This introductory chapter develops an original framework to explain why unions are more or less successful in containing the spread of precarious work. It argues that employment precarity is both an outcome of and a central contributing factor to a mutually reinforcing feedback relationship between labour market, welfare state, and collective bargaining institutions; worker identity and identification; and employer and union strategies. This framework builds on academic discussions of institutional change, dualism, and precarious work from three broad research traditions: comparative political economy, critical sociology, and comparative employment relations. The chapter reviews this literature, outlines the framework, and discusses the chapter findings in the book with reference to the framework.
Implicit Contracts, the Great Depression, and Institutional Change: A Comparative Analysis of U.S. and Japanese Employment Relations, 1920-1940
