across Europe, and its general decrease, also creates barriers. Therefore, employee attitudes to unions are examined using data from the International Social Survey Programme. As expected, union members tend to be more positive about trade unions than non-members. The most interesting finding, however, is that employees in some countries with low union density exhibit fairly positive views or at least views that are not less positive than what we find among employees in many countries with higher density rates. This suggests that there is potential for recruiting members.

Sustainable Alliances: The Origins of International Labor Environmentalism

2004 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 118-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Silverman
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Environmentally Conscious ◽  
International Labor ◽  
Political Sources ◽  
European Trade ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Stockholm Conference

This article examines evaluates the strength of the Labor-Environmentalist alliance of the late twentieth century. It traces the evolution of trade unionists' thinking about nature and the human relationship to the environment by examining intellectual and political sources of labor involvement in United Nations' environmental policy making from the 1950s through the 1980s. The article explores the reasons trade union organizations, notably the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, the International Trade Secretariats (Global Union Federations) and the European Trade Union Confederation, participated in a variety of international conferences and institutions such as the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Environment, the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development. It finds that environmentally conscious trade unionists developed their own version of environmentalism and sustainable development based on a reworking of basic trade union principles, a reworking that emphasized solidarity with nature and made central the protection of the health and safety of workers, communities, and environments.

scholarly journals The International Trade-Union Movement and the Founding of the International Labour Organization

2005 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 399-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reiner Tosstorff
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
International Labour Organization ◽  
High Expectations ◽  
Trade Union Movement ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
Union Movement

Accounts of the founding of the International Labour Organization (ILO) usually emphasize the role of social-reformist intellectuals and politicians. Despite the indisputable role of these actors, however, the international labour movement was the actual initiator of this process. Over the course of World War I, the international labour movement proposed a comprehensive programme of protection for the working classes, which, conceived as compensation for its support of the war, was supposed to become an international agreement after the war. In 1919, politicians took up this programme in order to give social stability to the postwar order. However, the way in which the programme was instituted disappointed the high expectations of trade unions regarding the fulfilment of their demands. Instead, politicians offered them an institution that could be used, at best, to realize trade-union demands. Despite open disappointment and sharp critique, however, the revived International Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) very quickly adapted itself to this mechanism. The IFTU now increasingly oriented its international activities around the lobby work of the ILO.

The Revival of Labour Movement Studies in Argentina: Old and Lost Agendas

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 865-876 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maurizio Atzeni ◽  
Juan Grigera
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Frame Of Reference ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Formal Sector ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Community Based Organizations

In recent years sociological research on labour in Argentina has re-flourished. This revival has seen a turn towards the Anglo-Saxon and international traditions of workplace and trade union studies, but it has been generally one-sided, focusing on the relatively successful experiences of trade unions’ organized workers in formal sector workplaces. This has represented a considerable departure from the pre-2001 crisis research’s agenda that focused on unemployment, poverty and the new forms of community based organizations generated by workers in non-work situations. The return to the institutionalized sphere in the analysis of work issues can be partially explained by the changes in the economic and political environment alongside the return to ‘normality’ of the capital–labour relationship. However, it also signals a tendency in labour studies, in Argentina and beyond, of using the union form as the main organizational frame of reference in the analyses of conflict and workers’ representation.

Trade union education in Central and Eastern Europe

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 486-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Bridgford ◽  
Michal Košt'al ◽  
Dušan Martinek ◽  
Yuliya Simeonova ◽  
Janusz Zabiega
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Development Strategy ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Slovak Republic ◽  
Financial Burden ◽  
Training Needs ◽  
European Trade ◽  
Union Education

