Human Dignity and Power: Worker Struggles against Precarity in U.S. Agribusiness

2021 ◽  
pp. 0160449X2110179
Author(s):  
Matthew Fischer-Daly
Keyword(s):  
Human Development ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Bargaining Power ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Development Theory ◽  
Decent Work ◽  
Precarious Employment ◽  
Precarious Work ◽  
Power Resources ◽  
Employment Standards

While precarious employment expands, instances of workers improving employment standards motivate examination of the dynamics of advancing decent work. This article analyzes cases of workers shifting from precarious toward decent work in U.S. agribusiness. Building on bargaining-power theory from industrial relations and human development theory from sociological philosophy, it finds that workers build power resources sequentially and by demanding human dignity. The cases reveal a framework of power building by workers facing precarious work in which progress is catalyzed by the recognition of workers’ capacity to participate in the rules to which they are subjected. The framework suggests an explication for precarious employment’s growth and decline.

scholarly journals Union Campaigns against Precarious Work in the Retail Sector of Estonia, Poland, and Slovenia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Mrozowicki ◽  
Branko Bembič ◽  
Kairit Kall ◽  
Małgorzata Maciejewska ◽  
Miroslav Stanojević
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Retail Sector ◽  
Strategic Choices ◽  
Precarious Work ◽  
East European ◽  
Network Embeddedness ◽  
Power Resources ◽  
Union Leaders

This chapter studies trade union responses to the precarization of work in the retail sector in three post-socialist East European countries: Estonia, Poland, and Slovenia. The aim of the chapter is to analyse the influence of sectoral specifics, different institutional factors, and trade unions’ power resources on union approaches towards precarious work, and to explore the potential for new patterns of solidarity. The main thrust of the argument is that unions’ power is crucial for developing and sustaining the industrial relations institutions, which in turn shape constraints and opportunities for trade unions’ actions. However, the strategic choices exerted by trade union leaders also matter. While higher institutional and associational power still enables Slovene unions to regulate the conditions of precarious workers to a certain extent, the institutional weakness of Estonian and Polish unions make them increasingly reliant on their network embeddedness and narrative resources to mobilize against precarization.

Dealing with ‘vulnerable workers’ in precarious employment: Front-line constraints and strategies in employment standards enforcement

2020 ◽  
pp. 0143831X2090914
Author(s):  
Alan Hall ◽  
Rebecca Hall ◽  
Nicole Bernhardt
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Canadian Province ◽  
Precarious Employment ◽  
Employment Relationships ◽  
The Core ◽  
Worker Characteristics ◽  
Employment Standards ◽  
Vulnerable Workers

Individual worker complaints continue to be the core foundation of employment standards enforcement in many Western jurisdictions, including the Canadian province of Ontario. In the contemporary labour market context where segments of the labour force may be disproportionately impacted by rights violations, and employment relationships are more diverse and often more tenuous than previously, the continued reliance on individual claims suggests a need to better understand the challenges associated with the investigation and resolution of claims involving ‘vulnerable workers’ in precarious employment situations. Using interviews with front-line Ontario employment standards officers (ESOs), this article examines the extent to which certain worker characteristics and employment situations perceived by officers as ‘vulnerable’ are identified by officers as significant constraints or barriers to investigation processes and outcomes, and documents whether and how officers address these constraints and barriers. The analysis also identifies the perceived influence of policy, resource and legislative requirements in shaping how officers deal with the more difficult and challenging cases, while also considering the extent to which the officers’ actions are understood by them as discretionary and guided by their particular orientations or concerns. In so doing, this article reveals challenges to the resolution of claims in precarious employment situations, the very place where employment standards are often most needed.

scholarly journals Worker Power and Class Polarization in Intra-Year Work Hour Volatility

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joe LaBriola ◽  
Daniel Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Bargaining Power ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Job Quality ◽  
One Dimension ◽  
Unemployment Rates ◽  
Precarious Work ◽  
Union Coverage ◽  
Work Hour ◽  
Nationally Representative

