scholarly journals Direct democracy and trade union action

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roland Erne ◽  
Markus Blaser
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
The Political ◽  
European Federation ◽  
Transport Workers ◽  
Union Action

Until recently, the political influence of trade unions primarily relied on ties to labour-friendly political parties. Since the 1990s, however, party-union relations have deteriorated, forcing unions to consider complementary political strategies. This article reviews different direct democratic instruments at local, national and EU levels. We distinguish popular consultations initiated by government from above from citizens’ initiatives initiated from below and discuss corresponding trade union experiences in Germany, Italy, Ireland, Slovenia and Switzerland. We also analyse the successful right2water European Citizens Initiative (ECI) of the European Federation of Public Service Unions and the failed fair transport ECI of the European Transport Workers’ Federation at EU level. Whereas unions have successfully used direct democratic instruments to (i) defend social achievements or (ii) as a lever to extract policy concessions, direct democracy is also challenging. Successful direct democratic campaigns require unions that are able to mobilise their own rank-and-file and to inspire larger sections of society.

scholarly journals The changing face of union action put to the test by neo-liberal reforms in France

Tempo Social ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-156
Author(s):  
Baptiste Giraud
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Union Action ◽  
The Relationship

This article reviews how French trade union are coping with the neo-liberal policies since the early 1980s. It shows their divergent reactions, and how these liberal reforms are implemented in a context of transformation of trade union action: the use of strikes is more difficult at the same time as the relationship between trade unions and collective bargaining is transformed in a logic of depoliticizing their strategies of action. These developments did not prevent a resurgence of strikes in the 2000s. It reveals the limits of the trade unions’ power of political influence, that implies the use of collective action. However, strikes have declined further in recent years, revealing the weakening of trade union mobilisation power.

The Politics of Trade Union Formation in the Java Sugar Industry, 1945–1949

1994 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Brown
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Sugar Industry ◽  
The Political ◽  
Union Formation ◽  
Sugar Production ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Revolution

Comparatively little of a scholarly nature has been written about Indonesian trade unions, particularly on the two decades from 1945 to 1965 when, like the political parties to which so many of them were affiliated, the unions had their heyday. This paper focuses on the development of trade unions in one specific industry: refined sugar production. The period to be examined—1945 to 1949—runs from the proclamation of Indonesian independence by Sukarno and Hatta, through the revolution fought against the returning Dutch, to December 1949 when the Netherlands finally acknowledged Indonesian independence. It was during this period that the major post-war sugar industry unions were established. The circumstances surrounding the establishment of these unions will be examined, along with their leaders and members, ideological leanings and political and industrial objectives.

The Troubled Partnership: Trade Unions and Working-class Parties in Italy, 1948-78

1978 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 416-436
Author(s):  
Paolo Farneti
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Political Market

The problem of ‘tutelage’ of trade unions by political parties in italy must be seen against a background of: the structural conditions of the labour market (where trade unions are active) and those of the ‘political market’ (where parties are active) as masses for manoeuvre used to attain certain aims; the characteristics of the leadership of the trade unions and those of the political parties; the ‘styles of leadership’ (including the conduct of conflict) by trade union and party leaders.

scholarly journals Two forms of transnational organizing: Mapping the strategies of Global Union Federations

Tempo Social ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-162
Author(s):  
Stefan Schmalz ◽  
Teresa Conrow ◽  
Dina Feller ◽  
Maurício Rombaldi
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Transnational Activism ◽  
World Cup ◽  
Transnational Organizing ◽  
International Transport ◽  
Transport Workers ◽  
Union Action ◽  
Event Based ◽  
A Company

It has become a commonplace belief among academics and trade union officials that globalization has weakened trade unions. However, the expansion of global capital has also led to a rise of transnational labor organizing. Since the 2000s, Global Union Federations have developed different strategies to tackle the challenges of globalization. In this article, we analyze two such forms of transnational organizing: A network-based and an event-based form of organizing. While the network-based approach brings together unions from different countries in a company or industry-wide cross-border network, the event-based strategy is built on the engagement of the GUFs at large international events to wage local struggles with a lasting impact on labor relations. By drawing on a power resource approach and labor geography and by using empirical data from two case studies, the Building and Woodworkers International’s Fifa World Cup campaign of 2014 and the International Transport Workers Union’s Latam Union network, we demonstrate how GUFs are using different pathways of transnational activism to link the global with the local and why local trade union action is crucial for success in transnational organizing.

scholarly journals From Global Unions to the Shop Floor: Trade Union Networks in Transnational Corporations in Brazil

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Framil Filho ◽  
Leonardo Mello e Silva
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Transnational Corporations ◽  
Shop Floor ◽  
Local Labour ◽  
Transnational Connections ◽  
Union Action ◽  
Traditional Structures ◽  
Labour Power

