scholarly journals Editorial Essay: From Cautious Optimism to Renewed Pessimism: Labor Voice and Labor Scholarship in China

ILR Review ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (5) ◽  
pp. 1013-1028 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarosh Kuruvilla
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Labor Movement ◽  
State Policy ◽  
Special Section ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Chilling Effect ◽  
Labor Activism ◽  
Single Period ◽  
Editorial Essay

This introductory essay highlights the changing foci of labor scholarship during five distinct periods in the evolution of Chinese industrial relations. In so doing, the author argues that labor scholarship has oscillated between pessimistic and optimistic views regarding whether a labor movement is forming in China. The three articles brought together in this special section focus on the key themes of labor activism, collective bargaining, and the role of labor NGOs during a single period, 2006 to 2015. Together, the articles evidence optimism about the future of labor voice in China. This essay, however, suggests that the post-2015 period has been marked by changes in state policy that are having a chilling effect on labor voice and labor scholarship.

Tipping the Scales for Labour in Ireland? Collective Bargaining and the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2015

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Murphy ◽  
Thomas Turner
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Union Density ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Social Partnership ◽  
Non Union ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Missed Opportunity

Abstract Trade union density in Ireland has followed a similar pattern of decline to that of other Anglo-Saxon economies in recent decades. However, two factors make Ireland distinctive within this classification of countries, firstly the system of national social partnership that prevailed from 1987 to 2008, and secondly, the absence of a statutory route to union recognition. In this paper, we examine the extent to which a new piece of legislation, the Industrial Relations Amendment Act 2015, provides unions with a route to securing bargaining rights for workers and extends collective bargaining rights generally. We conclude that the Act represents a missed opportunity to offer mechanisms to secure rights for unions and their members capable of delivering collective bargaining to the non-union sector. We situate the paper within debates concerning the role of labour law in supporting workers rights to collective bargaining.

The role of collective bargaining in addressing flexibility and security

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 329-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Paolucci
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Organizational Characteristics ◽  
Considerable Degree ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
Union Representation ◽  
Multi Level

This article examines the role of collective bargaining in addressing flexibility and security in the chemical and pharmaceutical sector in Italy and Denmark. My multi-level and comparative focus on collective bargaining highlights that sector-level industrial relations institutions account for a considerable degree of within-country homogeneity in the content of company agreements over issues of flexibility and security. Moreover, it shows that the degree of company-level heterogeneity is conditioned primarily by firm-level contingencies: union representation and organizational characteristics. This means that at company level, both institutional and non-institutional structures are important explanatory variables.

The Wapping Dispute and Labour Law

1986 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. D. Ewing ◽  
B. W. Napier
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
International Group ◽  
Industrial Conflict ◽  
The Law ◽  
Rich Material ◽  
The Right

A decade ago the conflict between George Ward, proprietor of Grunwick Processing, and the Association of Professional, Executive Clerical and Computer Staff (APEX) provided a platform for an extended debate about the role of the law in industrial relations, the right of employers to refuse to recognise trade unions for collective bargaining purposes and, in particular, the efficacy of legislation as a means of promoting such recognition. In 1986 the decision to move the printing of various newspapers within the News International Group (the chairman of which is Mr. Rupert Murdoch) from Fleet Street to a new purpose-built printing plant at Wapping in London's docklands occasioned another set-piece battle between labour and a strong-minded employer. The issues and the climate of industrial relations in which the dispute took place are very different but, like Grunwick, the Wapping dispute provides rich material for all interested in how the law can be used as part of the strategy of industrial conflict.

British Industrial Relations Policy Transformed: The Thatcher Legacy

1991 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Marsh
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
The Political ◽  
Union Power ◽  
Limited Evidence ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Legislative Framework ◽  
The Law

ABSTRACTIt is widely believed by political scientists that the Thatcher Governments transformed British industrial relations and ‘curbed union power’. In contrast, most industrial relations scholars have argued that despite the legislative onslaught relatively little has changed on the shopfloor. This paper examines both claims. Much has changed in Britain since 1979. In particular, the political role of unions has altered substantially. Unions in 1991 are infrequently consulted and have very little influence. In addition, the legislative framework within which unions operate is very different; their activities are much more circumscribed by the law than previously. But much less has changed on the shopfloor; for example, there is limited evidence of a major move to derecognise unions or restrict collective bargaining. Governments can only set the legislative framework within which shopfloor industrial relations operate; it cannot determine outcomes.

