Labour, organisational rescaling and the politics of production: union renewal in the privatised rail industry

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Cumbers ◽  
Danny MacKinnon ◽  
Jon Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
New Labour ◽  
Critical Element ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Production Union ◽  
Rail Industry ◽  
Union Renewal ◽  
State Actors ◽  
New Geography

Researchers are becoming more alert to the importance of geography to union renewal in counteracting the strategies of corporate and state actors. In this article the example of the UK’s rail industry is used to show how privatisation created a new geography of employment relations. Unions responded to the destruction of national collective bargaining and a new fragmented geography of employment relations through organisational restructuring, which, in different ways, was marked by a continuing commitment to a politics of production in connecting grassroots workers to national leaderships. Engaging with the new labour geography, however, the article argues that a further critical element in renewal has been the unions’ ability to rethink their internal geographies and scalar relations to contest change at the level of the workplace.

scholarly journals Revisiting voluntarism: Private voluntary regulation by Employer Forums in the United Kingdom

2021 ◽  
pp. 002218562110383
Author(s):  
Philippe Demougin ◽  
Leon Gooberman ◽  
Marco Hauptmeier ◽  
Edmund Heery
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Voluntary Regulation ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Social Standards ◽  
Secular Decline ◽  
New Form ◽  
State Actors

The abstract contributes to the literature by identifying a new form of voluntarism, the employer-led voluntarism of Employer Forums in the United Kingdom. Forums carry out private voluntary regulation to raise labour and social standards within their member firms through introducing codes of conducts and implementing norms through assessments, benchmarking, and certification. The article compares this new form with the traditional approach where unions and employer associations regulate jointly through collective bargaining. While the scope, scale, and impact of new and traditional voluntarism diverge, both are underpinned by the regulation of Employment Relations by non-state actors. Voluntarism is not in secular decline, but instead continues through the emergence of new employer-led forms.

scholarly journals Supportive Legislation, Unsupportive Employers and Collective Bargaining in New Zealand

2011 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 192-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Foster ◽  
Erling Rasmussen ◽  
John Murrie ◽  
Lan Laird
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Good Faith ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Sharp Decline ◽  
Employment Relationships ◽  
Union Renewal ◽  
Employment Legislation ◽  
The Impact

In New Zealand in the 1990s, labour market decentralization and new employment legislation precipitated a sharp decline in unionism and collective bargaining coverage; trends that continued well into the 2000s even after the introduction of the more supportive Employment Relations Act 2000 (ERA). The ERA prescribed new bargaining rules, which included a good faith obligation, increased union rights and promoted collective bargaining as the key to building productive employment relationships (Anderson, 2004; May and Walsh, 2002). In this respect the ERA provided scope for increased collective bargaining and union renewal (Harbridge and Thickett, 2003; May, 2003a and 2003b; May and Walsh, 2002). Despite these predictions and the ERA's overall intent, the decline in collective bargaining coverage begun in the 1990s has continued unabated in the private sector. It has naturally been questioned why the ERA has not reversed, or at least halted, this downward trend. So far research has focused on the impact of the legislation itself and much less on employer behaviour and perceptions, or on their contribution to these trends. This article addresses the paucity of employer focused research in New Zealand. The research explores views of employers on the benefi ts of collective bargaining, how decisions to engage or not engage in collective bargaining are made and the factors instrumental to them. It is demonstrated that the preferred method of setting pay and conditions continues to be individual bargaining. This is especially so for organizations with less than 50 employees, by far the largest majority of fi rms in New Zealand. Frequently, these smaller organizations see no perceived benefits from collective bargaining. Overall, these fi ndings suggest that despite a decade of supportive legislation there are few signs that the 20 year decline in collective bargaining coverage in New Zealand will be reversed.

To sign or not to sign? Union strategies towards provincial metal sector agreements in the Catalan and Basque automotive industries

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Las Heras
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Union Renewal

I compare collective bargaining in the Basque and Catalan automotive industries to show that since the early 2000s, two contrasting bargaining frameworks have emerged. The two largest Spanish unions have followed ‘top-down’ strategies in Catalonia, in which organizing the rank and file was secondary to signing the provincial agreement. This has created a relatively passive membership with little capacity to confront management. By contrast, the main Basque union refused to give priority to signing a provincial agreement and adopted a devolved strategy, resulting in higher unionization rates and more frequent strikes. I conclude, first, that union (renewal) strategies do in fact matter in the regulation of global industries and, second, that when unions modify their strategies, the organizational and bargaining dynamics also change, producing institutional configurations that embody new contradictions and dilemmas.

Fissured Employment and Network Bargaining: Emerging Employment Relations Dynamics in a Contingent World of Work

ILR Review ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 001979392096418
Author(s):  
Mark Anner ◽  
Matthew Fischer-Daly ◽  
Michael Maffie
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
State Policies ◽  
Work Relationships ◽  
Symbolic Power ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Managerial Control ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Employment Relationships ◽  
Firm Strategies ◽  
Network Bargaining

For decades, direct employment relationships have been increasingly displaced by indirect employment relationships through networks of firms and layers of managerial control. The firm strategies driving these changes are organizational, geographic, and technological in nature and are facilitated by state policies. The resulting weakening of traditional forms of collective bargaining and worker power have led workers to counter by organizing broader alliances and complementing structural and associational power with symbolic power and state-oriented strategies through what the authors term “network bargaining.” These dynamics point to the limitations of dominant theories and frameworks for understanding employment relations and suggest a new approach that focuses on a range of direct and indirect work relationships, evolving forms of worker power, and networked patterns of worker–employer interactions.

