Trade Unions, Institutional Mediation and Industrial Safety

2007 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theo Nichols ◽  
David Walters ◽  
Ali C. Tasiran
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Industrial Safety ◽  
Statistical Techniques ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Injury Rates ◽  
Employee Representation ◽  
Safety Committees

Results of studies that examine the relation between trade union presence and injury rates are often indeterminate and trade unions are sometimes apparently associated with danger not safety. The British WIRS data set has provided a unique resource whereby researchers may examine the relation between trade unions and injury rates as mediated through particular arrangements for health and safety. Yet here, too, most investigations have failed to find a negative relation. It is in this context that this article returns to the original data. Utilizing improved statistical techniques, it concludes that cases where trade unions have an input into health and safety committees and where there are representatives are to be preferred to those where there is no such trade union input or no representatives. It argues that considerable strengthening of regulatory provision is required on employee representation and consultation if health and safety is to be improved.

Trade Unions and the Effectiveness of Worker Representation in Health and Safety in Britain

1996 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 625-641 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Walters
Keyword(s):  
Trade Unions ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Alternative Form ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Employment Patterns ◽  
Employee Representation ◽  
Supportive Role ◽  
Safety Committees ◽  
National Economies

A feature of British legislation on employee representation in health and safety is its restriction to recognized trade unions. This has made British provisions unique within the European Union. New legislative provisions are under consultation and are likely to widen the existing Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations. The approach of the proposed regulations raises a number of questions about the determinants of effectiveness of worker representation in health and safety that are discussed in this article. The significance of trade union support for representation in health and safety is shown to play an important role in determining the effectiveness of health and safety representatives, both through the role of trade unions within the workplace and through their ability to provide support for representation through training and information. Trends in national economies and employment patterns in Europe mean that trade unions' influence is diminishing, but their supportive role in health and safety representation has not been replaced by any alternative form of employee organization. The proposed new British Regulations are discussed in the light of these observations.

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

2018 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 429-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geneviève Baril-Gingras ◽  
Sarah Pier Dubois-Ouellet
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Phase 1 ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Worker Safety ◽  
Release Time

Summary 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.

scholarly journals Contested industrial democracy discourses in transnational companies. The case of the ArcelorMittal European Social Dialogue Group

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 451-465
Author(s):  
Sergio González Begega ◽  
Holm-Detlev Köhler ◽  
Mona Aranea
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Employee Voice ◽  
Industrial Democracy ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Social Dialogue ◽  
Employee Representation ◽  
Transnational Companies ◽  
National Discourses ◽  
Transnational Company

This article discusses the potential of European transnational company agreements for developing industrial democracy at European company level. It describes the experience of the ArcelorMittal European Social Dialogue Group, established in 2009 through a European transnational company agreement as an innovative channel for trade union involvement in corporate decision-making. The conceptual framework draws on a cross-national comparison of industrial democracy discourses in two European countries, Germany and Spain. A qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews with trade union representatives and management is used to identify divergent national discourses of employee voice giving rise to common misunderstandings of industrial democracy at European level. The findings illustrate the persisting communication challenges faced by trade unions when engaging in employee representation structures at transnational company level. The article also shows that trade union representatives are able to adapt their national discourses on industrial democracy under the influence of European practice.

Works Councils:

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Gumbrell‐McCormick ◽  
Richard Hyman
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Works Councils ◽  
Employee Representation ◽  
Work Related ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Safety Committees ◽  
Board Level

This article focuses on works councils, adopting the definition of Rogers and Streeck. It is concerned with countries with generalized systems of representation – where participation structures exist largely independently of management wishes – and not with those where representative bodies may be established voluntarily through localized management initiatives. The article also limits attention to bodies with the capacity to discuss a broad agenda of employment- and work-related issues; this means, for example, that the statutory health and safety committees, which exist in many countries without works councils, are ignored. On this definition, works councils are almost exclusively a phenomenon of continental Western Europe, and the article discusses why this is the case. Its focus is specifically on national institutions; it does not examine the one instance of mandatory supranational structures: European Works Councils. Nor does the article consider board-level employee representation.