This article analyses the origins, development and organisation of cross-union, company-based trade union networks in transnational corporations in the metal and chemical industries in Brazil. Collectively developed by local, national, foreign and international trade union organisations, this kind of union action was introduced in the country in the early 2000s as a way to connect local labour representatives organising workers in different locations within the same company. Networks strengthen local labour power and stimulate transnational connections. Promoting solidarity among workers across multiple factories, they offer the perspective for a global unionism connected to shop-floor organisation. Despite these achievements, networks face important challenges. Power imbalances, the reliance on restrictive social dialogue arrangements and the compromise with traditional structures limit the reach of the strategy.  KEY WORDS: globalisation; trade unions; new labour transnationalism; trade union networks; Brazil

Big Business and the Kapp Putsch

1971 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald D. Feldman
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Military Officers ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Big Business ◽  
Government Bureaucracy ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Government ◽  
General Strike

The Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch, hastily begun on March 13, 1920, and ingloriusly ended with the resignation of Dr. Wolfgang Kapp on March 17, has already been the subject of significant study. The details of the putsch itself, the character of the conspirators, and their motives, the positions taken by the political parties and leaders, and the reasons for its failure are fairly Well known. It is generally agreed that the circle of conspirators had too narrow a social base and was too divided in its purposes to be successful. In essence, it was a revolt of unemployed reactionary East Elbian officials like Kapp himself and his “Minister of the Interior,” Traugott von Jagow, disgruntled conservative military officers, the most important of whom was Freiherr von Lüttwitz, and military adventurers like Colonel Max Bauer, Major Pabst, and Captain Ehrhardt. Where Kapp sought far-reaching constitutional and political changes, Lüttwitz strove for more short-term goals, i.e., reconstruction of the cabinet to give it an “expert” character, new elections, and a larger army. The Kapp regime was doomed because of the refusal of the government bureaucracy to serve it and because of the general strike called by the trade unions on March 14.

Tackling Organisational Stress within Trade Unions

1990 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 8-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Miller
Keyword(s):  
Stress Management ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Trade Unionism ◽  
Methodological Problems

Stress management programmes for trade union officials still remain underdeveloped. This article seeks to highlight some of the methodological problems in trying to mount such programmes within the political context of contemporary trade unionism. The author argues that a much more “holistic” approach towards the “management of discontent” is necessary.

scholarly journals THE ITALIAN WAY TO INTERNAL DEVALUATION AND SOCIAL ACTORS’ STRATEGIES AGAINST AUSTERITY AND THE FLEXIBILIZATION OF THE LABOUR MARKET

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-151
Author(s):  
Giulia Giulia ◽  
Giovanni Orlandini
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Employment Contracts ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
The Public ◽  
Labour Costs ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
Union Action

Introduction: the Italian way to internal devaluation; 1.a Precarization of labour and weakening of trade union action at company level (amendment of dismissal law); 1.b Circumvention of the CCNL by means of exceptional employment contracts; 1.c Downward competition on labour costs by means of outsourcing and value chains; 1.d Promotion of decentralized collective bargaining and its power to derogate from the law and freezing of collective bargaining in the public sector; 2. The trade union(s) strategies; 2.a Bargaining strategy; 2.b Judicial strategy; 2.c Confrontational strategy; 3. New challenges for workers and new challenges for their organization(s); 3.a Italian trade unions’ strategies; 3.b Alternative experiences of (and in favour of) precarious workers; 4. Anti-austerity protests: the involvement of trade unions and social movements; 5. Concluding remarks; Bibliography.

scholarly journals ELECTIONS-2021: ON THE ASSESSMENT OF THE ELECTORAL PROSPECTS OF NEW POLITICAL PARTIES

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (34) ◽  
Author(s):  
D.A EZHOV ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
New Parties ◽  
Low Level ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Regional Elections

The article assesses the electoral prospects of new political parties registered by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation in 2020, on the eve of the elections of deputies to the State Duma of the Russian Federation, scheduled for September 2021. Based on the results of regional elections held on a single voting day on September 13, 2020, party rhetoric and documents, the author consistently characterizes the electoral potential of the political parties such as «New People», «For Truth», «Green Alternative», and «Direct Democracy Party». The author's judgments are based on the hypothesis that the current electoral potential of new parties, which is fixed at a relatively low level, does not allow us to consider them as competitive and independent subjects in the election campaign at the start of the campaign. The likelihood of certain new parties receiving deputy mandates due to the victory of their candidates in single-mandate constituencies is emphasized. Special attention is paid to the consideration of methods of forming a pool of supporters of new political parties, determined by the specifics of their functioning.

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