The changes in Central and Eastern Europe that were set in motion at the end of the 1980s threw up a variety of challenges for trade union organisations and placed new demands on their officers and representatives, which in turn produced a range of new training needs. This article intends to start a process - gaining a better understanding of trade union education provision in Central and Eastern Europe. Evidence from four case studies - KNSB (Bulgaria), ČMKOS (Czech Republic), KOZ SR (Slovak Republic) and NSZZ Solidarność (Poland)- shows that trade union organisations have continued to consider education as an integral part of their development strategy, and have established structures for the aggregation of training needs and for the delivery of training within their organisations. In the absence of systematic funding from the state or of agreements with employers' organisations, trade unions carry the financial burden themselves, on occasions with support from western trade union organisations and European or international organisations. The pattern of trade union education provision is generally structured so as to ensure a 'stepped' pathway for the learner, and emphasis is placed, unsurprisingly, on capacity-building. The twin-track approach undertaken by ETUCO provides a response to certain specific needs articulated by CEEC trade unions and also enables a limited number of CEEC trade union officers and representatives to participate in pan-European trade union education activities. However further resources will be needed to increase the number of training activities to the level required to respond adequately to the training needs of ETUC-affiliated organisations in the CEECs.

The European Syndicalists and War, 1914–1918

2001 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayne Thorpe
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
First World

This article argues that syndicalist trade union organizations, viewed internationally, were unique in First World War Europe in not supporting the war efforts or defensive efforts of their respective governments. The support for the war of the important French organisation has obscured the fact that the remaining five national syndicalist organisations – in belligerent Germany and Italy, and in neutral Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands – remained faithful to their professed workers' internationalism. The article argues that forces tending to integrate the labour movement in pre-1914 Europe had less effect on syndicalists than on other trade unions, and that syndicalist resistance to both integration and war in the non-Gallic countries was also influenced by their rivalry with social-democratic organisations.

scholarly journals Compulsory Unionism: A Strength or Weakness? The New Zealand System Compared with Union Security Agreements in Great Britain and in the United States

1969 ◽  
pp. 313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Szakats
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Voluntary Associations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Union Security ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Monopoly Position

In the following article Doctor Szakats evaluates the workers' position with regard to the necessity of membership in union as an indispensable prerequisite for obtaining and retaining work. In particular, he analyzes current employer-union practices and legislation in New Zealand, Great Britain and the United States. The author points out that in New Zealand the relevant statutes apply only to registered workers' associations. However, registered union has the advantages of: monopoly position; blanket clauses; and unqualified preference clauses. The author concludes that the so-called abolition of compulsory unionism in New Zealand does not change the position of workers seeking employment since by virtue of the unqualified preference clauses in nearly all awards and industrial agreements, compulsory unionism has de facto remained in force. In Great Britain, as in New Zealand, relevant statutes apply only to registered associations. Although it has been recognized in Great Britain since 1871 that trade unions are voluntary associations, the theory does not always conform with the practice. As result, certain arrangements can inhibit worker's choice of specified trade union and closed shop agreements may lawfully counteract this right of not joining, thereby introducing de facto compulsory unionism. By way of contrast to Great Britain and New Zealand, relevant legislation in the United States extends to and binds all trade unions. The author concludes that although com pulsory unionism imposed by the state generally weakens the labour movement, compulsory unionism imposed by employer-union agreement strengthens the movement.

scholarly journals IMPACTS OF GLOBALISATION ON GLOBAL LABOUR MOVEMENT: CHALLENGES AND RESPONSES

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 294-302
Author(s):  
Ibukun Olorunisola KOLAWOLE
Keyword(s):  
Adverse Effects ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Labour Unions ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Author Review ◽  
Traditional Roles

Across the globe labour formations have generally been experiencing insurmountable challenges related to globalisation these challenges, though differs in the levels of impact, the issues raised are universally applicable. Studies show that trade unions are trying to combat these challenges by adopting organising model elements which involves social unionism movement. Unfortunately, this has not been adopted by all unions. This paper has as its main objective of situating the trade unions within the context of globalisation era with a view to assessing the effects of globalisation on the roles of labour movement. It is believed more than ever before, that the challenges facing the labour unions are daunting and this has changed the traditional roles of the trade union to be more dynamic and versatile. Attempts are made to define trade union and globalisation in its multi-faceted dimension. It looks at these challenges faced by trade unions due to globalisation and how they have responded to these challenges. The author review various areas that globalisation have been perceives to have adverse effects on trade unions and its members and their responses, recommending measures to be adopted by unions to overcome these challenges

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