Precarious work, which has become more prevalent in the United States in recent decades, is disproportionately experienced by workers of lower socio-economic classes, and research suggests that the erosion of worker power has contributed to this class polarization in precarity. One dimension of precarious work of growing interest to scholars and policymakers is instability faced by workers in the amount and regularity of their work hours. However, we know little about the magnitude of month-to-month or week-to-week (intra-year) volatility in hours worked, the extent of class-based polarization in this measure of job quality, and whether worker power moderates this polarization. In this paper, we make novel use of the panel nature of the nationally-representative Current Population Survey (CPS) to estimate intra-year volatility in the actual hours respondents report working in the previous week across four consecutive survey months. Using this new measure, we then show that, net of demographic characteristics and controls for occupation and industry, low-wage workers experience disproportionately greater work hour volatility. Finally, we find evidence that reductions in marketplace bargaining power--as measured by higher state-level unemployment rates--increase wage- and education-based polarization in work hour volatility, while increases in associational power--as measured by union coverage--reduce wage-based polarization in work hour volatility.

scholarly journals Trabalho digno para quem? Sobre a formalização do trabalho precário no Brasil / Decent work for whom? About the formalization of precarious work in Brazil

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 580-586
Author(s):  
Marina Batista Chaves Azevedo de Souza ◽  
Viviane Fonseca Santos ◽  
Daniela Da Silva Rodrigues
Keyword(s):  
Labor Relations ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Labor Rights ◽  
Decent Work ◽  
Labor Laws ◽  
Precarious Work ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Labor Legislation ◽  
The Government

A arte desenhada sobre papel simboliza os trabalhadores e as trabalhadoras, e suas constantes lutas sociais pela manutenção dos direitos trabalhistas no Brasil, conquistados na década de 1943, com a Consolidação das Leis Trabalhistas (CLT). Trata-se de um estatuto de Normas Regulamentadoras - NR de relações individuais e coletivas de trabalho para aqueles contratados formalmente com vínculo empregatício. Em 2017, o Governo aprova a Lei nº 13.467, reconhecida como Reforma Trabalhista, a qual exclui mais de cem artigos da CLT, reduz direitos e o papel do Estado em relação à proteção da dignidade do trabalhador. Posteriormente, a classe trabalhadora sofreu novo impacto em 2019, momento em que o Governo Federal promoveu a extinção do Ministério do Trabalho e Emprego (MTE), órgão responsável pela fiscalização e regulamentação das relações de trabalho no país. Isso gerou o fracionamento das atribuições das Leis de trabalho em três pastas ministeriais, fragilizando ainda mais as normas trabalhistas, dificultando a interlocução entre o trabalhador e empregadores e formalizando a precarização do trabalho. Nesse sentido, a imagem representa os desmontes que o trabalhador vem sofrendo, ao longo dos anos, em relação à legislação e aos direitos trabalhistas, mas também à saúde e à previdência social. A flexibilização das relações no ambiente laboral revela uma nova configuração do mundo do trabalho, uma realidade ainda mais perversa, pautada em um discurso neoliberalista de "menos direitos e mais liberdade para o trabalhador", porém, que carrega como consequências a redução do emprego digno, de saúde e segurança para os trabalhadores brasileiros. AbstractThe art drawn on paper symbolizes the workers and their constant social struggles for the maintenance of labor rights in Brazil, conquered in the 1943s by the Consolidation of Labor Laws (CLT). The CLT is a statute of the Regulatory Norms - NR about individual and collective labor relations for those formally hired with an employment relationship. In the year of 2017, the Government approved the Law 13.467 that implemented a Labor Reform, which excludes more than one hundred articles from CLT reducing many workers rights and the role of the State regarding the protection and dignity of the workers. Subsequently, the working class suffered a new impact in the year of 2019, when the Federal Government extinguished the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MTE), the institution responsible to monitor and regulate labor relations in Brazil. This fact caused a division of the attributions of the Labor Laws into Three Ministerial Portfolios, further weakening labor standards making it more difficult for workers and employers to communicate with each other, formalizing precarious work. Thus, this image represents the problems workers has been suffering, over the years, due to the lack of labor rights, health and social security. The flexibilization of labor relations reveals a new configuration for the labor society and provides an even more perverse reality based on a neoliberalist discourse that propagates the idea of "less rights and more freedom for the workers", reducing decent employment, health and safety for Brazilian workers.Keywords: Labor Legislation; Occupational Health; Occupational Therapy; Precarious Employment; Work. ResumenEl arte dibujado en papel simboliza a los trabajadores masculinos y femeninos, y sus constantes luchas sociales para el mantenimiento de los derechos laborales en Brasil, logrados en la década de 1943, con la Consolidación de las Leyes Laborales (CLT). Este es un estatuto de Normas Reguladoras - NR de relaciones trabajo individual y colectivo para aquellos formalmente contratados. En 2017, el Gobierno aprobó la Ley 13.467, reconocida como Reforma Laboral, que excluye más de cien artículos del CLT, reduce los derechos y el papel del Estado en relación con la protección de la dignidad de los trabajadores. Posteriormente, la clase trabajadora sufrió un nuevo impacto en 2019, cuando el Gobierno Federal promovió la extinción del Ministerio de Trabajo y Empleo (MTE), el organismo responsable de la inspección y regulación de las relaciones laborales en el país. Esto condujo a la división de las atribuciones de las leyes laborales en tres carteras ministeriales, debilitando aún más las normas laborales, dificultando la comunicación entre trabajadores y empleadores y formalizando el trabajo precario. En este sentido, la imagen representa el desmantelamiento que el trabajador ha estado sufriendo, a lo largo de los años, en relación con la legislación y los derechos laborales, pero también con la salud y la seguridad social. La flexibilización de las relaciones en el entorno laboral revela una nueva configuración del mundo del trabajo, una realidad aún más perversa, basada en un discurso neoliberalista de "menos derechos y más libertad para el trabajador", pero con la consecuencia de reducir el empleo decente, salud y seguridad para los trabajadores brasileños.Palabras clave: Empleo Precario; Legislación Laboral; Salud Laboral; Terapia Ocupacional; Trabajo.      

