scholarly journals Brazilian Trade Unions

2009 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 250-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Lang ◽  
Mona-Josée Gagnon
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Union Leader ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Daily Activities ◽  
Heavy Body ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
Trade Unionism ◽  
Labour Legislation

Many analysts of Brazilian industrial relations share a determinist vision of the country’s trade unionism, according to which the unions maintain a paradoxical yet atavistic relationship with the heavy body of laws that provide them with advantages while limiting their freedom. We tested this vision by conducting field enquiries into the daily activities of two Brazilian unions: the ABC Metalworkers Union and the Seamstress Union for the Sao Paulo and Osasco Region. In this article, we present the results of our case studies and what they reveal about Brazilian trade unionism’s relationship with the labour legislation. We also briefly discuss former trade union leader and current President Lula’s recent attempts to reform the country’s labour relations system.

Trade Unions and the Quadripartite Interactions in Strike Settlement in China

2010 ◽  
Vol 201 ◽  
pp. 104-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feng Chen
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Social Basis ◽  
Low Degree ◽  
The Government

AbstractAlthough the Chinese government has claimed to be pursuing tripartism for labour relations, the non-judicial resolution of interest conflict in enterprises is largely a process of quadripartite interaction. In addition to the government and employers, the trade unions and workers are separate players: labour strikes in China are always launched by unorganized workers rather than by trade unions, whose task is to defuse the situation. Such a quadripartite process is dominated by the government, with the trade union playing a mediating role, not only between workers and the government but also between workers and employers. The process involves certain explicit and implicit rules, as well as distinct dynamics. This research examines the institutional and social basis of quadripartite interaction and how it led to the settlement of strikes. It demonstrates that although it can effectively defuse workers' collective action, a quadripartite process of conflict resolution reflects a low degree of institutionalization of industrial relations in China.

Managerial Trade Unionism

1983 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Arthurs
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
Union Activity ◽  
Trade Unionism

The development of trade unionism amongst managers poses a challenge to traditional conceptions of industrial relations. This paper discusses government policies towards managerial unionism and the justifications which have been put forward for restricting the trade union activity of managers. It argues that concern about managerial unionism is built upon three main assumptions: (a) managers will be faced with conflicting loyalties and placed in the impossible position of attempting to satisfy the contradictory demands of employer and union; (b) the unionisation of managers will lead to an unacceptable shift in the balance of power from employers towards trade unions; (c) the presence of managers will compromise the independence of trade unions. The conclusion is reached that the limitations which many governments place upon managerial unionism are based upon assumptions which, although not entirely without foundation, are generally incorrect.

Re-framing the debate on breakaway trade unions in an era of neoliberalism

2018 ◽  
pp. 153-170
Author(s):  
David Evans
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
The Political ◽  
Trade Unionism ◽  
Political Narrative ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Contingent Approach ◽  
Union History ◽  
Labour Organisation

Breakaway unions have been a feature of labour organisation since the dawn of trade unionism. Despite this long history, the historiography of the subject remains undeveloped. The process of breaking away from an established union and setting up a rival organisation can be triggered by a range of impulses and inducements, fostered by both progressive and reactionary forces. On one level they can be considered a product of intra-union conflict, but a fuller understanding comes from viewing breakaways in the context of the broader economic and political circumstances in which they are embedded. The systematic remapping of the political and industrial relations landscape during the neoliberal epoch has brought into question the pluralist assumptions that have traditionally underpinned the notion of breakaway unions. Building from a historically-contingent approach, this chapter contends that the ideological onslaught unions have faced since the 1980s has encouraged division among union members and the breakaways that have emerged have generally given voice to a more moderate approach, sometimes couched in a ‘non-political’ narrative. In shining a light on the reasons behind these ideologically-motivated breakaways, this chapter contributes to the knowledge of this important but neglected area of trade union history.

