scholarly journals Framing, Resources and Repertoire of Local Trade Union Action for Health and Safety: A Study Conducted with a Quebec Central Labour Body

2018 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 429-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geneviève Baril-Gingras ◽  
Sarah Pier Dubois-Ouellet
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Phase 1 ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Worker Safety ◽  
Release Time

Summary Employment and working conditions having an impact on health and safety are some of the most important concerns of workers. Amongst the various means by which trade unions contribute to prevention, the contribution of Worker Safety Representatives (WSR) is well-established and the most studied, including their participation in joint occupational health and safety committees (JOHSC). However, there are surprisingly few studies examining the place of OHS as an issue of workers’ collective action. Conducted with a large Quebec Central Labour Body, this study aims to understand why and how local-level unions concentrate upon these issues, the repertoire of means that they employ and the context that supports or hindus such actions. The conceptual framework is based on previous realistic evaluations of OHS preventive interventions and includes Levesque and Murray’s (2010) trade union power resources and strategic capabilities. In phase I, eleven semi-structured interviews were conducted with union staff members and elected representatives from different sectors, covering a wide array of activities such as unionization, training, negotiation, OHS prevention and compensation. Results also refer to five case studies (phase 2) of local-level trade unions identified by phase 1 respondents as particularly active in relation to prevention. The process by which working conditions having a negative impact on OHS are framed (or not) as trade union issues is examined. Levers and barriers are also identified. Factors affecting the presence of resources for trade union autonomous action aimed at prevention (like the integration of WSR to the union core structure, release time for prevention, etc.) are highlighted. A widely diverse repertoire of workplace-level trade union means of action for OHS is also highlighted by the interviews and case studies, not limited just to those provided by the Quebec OHS regime. It includes the recourse to labour relations mechanisms (e.g. negotiation and strike) and is based on an autonomous agenda, including mobilization. The potential of OHS issues for union revitalization is discussed, as well as the barriers that must be overcome.

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.

scholarly journals Rebelling Against Time: Recreational Activism as Political Practice Among the Italian Precarious Youth

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (11) ◽  
pp. 1519-1538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Milan
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Free Time ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Political Commitment ◽  
Political Practice ◽  
General Decline ◽  
Italian Context

Hit by the economic and political crisis, young people in Italy face increased labor precarity and the disillusionment derived from the disappearance of the radical Left from the parliamentary arena. In the Italian context, economic hardship, the decrease of resources available for collective action, and the weakened mobilizing capacity that traditional mass organizations (such as trade unions and political parties) retained in the first decade of the 2000s brought about a general decline in intensity and visibility of street protests, leading to an apparent retreat of activism to the local level of action. Although the crisis had a negative impact on collective action, evidence reveals that more creative and less visible forms of societal and political commitment were adopted by young generations in these years. This article explores how the Italian youth in times of crisis engaged actively in alternative and unconventional forms of political commitment aimed at re-appropriating space, free time, and access to leisure, mainly by means of mutualistic practices. Based on data from qualitative semistructured interviews with key informants and activists, this article sheds light on recreational activism, adopted as a political practice by the Italian youth active in counter-cultural spaces, nowadays at the forefront of the struggle to oppose the commodification of free time and leisure.

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.

Sustainable Alliances: The Origins of International Labor Environmentalism

2004 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 118-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Silverman
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Environmentally Conscious ◽  
International Labor ◽  
Political Sources ◽  
European Trade ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Stockholm Conference

This article examines evaluates the strength of the Labor-Environmentalist alliance of the late twentieth century. It traces the evolution of trade unionists' thinking about nature and the human relationship to the environment by examining intellectual and political sources of labor involvement in United Nations' environmental policy making from the 1950s through the 1980s. The article explores the reasons trade union organizations, notably the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, the International Trade Secretariats (Global Union Federations) and the European Trade Union Confederation, participated in a variety of international conferences and institutions such as the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Environment, the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development. It finds that environmentally conscious trade unionists developed their own version of environmentalism and sustainable development based on a reworking of basic trade union principles, a reworking that emphasized solidarity with nature and made central the protection of the health and safety of workers, communities, and environments.

Control of the workplace environment by physical factors and SMART monitoring

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (103) ◽  
pp. 18-29
Author(s):  
O. Kruzhilko ◽  
O. Polukarov ◽  
S. Vambol ◽  
V. Vambol ◽  
N.A. Khan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Conditions ◽  
Management System ◽  
Data Transfer ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Labour Productivity ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Physical Factors ◽  
Managerial Decisions ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient ◽  
Current Monitoring

Purpose: To develop and implementation in practice an algorithm for smart monitoring of workplace environmental physical factors for occupational health and safety (OSH) management. Design/methodology/approach: A brief conceptual analysis of existing approaches to workplace environmental physical factors monitoring was conducted and reasonably suggest a decision-making algorithm to reduce the negative impact of this factors as an element of the OSH management system. Findings: An algorithm has been developed that provides continual improvement of the OSH management system to improve overall labour productivity and which has 3 key positive features: (1) improved data collection, (2) improved data transfer and (3) operational determination of the working conditions class. Research limitations/implications: The implementation of the proposed algorithm for substantiating managerial decisions to reduce the negative impact of workplace physical factors is shown by the example of four workplace environmental physical factors in the products manufacture from glass. Practical implications: If management decisions on the implementation of protective measures are taken in accordance with the proposed monitoring algorithm, these decisions will be timely and justified. This makes it possible to reduce the time of the dangerous effects of physical factors on the health of workers and reduce the level of these factors to improve working conditions. That is, an algorithm is proposed that provides continuous improvement of the OSH management system to increase overall labour productivity. Originality/value: Current monitoring of workplace environmental physical factors values are carried out in accordance with the justified monitoring intervals for each factor that provides the necessary and sufficient amount of data and eliminates the transfer of useless data.