scholarly journals Russian and International Contours of Precarious Employment

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-60
Author(s):  
Ivan D. Matskulyak
Keyword(s):  
Technological Progress ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Domestic Economy ◽  
Decent Work ◽  
Precarious Employment ◽  
Management Personnel ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The World ◽  
Actual Content ◽  
The Subject

The Object of the Study. Socioeconomic processes and phenomena characterized as an unsustainable employment and reflected in the collective monograph published in Rossiya among the first as well as its main provisions, conclusions and recommendations. The Subject of the Study is expressed by the combination of socioeconomic relations between market-based economic entities regarding the widespread development in recent years in the world, including the Rossiyskaya Federatsiya, the precarious employment of the population and the consequences of this process. The Purpose of the Study is to attract the notice of a wide range of management personnel of both state authorities and economic bodies, as well as employers, legislators, scientists, etc., to the problem of unsustainable employment, the need of its effectively solve, especially in conditions of intensification of transformation of the domestic economy. The Main Provisions of the Article cover all six sections, including 30 paragraphs of the monograph studied, authored by 41 specialist-scientists, professionally engaged in the designated research area. The author, on the basis of the actual content of the book, has tried to present all the aspects, to convey the variety of shades of the process of unsustainable employment reflected in the monographic research. It applies both the domestic experience and international practice. The problems of the unsustainable employment are revealed compared to decent work. Their dependence on the scientific and technological progress is considered. The domestic and foreign experience of the personnel reduction is summarized on the example of a flexible employment. Risks of unsustainable employment are identified and directions of their prevention are formulated. The characteristics of precarious employment of different groups of workers - women, pensioners and others working in similar conditions of specific industries - are characterized as well as the legal coverage of unsustainable workers is analyzed, and special attention is paid to external migrants and functioning numerous institutions in the investigated economy sectors.

Cultural Images of Labor Conflict and Coordination Literature and the Evolution of Industrial Relations Systems

2022 ◽  
pp. 1-39
Author(s):  
Cathie Jo Martin ◽  
Dennie Oude Nijhuis ◽  
Erik Olsson
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Industrial Systems ◽  
Cultural Images ◽  
Power Resources ◽  
Political Economies ◽  
Cultural Constructions ◽  
Cross National

Abstract Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands have different historical patterns of industrialization, but developed similar patterns of industrial coordination and cooperation. Theories accounting for industrial relations systems (economic structure, power resources, and party/electoral systems) have difficulty accounting for the similarities among these cases. Therefore, we explore the historical depictions of labor appearing in literature to evaluate whether cross-national distinctions in cultural conceptions of labor have some correspondence to distinctions between coordinated and liberal industrial relations systems. We hypothesize that historical literary depictions of labor are associated with the evolution of industrial systems, and apply computational text analyses to large corpora of literary texts. We find that countries (Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands) with coordinated, corporatist industrial relations in the 20th century share similar cultural constructions about labor relations dating back to at least 1770. Literary depictions found in modern coordinated/corporatist countries are significantly different from those found in Britain, a country with liberal/pluralist industrial relations systems. The research has significance for our understanding of the role of culture in the evolution of modern political economies.