New Labour, new geography? The electoral geography of the 1997 British General Election

Area ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Pattie ◽  
Ron Johnston ◽  
Danny Dorling ◽  
Dave Rossiter ◽  
Helena Tunstall ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Labour ◽  
General Election ◽  
Electoral Geography ◽  
New Geography

The changing nature of collective employment relations

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 645-657 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Marginson
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
Collective Actors ◽  
Common Interests ◽  
Firm Basis ◽  
Underlying Processes

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to survey developments in four aspects of collective employment relations (ER) since the mid-1960s: collective representation and organisation; collective bargaining coverage and structure; the collective bargaining agenda; and joint consultation arrangements. It considers the reasons underlying change. Design/methodology/approach – A range of published sources are drawn on, including quantitative, survey based and qualitative, case-study and other evidence. Findings – The landscape of collective ER has changed markedly over the past half century. Membership of trade unions has fallen from around half of the workforce to one-quarter. Employers who mainly conducted collective bargaining through employers’ associations now negotiate, if at all, on a firm-by-firm basis. Collective bargaining coverage has sharply declined and now only extends to a minority of the private sector workforce. The bargaining agenda has been hollowed out. Joint consultation arrangements too are less widespread than they were around 1980. Originality/value – The paper contends that change has been driven by three underlying processes. “Marketization” of collective ER entailing a shift from an industrial or occupational to an enterprise frame of reference. The rise of “micro-corporatism”, reflecting increased emphasis on the common interests of collective actors within an enterprise frame. Finally, the voluntarism, underpinning Britain’s collective ER became more “asymmetric”, with employers’ preferences increasingly predominant.

New Managerial Approaches to Industrial Relations: Major Paradigms and Historical Perspective

1983 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard F. Gospel
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Management Strategy ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Management Structure ◽  
Work Relations

Any consideration of 'new' managerial approaches to industrial relations needs to be placed in the context of (a) the major relevant historical literature and (b) the historical development of management structures and strategies. The relevant literature is surveyed and from it a framework of analysis is distilled. It is suggested that labour management must be defined broadly to cover work relations, employment relations and industrial relations, rather than confined to union- management relations and collective bargaining. The paper goes on to discuss the development of management structure and concludes that only through a long-term view of management strategy in the context of the total operations of the firm can we understand 'new' managerial approaches to industrial relations.

Determinants of Collective Bargaining Centralization

2007 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Zagelmeyer
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Probit Model ◽  
Union Density ◽  
Foreign Ownership ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Actual Choice ◽  
And Control

Various factors influence the development of collective bargaining structures. Based on cross-sectional and pooled cross-sectional data from the British Workplace Employment Relations Survey series, this article discusses and empirically analyses the establishment-level determinants of collective bargaining centralization, i.e. whether an establishment is covered by single-employer collective bargaining or multi-employer collective bargaining. It argues that the employers' and trade unions' preferences for a particular bargaining structure depend on the outcome of cost—benefit analyses of different available institutional alternatives. The actual choice of a collective bargaining structure then reflects the interaction of the actors' preferences, moderated by an institutionally determined decision-making process. Estimation of a probit model with pooled cross-sectional data shows that the number of unions present at the establishment, membership of an employers' association, and public sector affiliation are positively associated with collective bargaining centralization. In contrast to this, establishment size, trade union density, foreign ownership and control, and international product markets are negatively associated with centralization. Neither establishment age nor foreign ownership appeared to be significant.

scholarly journals The Impact of the Employment Relations Act 2000 on Collective Bargaining

1970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett Lineham ◽  
Louise Fawthorpe ◽  
Boaz Shulruf ◽  
Stephen Blumenfeld ◽  
Roopali Johri
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Administrative Data ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Low Density ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Impact

This study carried out by the Department of Labour in 2007/08 aims to assess whether there have been any significant changes in the coverage of collective bargaining that can be attributed to the Employment Relations Act 2000. The research draws on administrative data relating to union membership and collective bargaining coverage, as well as qualitative data from employers, employees, union representatives and other employment relations stakeholders. The research shows that collective bargaining has yet to regain pre Employment Relations Act levels. Collective bargaining remains concentrated in the public sector, with low density in the private sector. The study concludes that the effects of the Act on collective bargaining are chiefly observed in the recovery of collective bargaining in the public sector, and the continued decline (in general) in the private sector. The research offers no indications that these patterns will change.  

scholarly journals LA EXTENSIÓN DE BENEFICIOS EN EL MODELO DE RELACIONES LABORALES CHILENO: CONSIDERACIONES

2021 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
Author(s):  
VINICIO CUEVAS-SUÁREZ
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Collective Bargaining Agreement ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Historical Aspects ◽  
Legal Mechanism

This article analyses and systematizes the mechanism for the extension of benefits from a collective bargaining agreement in the Chilean employment relations model, regulated in article 322 of the Labour Code, since the coming into force of the labour reform, Law N° 20,940; within whose coordinates collective bargaining must currently proceed. The analysis of the legal mechanism in question, is carried out from a historical and critical perspective, reviewing its origins until reaching its current mutation; for this reason, historical aspects are analysed, among them, the influence that the Labour Plan has in the construction of this legal figure and the significance of its establishment and validity in the denaturalization of the collective bargaining agreement institution in our legal system and its consequent impact on trade union freedom.

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