The language of integrative collective bargaining

2021 ◽  
pp. 103530462098196
Author(s):  
Jean-Etienne Joullié ◽  
Robert Spillane
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Communication Process ◽  
Karl Popper ◽  
Integrative Process ◽  
Jel Code

Although collective bargaining is essentially a communication process, the role of language (as distinguished from discourse) in bargaining exchanges has received little attention from industrial relations scholars. Building on the work of Karl Popper, this article proposes a decomposition of language into functions and values and analyses their relevance when parties to a collective bargaining encounter engage in an integrative process. The proposed framework provides labour negotiators seeking integrative outcomes with linguistic guidelines and scholars with a tool to analyse bargaining exchanges. JEL Code: J52

Fair Work Australia: Employer Association Policies, Industrial Law and the Changing Role of the Tribunal

2011 ◽  
Vol 53 (5) ◽  
pp. 616-631 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Thornthwaite ◽  
Peter Sheldon
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
Political Opinion ◽  
The Past ◽  
Industrial Action ◽  
Changing Role

In examining the changing role of the national tribunal in recent decades, this article explores the ways in which industrial relations changes that employer associations have sought in the past 25 years are reflected in the Fair Work Act 2009, and the implications of these for the role of Fair Work Australia. The article argues that the evolution of industrial law in Australia since the mid-1980s owes much to the collective efforts of employers, not only to reorient political opinion concerning collective bargaining and the conciliation and arbitration system, but also to achieve concrete changes to the legal framework governing industrial relations institutions and processes. To explore the implications of these changes for the role of the tribunal, we apply Perlman's typology of the tribunal's work, which identifies three main roles – including judicial, legislative and facilitative functions. The analysis concludes that while under contemporary industrial law the tribunal now has less work to do in these areas, the Fair Work Act has expanded the tribunal's role in policing bargaining behaviour. Although this policing role has intensified the tribunal's influence on union industrial action, it has also focused attention on employer conduct in bargaining, an outcome that employer groups had not sought when lobbying for change.

scholarly journals Neoliberalisation of industrial relations: The ideational development of Dutch employers’ organisations between 1976 and 2019

2021 ◽  
pp. 0143831X2110200
Author(s):  
Saskia Boumans
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
The State ◽  
Institutional Perspective

This article considers the debate about the process of liberalisation of industrial relations from an ideational institutional perspective. While the gradual liberalisation of industrial relations has increased employer discretion, the role of employers’ organisations in this process is unclear. The case study is the Netherlands, a neo-corporatist country described as stable and robust but where institutional outcomes have undergone major shifts. To understand how this happened, the author analysed 40 years of collective bargaining policy using an ideational approach. The article argues that Dutch organised employers had the confidence that the strength of their ideas was enough to gradually but surely change industrial relations within the existing neo-corporatist framework by redefining the role of the firm, the state and the employee in the economy. The article also shows that since the early 2010s Dutch organised employers have changed their strategy leading to further de-collectivisation of industrial relations.

scholarly journals The governability of collective bargaining. The case of Spain

2006 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosa Nonell ◽  
Ramón Alós-Moner ◽  
Antonio Martin Artiles ◽  
Joaquin Molins
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
The State ◽  
Main Hypothesis ◽  
Role Of The State

The aim of this article is to analyse the concept of governability of collective bargaining proposed by Traxler, Blaschke and Kittel (2001) and to demonstrate its explanatory capacity and limitations in the Spanish case. Governability is an important subject that should be taken into account in the reform of industrial relations systems and in the debate with regard to centralisation and decentralisation of collective bargaining in Europe. The authors' main hypothesis is drawn up in line with the institutionalist approach. Their argument, based on the results of collective bargaining, is that the Spanish system of collective bargaining, in spite of the organisational weakness of the unions and of the employers' associations, is governable thanks to the role of the state, the institutions, the legal ordering, as well as tradition and custom.

Industrial relations in France

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 617-633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Udo Rehfeldt
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Peak Level ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Social Regulation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Strong State

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the actors, institutions and changing rules of the French system of industrial relations (IR). It questions whether the traditional view of the French model as “state-centric” is still adequate. Design/methodology/approach Based on institutionalist IR theories of social regulation and neocorporatism, the paper analyses the evolution of the French IR system from a “State-centric” model to the development of collective bargaining, both at the sector and company level, as well as of tripartite concertation. Findings Initially based on adversarial relations between trade unions and employers, compensated by strong state interventionism, the French IR system has experienced a series of reforms, adopted under the pressure of the unions in the 1980s and mostly under the pressure of the employers’ organisations since the turn of the century. These reforms boosted collective bargaining at the workplace level and tripartite concertation at the peak level. The paper analyses the limits of both developments and explains why a reversal of the hierarchy of norms was imposed in 2016 by law without prior concertation. Originality/value The paper presents an original explanation of the change of the initial French IR model, stressing the importance of power relations and the role of IR experts in the different reform moments.

Industrial relations responses to migration and posting of workers after EU enlargement: Nordic trends and differences

2006 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Erik Dølvik ◽  
Line Eldring
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Eu Enlargement ◽  
Labour Demand ◽  
Sharp Rise ◽  
Employment Conditions ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Market Governance

EU enlargement has brought changes in the conditions for company strategies and engendered shifts in labour demand that are reshaping patterns of migration and employment conditions in the receiving countries. While the Nordic countries, except Norway, have seen modest inflows of individual jobseekers, they have seen a sharp rise in the posting of workers and low-cost competition, revitalising debates about reforms in labour market governance. The Nordic unions have approached enlargement and the regulation of conditions for posted workers very differently. Their divergent responses must be seen in the light of often overlooked variations in Nordic industrial relations, especially as regards the role of the state, but also rates of organisation among employers and employees, and collective bargaining coverage.

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