Management Strategies in Transnational Workspaces

2018 ◽  
pp. 55-75
Author(s):  
Ines Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Change ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Power Resources ◽  
Sociology Of Organizations ◽  
Societal Actors ◽  
Regulatory Dynamics ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Nuanced Understanding

Chapter 3 combines institutional theory with strategic perspectives drawn from the sociology of organizations to examine how industrial relations actors “enact” EU rules at the micro-level of the workplace. The aim of this chapter, therefore, is to study how micro-level societal actors such as firms, unions, works councils, and individual workers interact with the changing regulatory configuration. It studies how employers enact the posting framework creatively by circumventing rules. This chapter demonstrates how these mechanisms initiate a process of institutional change through power dynamics at the micro-level that are generally relevant for theories about institutional change. In pursuit of a more nuanced understanding of the regulatory dynamics of posted work, this chapter identifies the ways in which actors draw on different power resources to influence the outcomes of negotiations or to implement policies without negotiation at the workplace level.

Employment Protection Legislation in Haiti

2018 ◽  
pp. 209-221
Author(s):  
Samir Amine ◽  
Wilner Predelus
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Job Creation ◽  
Labor Law ◽  
Employment Protection ◽  
Employment Protection Legislation ◽  
International Labor Organization ◽  
Decent Work ◽  
International Labor ◽  
Protection Legislation ◽  
Employment Legislation

The merit of employment regulations in a market economy is often measured by their effectiveness in facilitating job creation without jeopardizing the notion of “decent work,” as defined by the International Labor Organization (ILO). Consequently, the recent literature on employment legislation has extensively focused on the flexibility of the labor market, as a fair middle ground is always necessary to avoid undue distortions that can negatively impact the economy and worker's wellbeing. This chapter analyzes the provisions of the labor law in Haiti and how it affects job security and flexibility to observe a flexible structure that rather benefits employers. Notably, labor law in Haiti may have in fact rendered workers more vulnerable because these labor legislations were enacted on the assumption that employers and workers are on the same footing when it comes to industrial relations, while historic facts do not support such an assumption.

Zmiany w obszarze zatrudnienia migrantek i migrantów ukraińskich w powiecie tatrzańskim w kryzysie pandemii COVID-19. Prekarność a bezpieczeństwo i godziwość pracy

2021 ◽  
pp. 335-354
Author(s):  
Wiktor Magdziarz ◽  
Natalia Styrnol
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Support Networks ◽  
Decent Work ◽  
Work Safety ◽  
Related Services ◽  
Precarious Work ◽  
Services Sector ◽  
Empirical Material

In this publication we present the results of qualitative research we carried out in July 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. It concerned support networks of Ukrainian migrants working in the Tatrzański county, Poland. Extensive empirical material that we have gathered allows us also to examine working conditions in the tourism-related services sector. We analyze them in the context of the concept of precarious work, opposing it to the ideas of work safety and decent work. We recall numerous examples of violation of workers’ rights and point out how the precarious position of migrant workers has additionally worsened during the crisis related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Understanding adolescent development in the context of child sexual exploitation

2019 ◽  
pp. 117-132
Author(s):  
John Coleman
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Young Person ◽  
Developmental Theory ◽  
Sexual Relationships ◽  
Lifespan Development ◽  
Development Theory ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Social And Emotional

This chapter considers a theoretical framework — lifespan developmental theory — which can assist in shedding light on the processes underlying human development. Lifespan development theory is an approach that explores particular challenges associated with different life stages, and identifies factors affecting adjustment across the lifespan. In the context of this theory, the chapter focuses in particular on adolescence as a developmental stage within the lifespan. The notion of transition is then explored, and this includes reference to puberty, brain development, and the variety of social and emotional changes that impact on the young person during this period. The chapter concludes by examining possible reasons why certain young people might be vulnerable in their early sexual relationships.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document