Trade Unions, Institutional Mediation and Industrial Safety

2007 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theo Nichols ◽  
David Walters ◽  
Ali C. Tasiran
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Industrial Safety ◽  
Statistical Techniques ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Injury Rates ◽  
Employee Representation ◽  
Safety Committees

Results of studies that examine the relation between trade union presence and injury rates are often indeterminate and trade unions are sometimes apparently associated with danger not safety. The British WIRS data set has provided a unique resource whereby researchers may examine the relation between trade unions and injury rates as mediated through particular arrangements for health and safety. Yet here, too, most investigations have failed to find a negative relation. It is in this context that this article returns to the original data. Utilizing improved statistical techniques, it concludes that cases where trade unions have an input into health and safety committees and where there are representatives are to be preferred to those where there is no such trade union input or no representatives. It argues that considerable strengthening of regulatory provision is required on employee representation and consultation if health and safety is to be improved.

scholarly journals Introduction

1994 ◽  
Vol 39 (S2) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catharina Lis ◽  
Jan Lucassen ◽  
Hugo Soly
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Local Level ◽  
International Unions ◽  
Wage Earners

We have called this collection of essays Before the Unions. What exactly do we mean by (trade) unions and what preceded them? Exactly a hundred years ago Beatrice and Sydney Webb defined a trade union as “a continuous association of wage-earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment”. These permanent organizations of wage earners of the same occupation, according to most labour historians, started at a local level and tended to develop into national and sometimes even international unions and they formulated political as well as economic demands.

Trade Unionists in Parliament and Macroeconomic Performance: Evidence from Germany

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 101-116
Author(s):  
Michael Berlemann ◽  
Klaus W. Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Macroeconomic Performance ◽  
Macroeconomic Conditions ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Members Of Parliament

This article focuses on the role of unionised members of parliament. While unions have a direct effect on the labour market via wage negotiations, they often also take part in political debates. In many countries, significant shares of the members of parliament are also members of a trade union. However, up to now little empirical evidence is available on the extent to which unionised members of parliament try to achieve union-specific goals and thereby influence the macroeconomic conditions of an economy. A recent study for Germany comes to the conclusion that union members in the Bundestag cannot be seen as the parliamentary arm of the trade unions. However, we present contradicting empirical results by showing that, in Germany at least, the degree of unionisation of parliamentary members has a negative impact on economic growth and increases inflation, while unemployment remains unaffected.

Annual hours, workplace partnership and mutual gains: exploring the links

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 248-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorraine Ryan ◽  
Joseph Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Secondary Material ◽  
The Creation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the capacity of annual hours (AH) to deliver gains to both workers and management and assesses the role of workplace partnership in three Irish companies that have adopted AH. Design/methodology/approach – Three case studies are compared and contrasted. The case studies were compiled through semi-structured interviews with management and trade union representatives, a survey of 205 workers and secondary material. Findings – The authors find that workplace partnership is not a prerequisite for achieving mutual gains where AH are concerned. The research draws attention to the importance of a mechanism for the creation of gains, in these cases, AH and that such gains can arise from different processes. Mutual gains output is not confined to workplace partnership but can arise from collective bargaining. Originality/value – The paper highlights the importance of comparing case studies so that the role of factors often seen as causal to mutual gains in exemplar cases can be critically evaluated. It also utilises directly workers’ opinions on AH and workplace partnership where typically, representative views of management and trade unions dominate the literature on these issues.

scholarly journals Implementation of the Right of Workers Employed through the Internet Platforms to Unionize in European Countries and in the Russian Federation

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 88-101
Author(s):  
T. A. Izbienova ◽  
A. K. Bezina
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Labor Rights ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
The Right

The paper is devoted to examining some legal aspects of implementation of the right to unionize for individuals employed through the Internet platforms — digital applications that serve as a link between the participant providing the service and its consumer. The emergence of such intermediaries has become a part of digitalization of wage labor characterizing the beginning of the 4th Industrial Revolution. The modern labor market is characterized by instability due to the withdrawal of some sectors of the economy from the traditional Fordist model of labor organization. The instability caused desocialization of workers, their disintegration and had a negative impact on the traditional labour movemen that has always been expressed in the form of trade unions. In this regard, the authors’ objective is to investigate the prospects and legal grounds for creating unions of workers employed through the Internet platforms, as well as the legal specifics of their labor rights protection with due regard to their precarious legal status. To achieve this objective, it was necessary to resolve the issues of expediency, effectiveness of trade union protection of digital labor and the place of trade unions in social and partnership relations with the participation of workers employed through the Internet platforms. The author formulates the conclusion about the effectiveness of trade union protection of labor rights of workers employed through the Internet platforms, provided the socio-partner procedures are employed.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document