scholarly journals Gewerkschaften in der »Globalisierungsfalle«?

1997 ◽  
Vol 27 (106) ◽  
pp. 77-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen Hoffmann
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Economic Restructuring ◽  
Money Markets ◽  
Social Challenges ◽  
German Trade ◽  
Push Forward ◽  
Restructuring Process ◽  
Basic Proposition ◽  
New Framework

The article focusses on the process of »globalization« as fiction and reality in order to outline both: the threats to the cooperative institutional concept of the so-called »rhenish capitalism« and the necessity of renewed trade union politics and policies within national and European labour markets. The basic proposition made is that the process of »disembedding«, which characterizes the globalization process, has to be answered by strategies of re-embedding labour and money markets by building up new fonns of regulation regimes. Taking the example of Gennany and the German trade unions, the author argues that trade unions are not only victims of the »globalization trap«, but also actors in a new framework of economic and social challenges - if they accept to be so. They have to build up new forrns of solidarity beyond trade boundaries and to push forward to socially and ecologically regulated processes ofproduction (»re-regulation«) by resisting the polilics of deregulation and by influencing the economic restructuring process.

NEP’s Last Stand

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 149-175
Author(s):  
Charters Wynn
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Party Leadership ◽  
Joseph Stalin ◽  
Union Leadership ◽  
Push Forward ◽  
Broad Outline

Abstract Forced collectivization and breakneck industrialization, with all their attendant hardships and suffering, as well as the brutal terror that followed, could have been prevented if the defenders of NEP within the Party leadership had been able to block Joseph Stalin and his supporters’ drive to power. In mid-1928, when Stalin was gaining the advantage over those soon to be labeled Right Deviationists, he considered Mikhail Tomsky and the trade unions the major obstacles to his plans to abandon NEP and push forward with forced collectivization and breakneck industrialization. The final showdown between the Stalinists and trade-union leadership occurred at the 8th Trade Union Congress, which met in December 1928. The broad outline of Tomsky’s defeat at the congress has long been known, but this episode remains largely unexplored. Examining how Stalin outmaneuvered Tomsky during 1928, and whether the trade unionists went down without a fight at the congress, is the focus of this article.

The “New Economy”

2002 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-71
Author(s):  
Klaus Dörre ◽  
Birgit Beese ◽  
Bernd Röttger
Keyword(s):  
Structural Change ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
New Economy ◽  
The Other ◽  
Economic Sectors ◽  
Regional Networks ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
German Trade ◽  
The One

The article discusses industrial political activities conducted in regional networks by German trade unions. Referring to the example of Dortmund it is shown that the industrial political strategies of local trade union sections are currently at a watershed. On the one hand, trade unions prove capable of socially compensating for the consequences of a radical structural change. On the other hand, however, they have great difficulties in gaining a foothold in the newly emerging economic sectors. ‘Action research’ will help the trade unions to develop adequate strategies for the new economic sectors.

German Trade Unions, Their History, and the Use of Memory

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 144-155
Author(s):  
Stefan Berger
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Public Memory ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
German Society ◽  
First Century ◽  
German Trade ◽  
The Public ◽  
Trade Unionism ◽  
The Future

This article summarizes the results of the work of a commission of the German Trade Union Confederation, Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB), on the memory cultures of social democracy and trade unionism in Germany and highlights its recommendations on how to strengthen the public memory of the achievements of trade unionism in German society. It argues that the contemporary memory cultures are highly deficient and in need of a major boost in order to make trade unionism fit for the struggles of the twenty-first century. Memory will be a crucial resource for trade unions, as it gives them a “practical past” with which to operate in the presence with a view to strengthening and protecting workers’ rights in the future.