The State of Industrial Ill-Health in the United Kingdom

1980 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Charles Clutterbuck
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
The State ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Safety Committees ◽  
Area Health

Recent health and safety legislation in the United Kingdom comes at a time of economic crisis. The only way of understanding its impact is to look back at the roles of employers, the State, trade unions, workers, and the medical establishment over the past 150 years since the rise of industrial capital. In many ways, issues that were current at the turn of the century—such as the conflict between profits and health, whether to clean up the production process or insulate workers from its hazards, compensation, and employers' liability—are still very much present today, although these issues are often obscured by the notions that there is an identity of interest between management and workers over health and safety and that profits and safety go together. The role of the trade unions in dealing with existing and new hazards of production has historically been ambiguous, yet the need for them to develop an overall policy of prevention has always been obvious. Although they are now part of the governing apparatus, other arms of the State—in particular the civil service—initiate changes in health and safety organization, while trade unions make sure they are enacted. The development of trade-union area health and safety groups represents the most important potential change and may well provide the necessary focus for information and organization to cut through the “concerned” propaganda from management and its safety committees and start the long-awaited cleanup of industry.

scholarly journals Employee workplace representation in Belgium: effects on firm performance

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette van den Berg ◽  
Arjen van Witteloostuijn ◽  
Olivier Van der Brempt
Keyword(s):  
Firm Performance ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Mediation Effects ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Employee Representation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Positive Effect

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine whether works councils (WCs) in Belgium have a positive effect on firm performance, notably productivity and profitability, while taking the role of trade unions into account. Design/methodology/approach The authors first introduce the typical Belgian industrial relations system, discussing the similarities and differences with neighboring countries. This is followed by a brief overview of the relevant literature. Subsequently, the impact of Belgian employee representation on firm performance is estimated by means of OLS, using a newly developed questionnaire administered among Belgian CEOs. Special attention is given to moderating and mediating effects. Findings The authors find that Belgian WCs have a small (direct) significantly positive effect on labor productivity, but not on profitability. The additional results of the mediation test show tentatively that WCs might affect profitability indirectly, through their impact on productivity. Despite trade unions’ dominance in practice, the findings reveal that their impact is insignificant. Research limitations/implications Although nationwide, rich and representative, as well as statistically valid, the data set is rather small (196 usable observations). The data set offers ample opportunities to further explore what makes effective Belgian WCs different from their non-effective counterparts. Originality/value The data set is unique, and combines subjective CEO with objective performance data. The data offer the opportunity to do a first study into the special case of Belgium, which has a distinct union-dominated IR regime. In this study, the focus is furthermore on the rarely studied WC-trade union interaction. In addition, subtle moderation and mediation effects are estimated.

Organizational Development and Change in a Union-Management Context: The Voluntary Establishment of Joint Health and Safety Committees in Britain

1981 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 331-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.B. Beaumont ◽  
D.R. Deaton
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Development ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Manufacturing Sector ◽  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Change Models ◽  
Joint Health ◽  
Development Literature ◽  
Safety Committees

The organizational development literature has very largely ignored the role of trade unions, with the result that the traditional organizational change models are held to be unsuitable for analysing the establishment and maintenance of joint problem-solving structures. Accordingly in this article we draw on the mainstream industrial relations literature in order to develop a model which seeks to identify the relevant structural characteristics of plants that had voluntarily established joint health and safety commit tees. This model is tested by performing a multivariate analysis of data obtained from a survey of 970 establishments in the manufacturing sector in Britain.

Voluntarism in occupational health and safety: a reply to Farlow

1970 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Mullen
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Health ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Occupational Health And Safety ◽  
The Real ◽  
Code Of Practice ◽  
Worker Participation ◽  
Safety Committees

The serious allegations made by Farlow as to the integrity of this study cannot be allowed to go by without comment. The study and general criticisms which relate to the sample, choice of variables and the findings are briefly dealt with. The main comments in this reply are directed at the 3 more specific issues which appear to be the real concern of the Federation, namely, worker participation, trade union input and interpretation of the aims of the Code of Practice for health and representatives and health and safety committees (1987).

Rotational Characteristics of the Green Solar Corona: 1947-1991

1994 ◽  
Vol 144 ◽  
pp. 139-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Rybák ◽  
V. Rušin ◽  
M. Rybanský
Keyword(s):  
Solar Corona ◽  
World Wide ◽  
Rotation Period ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Coronal Emission ◽  
Time Intervals ◽  
Data Set ◽  
The World ◽  
Coronal Emission Line ◽  
Homogeneous Data

AbstractFe XIV 530.3 nm coronal emission line observations have been used for the estimation of the green solar corona rotation. A homogeneous data set, created from measurements of the world-wide coronagraphic network, has been examined with a help of correlation analysis to reveal the averaged synodic rotation period as a function of latitude and time over the epoch from 1947 to 1991.The values of the synodic rotation period obtained for this epoch for the whole range of latitudes and a latitude band ±30° are 27.52±0.12 days and 26.95±0.21 days, resp. A differential rotation of green solar corona, with local period maxima around ±60° and minimum of the rotation period at the equator, was confirmed. No clear cyclic variation of the rotation has been found for examinated epoch but some monotonic trends for some time intervals are presented.A detailed investigation of the original data and their correlation functions has shown that an existence of sufficiently reliable tracers is not evident for the whole set of examinated data. This should be taken into account in future more precise estimations of the green corona rotation period.

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