The Role of the Trade Union Leader in India

1974 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Ramaswamy
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
South India ◽  
Union Leader ◽  
Primary Role ◽  
Textile Workers ◽  
Trade Unionism ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
Union Leaders

Key offices in most trade unions in India are held by "outsiders" who do not belong to the trade or industry from which the members are drawn. The outsiders have marked political loyalties, with the result that almost every trade union in the country owes explicit allegiance to a political party. The partisan leanings of the outsiders have often been taken to mean that their primary role as union leaders is to seize on every available opportunity for making political gain. This paper, based on an intensive study of a textile workers' union in South India, contends that the outsiders, notwithstanding their partisan leanings, may be vitally involved in furthering their members' job-related interests. The purely trade union activities of the outsiders are divided into three broad categories. The nature of the grievance, the power wielded by the outsiders in its settlement, the pressures they can bring on the management, and the role they play differ significantly among these three categories. But in none of these is any attempt made by the outsiders to bring in their political interests. Imparting an ideological color to industrial disputes is neither necessary nor useful. While the outsiders do use their union base to further their political interests, they keep trade unionism and politics as discrete spheres of activity.

scholarly journals Trade union community membership: exploring what people who are not in paid employment could contribute to union activism

2021 ◽  
pp. 102425892110433
Author(s):  
Jane Holgate ◽  
Gabriella Alberti ◽  
Iona Byford ◽  
Ian Greenwood
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Labour Unions ◽  
Community Membership ◽  
Private Sector Union ◽  
Trade Unionism ◽  
Paid Employment ◽  
Union Activism

The industrial relations literature tends to argue that workers join trade unions primarily for instrumental reasons, for example, to obtain assistance if there is a problem at work. But this clearly does not apply to people who are not in work. It is in many ways counterintuitive to join a trade union when one is not an employee or in paid employment, looking for a job, or retired. Generally, there is little material benefit in doing so. Others have noted, however, that personal values, particularly associated with the ideological left, can cultivate a predisposition toward joining a union that is not based on a purely material calculus. Nevertheless, this analysis is usually applied to workers. The research reflected in this article aims to understand the motivation of people who are not in paid employment, such as jobseekers/unemployed, students and retirees, to join labour unions and become active within them. It does so through a case study of the United Kingdom’s largest private sector union, Unite, and considers the contribution to, or rationale for, union activism within community membership and the possibilities for rethinking trade unionism beyond its traditional workplace base.

scholarly journals Workers’ Power in Resisting Precarity: Comparing Transport Workers in Buenos Aires and Dar es Salaam

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 1114-1130
Author(s):  
Matteo Rizzo ◽  
Maurizio Atzeni
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Buenos Aires ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Dar Es Salaam ◽  
Informal Work ◽  
Trade Unionism ◽  
The World ◽  
Transport Workers

The growing precariousness of employment across the world has radically altered the conditions upon which the representation of workers’ interests has traditionally been built, as it has posed challenges for established trade unions: individualized employment and fragmented identities have displaced the centrality of the workplace and the employee–employer relationship in framing collective issues of representation. In this article, we compare the processes of collective organization of two groups of precarious workers in the transport and delivery sector of Buenos Aires and Dar es Salaam. Through this comparison we investigate how existing trade union structures, industrial relations frameworks, socio-political contexts and labour processes interact with the processes of workers’ organization that take place even in the harsher conditions of informal work, critically engaging with the argument that the growing precariousness of work represents the end of trade unionism as we know it.

scholarly journals Trade Unions: Relevant Out of Irrelevant? A Study on Generation’s Perception in Malaysia

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
Che Supian Mohamad Nor ◽  
Ramesh Kumar Moona Haji Mohamed ◽  
Charles Ramendran SPR ◽  
Prem Kumar Nadarajan ◽  
Vimala Kadiresan
Keyword(s):  
Generation X ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Generation Y ◽  
Generational Differences ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Future Generation ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Trade Unionism

Generational differences on workforce in Malaysia have stirred the value of trade unionism. The transition from generation-X to generation-Y has created diverse perceptions on the relevance of being a member of a trade union. In the near future, generation-Y will be the bastion of the Malaysian workforce. They will be a fundamental actor in reshaping the industrial relations ecosystem in Malaysia. In this respect, this study focused on unionized and non-unionized generation-X and Y employee’s perception on the importance of trade unionism in the Malaysian context. Using a qualitative study, face-to-face semi-structured interviews with targeted respondents were conducted. The findings showed that the trade union do bring contributions to employees and protect employees from unfair actions but the density of trade unions declined due to unclear information known about trade unionism among generation Y. Based on the research findings, practical implications are discussed.

scholarly journals Justice for Janitors Goes Dutch. Precarious Labour and Trade Union Response in the Cleaning Industry (1988–2012): A Transnational History

2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ad Knotter
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Service Employees ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
Trade Unionism ◽  
Justice For Janitors ◽  
The Us ◽  
Transnational Connections ◽  
Set Up

