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

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.

Globalisation and the dilemmas of international trade unionism

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Gumbrell-McCormick
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Trade Union Movement ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Trade Unionism ◽  
Union Movement ◽  
Economic Developments

This article presents the author's reflections on the possibilities of a restructuring of the international trade union movement, on the basis of a collective research project to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) which seeks to open a debate within the movement over the lessons to be learned from its history as a guide for its future action. The most important question facing the trade union movement today is what is generally called 'globalisation', a phenomenon that goes back many years, both in terms of economic developments and labour struggles. From this perspective, the paper examines the basis for the existing divisions of the international labour movement, before going over the work of the ICFTU and of the International Trade Secretariats (ITSs) to achieve the regulation of the multinational corporations and of the international economy, and concluding on the prospects for unity of action in the unions' work around the global economy.

Union Actors and Socio-environmental Problems: The Trade Union Confederation of the Americas

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 109-124
Author(s):  
Cecilia Anigstein ◽  
Gabriela Wyczykier
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
International Trade ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Sustainable Energy ◽  
Union Movement ◽  
America Latina ◽  
Latin Americanization

The Trade Union Confederation of the Americas is analytically interesting because international trade unions have promoted the framework of a “just transition” to protect workers’ rights during the shift to sustainable energy and the response to climate change and because the confederation has undertaken something of a “Latin-Americanization” of the just-transition notion that is nurtured by the environmental/territorial turn of social struggles on the continent. The current convergence between unions and social movements (peasant, feminist, environmentalist) has contributed to an important renewal of the union movement in Latin American environmental matters. La Confederación Sindical de las Américas reviste interés analítico porque las organizaciones sindicales internacionales promovieron una “transición justa” para resituar y visibilizar a los trabajadores en las negociaciones multilaterales del clima y procesos de transición energética y porque la confederación ha emprendido una “latinoamericanización” de la noción de la “transición justa” nutrida de un giro eco-territorial de las luchas sociales en el continente. El actual proceso de convergencia entre sindicatos y movimientos sociales (campesinos, feministas, ambientalistas) ha contribuido a una importante renovación de la narrativa del movimiento sindical en materia medioambiental en América Latina.

Civil Strife and the Growth of Trade Union Unity: The Case of Ireland

1973 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-431
Author(s):  
Charles McCarthy
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Shop Floor ◽  
Annual Conference ◽  
Trade Union Movement ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Union Movement ◽  
Difficult Time

A MAJOR CLAIM OF THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT IN THIS DIFFICULT time in Northern Ireland is that they have ‘prevented the spread of riot and disturbance into the workplace’. The claim has been consistently made and with growing emphasis since the troubles began, and Norman Kennedy at last year's annual conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions called it the one beacon of hope, this ‘maintaining unity of the workers, Catholic and Protestant, on the shop floor’ in what he described as largely a conflict of worker against worker, of a working-class community divided along sectarian lines. This is associated with a related claim that trade union recommendations on social and political change have a special legitimacy because the leadership is close to the people who are involved in the conflict. This political role, essentially non-party, is seen to be more significant and extensive than the traditional political activity of the trade union movement.

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 The Global Challenge of Human Rights and Solidarity to Nordic Global Companies and Trade Unions

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 34
Author(s):  
Bernt Schiller
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Trade ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Capital Investments ◽  
Global Challenge ◽  
Global Companies ◽  
Material Interests ◽  
National Partnership

The idea that corporations, besides making profit, have a social responsibility to society is not new in history. Nor is it new that unions besides representing material interests stand for a universal ambition as defenders of the oppressed in the world. The article argues that corporations’ social responsibility and trade union solidarity, to the extent both are based on universal principles of human rights, ought to open for cooperation concerning Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), where trade unions should be recognized as important stakeholders in corporations. This idea is new, even if examples exist, and it challenges traditional concepts of the role of management and unions in the company. However, trade unions have taken a critical attitude to CSR, the implementation of which they have mainly been excluded from. Instead, they have tried to get global agreements, Global Framework Agreements (GFAs), with the MNCs.1 In the article the development of the attitudes of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and of the Nordic national centers is investigated. A long-term historical perspective, in addition to a general theory of collective action will be used to draft the hypothesis that, when unions as interest organizations, through the process of national integration, have achieved a strong position in the domestic labor market, they lack reasons to take transnational action and seek international trade union solidarity. This hypothesis is valid today for the well-established unions in the Nordic countries. But in questions concerning social responsibility and human rights, the article presents the possibility that GFAs might become a platform from which to extend the Nordic model of national partnership to the global level, while at the same time global competition will increasingly make it difficult for the unions to show international solidarity in interest questions of capital investments and outsourcing.

The Politics of Social Inclusion and Labor Representation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Connolly ◽  
Miguel Martínez Lucio ◽  
Stefania Marino
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Immigrant Workers ◽  
Immigrant Community ◽  
European Level ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Union Renewal ◽  
Union Action

The book explores the question of social inclusion and trade union responses to immigration in the European context, comparing the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. Drawing on in-depth qualitative research the book focuses on how trade unions - particularly more established and institutionalised trade unions - respond to immigrant workers and what they perceive to be the important points of renewal and change that are required for a more integrated and supported immigrant community to emerge. The book also considers the role of European level trade union relations on the question of immigration and how trade unionists have attempted to deal with very different national configurations of trade union action. The book argues that we need to appreciate the complexity of trade union traditions, paths to renewal and competing trajectories of solidarity. While trade union organisations remain wedded to specific trajectories, trade union renewal remains an innovative if at times problematic set of choices and aspirations.

scholarly journals A problem of embeddedness

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 500-514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernd Brandl ◽  
Alex Lehr
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Autonomous Agents ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Social Mechanisms ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Common Behaviour ◽  
Union Action ◽  
Transnational Trade

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose a general micro-theoretical framework that helps to understand the embeddedness of trade unions within the European system of industrial relations, and the consequences of this embeddedness for industrial relations outcomes. First, starting from the paradoxical observation of a trend towards homogeneity within a complex, multi-layered European industrial relations system consisting of heterogeneous and autonomous agents, the paper aims to explicate the mechanisms which produce these similarities. Second, the paper seeks to analyse potential mechanisms for transnational trade union cooperation and, third, it concludes by outlining its applicability as the basis for methodological approaches which enable realistic and policy relevant analyses. Design/methodology/approach This paper is conceptual and focusses on the development of a general micro-theoretical framework which captures European industrial relations actors’ behaviour and outcomes. It integrates theoretical and empirical accounts from differing social science disciplines and from various methodological starting points on trade union action and interaction into one general micro-theoretical framework. Findings Starting from a typology of trade union goals, the authors show how various social mechanisms lead to interdependencies between trade unions and review empirical evidence for their consequences. The authors, then, identify a set of motives for transnational cooperation that would allow outcomes that are in line with trade union objectives. Originality/value Against the background that previous studies on trade union action and cross-national interaction have paid less attention to the puzzling stylised fact that industrial relations outcomes are mimicked by heterogeneous and autonomous agents actors in different countries, the authors address this research gap by developing a novel general micro-theoretical framework for the analysis of transnational trade union action and interaction in order to better understand the underlying causal mechanisms for the common behaviour and outcomes of autonomous actors.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document