The focus of the new trade union. Opinions of members and non-members regarding social differences and trade union priorities in the Netherlands

2009 ◽  
Vol 15 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 439-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Van Der Meer ◽  
Roos Van Os Van Den Abeelen ◽  
Jelle Visser
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
National Level ◽  
Social Differences ◽  
Social Challenges ◽  
Union Democracy ◽  
The Social

Trade union legitimacy at national level is increasingly coming under pressure due to the new social challenges arising from the shifting of decision making from national to both international and decentralised levels. In this article we discuss representative opinion research on the social differences perceived by Dutch citizens and the priorities on which trade unions should focus. This allows us to relate the emerging criticisms of the unbalanced composition of Dutch trade union membership to issues of ‘positive’ coordination and policy-making legitimacy in light of internal trade union democracy and the representation of younger labour market cohorts.

West German Trade Unions

1956 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 484-514
Author(s):  
Otto Kirchheimer
Keyword(s):  
Labor Unions ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Critical Period ◽  
German Trade ◽  
Labor Organizations

THE German labor unions are presently passing through a critical period. The outward portents of the crisis are clearly visible. The membership of the Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB—German Trade Union Federation), which continued to climb regularly until 1952, is now stationary or, viewed in proportion to employment figures, slightly on the decline. Union headquarters ring with controversies between factions and personalities. The recent, predominantly Catholic, split-off from the DGB threatens to enlarge the hitherto minor area of rival or dual unionism; even a moderate enlargement of this sort would probably lead to an increase (as it did in France) in the indifference of the majority of workers toward all labor organizations.

Status and Prospects of German Trade-Unions and Works Councils

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herbert Marcuse
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Trade Union Movement ◽  
Works Councils ◽  
People's Party ◽  
German Trade ◽  
Trade Unionism ◽  
Union Movement ◽  
The Status

This chapter evaluates the status and prospects of trade unions and works councils in Nazi Germany. The report details that the German trade-union movement has developed in a different direction from American unionism. The German unions were affiliated with political parties: the Free Trade-Unions with the Social Democratic Party; the Christian-National Trade-Unions with the Center Party and the German National People's Party; and the German Trade Associations (Hirsch-Duncker) with the Democratic Party. The chapter first provides an overview of trade unionism in Germany prior to Adolf Hitler's ascension to power before discussing the spontaneous revival of trade unionism after the collapse of the Nazi regime. It then considers trade-union development in the Allied zones of occupation and in the Soviet zone of occupation, along with the revival of the works councils or shop stewards movement. It also addresses the question of the “political neutrality” of the trade-union movement.

Legal Expertise: A Critical Resource for Trade Unionists? Insights into the Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cécile Guillaume
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Institutional Power ◽  
Collective Redress ◽  
Critical Resource ◽  
The Law ◽  
Legal Expertise

Abstract Based on in-depth qualitative research conducted in one of the major French trade unions (the CFDT), this article explores to what extent and under what conditions trade unions adopt different legal practices to further their members’ interests. In particular, it investigates how ‘legal framing’ has taken an increasingly pervasive place in trade union work, in increasingly decentralised industrial relations contexts, such as France. This article therefore argues that the use of the law has become a multifaceted and embedded repertoire of action for the CFDT in its attempt to consolidate its institutional power through various strategies, including collective redress and the use of legal expertise in collective bargaining and representation work.

Trade Unions and the Welfare of Rural-Urban Migrant Workers in China

ILR Review ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 001979392110044
Author(s):  
Alison Booth ◽  
Richard Freeman ◽  
Xin Meng ◽  
Jilu Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Panel Survey ◽  
Monthly Income ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Urban Migrant

Using a panel survey, the authors investigate how the welfare of rural-urban migrant workers in China is affected by trade union presence at the workplace. Controlling for individual fixed effects, they find the following. Relative to workers from workplaces without union presence or with inactive unions, both union-covered non-members and union members in workplaces with active unions earn higher monthly income, are more likely to have a written contract, be covered by social insurances, receive fringe benefits, express work-related grievances through official channels, feel more satisfied with their lives, and are less likely to have mental health problems.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document