AbstractPrecarious labour has been on the rise globally since the 1970s and 1980s. Changing labour relations in the cleaning industry are an example of these developments. From the 1970s onwards, outsourcing changed the position of industrial cleaners fundamentally: subcontracting companies were able to reduce labour costs by recruiting mainly women and immigrants with a weak position in the labour market. For trade unions, it was hard to find a way to counteract this tendency and to organize these workers until the Justice for Janitors (J4J) campaigns, set up by the US-based Service Employees International Union (SEIU) from the late 1980s, showed that an adequate trade union response was possible. From the mid-2000s, the SEIU launched a strategy to form international coalitions outside the US. It met a favourable response in several countries. In the Netherlands, a campaign modelled on the J4J repertoire proved extraordinarily successful. In this article, transnational trade unionism in the cleaning industry based on the J4J model will be analysed with a special focus on the Dutch case. How were local labour markets and trade union actions related to the transnational connections apparent in the rise of multinational cleaning companies, the immigrant workforce, and the role of the SEIU in promoting international cooperation between unions?

French trade unions and the mobilisation against the El Khomri law in 2016: a reconfiguration of strategies and alliances

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Béroud
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
The Other ◽  
Trade Unionism ◽  
Central Actor ◽  
New Form ◽  
The One ◽  
Union Competition

A number of French trade unions played a determining role in the opposition to the El Khomri law (also called the ‘loi Travail’) in Spring 2016. As well as large demonstrations and sector-level strikes, the movement also gave rise to the occupation of public spaces, such as the Place de la République in Paris. This new form of protest acquired the name ‘Nuit Debout’ (‘Up All Night’). This article examines the convergences, but also the tensions, which characterised the relations between the trade unions and Nuit Debout. It shows in particular how the Confédération générale du travail (CGT, General Confederation of Labour), a central actor in the protest, was caught in a dual and sometimes contradictory rationale. On the one hand, it was confronted with the particular dynamic of social movements, and with the capacity of trade unionism to mobilise and politicise the protest being called into question during the Nuit Debout movement. On the other hand, it faced certain constraints within the field of industrial relations, related to the issues of trade union competition and representativeness.

scholarly journals Reforming Legislation on Collective Labour Relations Engaging Trade Union as a Party

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 57-72
Author(s):  
Ivan Yatskevych
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Collective Agreement ◽  
Research Issues ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
Trade Unionism ◽  
Adoption And Implementation

The paper covers problematic issues of reforming the legislation on collective labour relations with the participating trade union representing the interests and defending the rights of employees, consisting in a workers’ collective, during collective bargaining, concluding a collective agreement, holding a social dialogue on the local level. The article contains an analysis of a draft legislation such as draft laws On Labour, On Amending Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine (Regarding Certain Issues of Trade Unions’ Activity), On Amending the Law of Ukraine On Collective Agreements and Contracts in order to reveal the main trends of the proposed drafts, their scientific analysis, and producing own conclusions regarding impact of these draft laws upon the efficiency of the trade unions movement in Ukraine.The study of the proposed amendments to certain legislative acts as well as corresponding conclusions are made in observance of the current trends in the development of judicial application of legislative provisions on the preferential right of a unit trade union to represent a collective’s interests during collective bargaining regarding concluding or amending a collective agreement at an enterprise or institution. The paper contains a discussion on problematic (from a perspective of legal exercising and research) issues of the current legislative provisions on the safeguarding implementation of trade unions competence conformity to the Constitution of Ukraine, ILO Convention No. 87, and the recent case-law.The accordance of principles of rule of law and legality, representation, and efficient representing of workers’ collective interests during the in-court dispute resolution regarding representing the collective of workers and accession to an effective collective agreement is highlighted.In the conclusion it is stated that there is a negative trend on further deterioration of the trade unions’ position as representatives of labour collectives empowered with representative and defensive functions in relations with employers. Besides that, it is stressed that adoption and implementation of the argued legislative initiatives will eventually cause deepening the crisis of trade unionism and deteriorating of social standards. It will make a negative impact on a person’s social security in the state. There are grounds to assert forming case-law acknowledging works councils as equally authorized representatives of the workers’ collective in collective bargaining. In the meantime, the practice of rejection of new trade union’s units to join an effective collective agreement within the employer’s enterprise persists. It is concluded with the necessity to improve the system of normative safeguards for the trade unions activity and creating an efficient mechanism for countering abuse of rights, including safeguarding provisions, by parties of collective labour relations.

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