Understanding Union Commitment Among Young Workers: A Cross-Theoretical Perspective

This study aims to shed light on the main determinants of and barriers to union commitment among young workers and, more generally, the relationship young workers have with union life. So far, the relationship between young workers and unionism has been examined mainly in terms of the challenges of access to unionization that confront young workers, a group generally underrepresented in union membership. The more specific issue of union commitment among young workers, once they become unionized, has remained largely underexplored in the literature. Using quantitative and qualitative data from an empirical survey of young unionized workers in the Quebec public service, our study identifies and compares the main factors that explain union commitment among young unionized workers and the theoretical underpinnings. It also seeks to shed light on the barriers to this commitment and identifies the organizational measures that could facilitate union commitment among young workers, based on the perceptions expressed by young union members. Our findings indicate that unions should adopt multidimensional organizational measures to foster union commitment among young workers, with a first step being to increase personalized contact between local union representatives and young members. Such investments at the local level are critical, as shown by our quantitative and qualitative findings. Thus, any reform or measure aimed at encouraging union involvement of young workers should not be limited merely to structural aspects but should also take into account the attitudinal and relational underpinnings of young workers’ commitment to their union. By shifting the focus from youth unionization to young members’ involvement in union bodies, our study will contribute to debate about union representation and the generational renewal of the labour movement’s activist base.

Fragile Political Coalitions: Negotiating Race and Class in the Opt-Out Movement

Background/Context Recent movements to “opt out” of state assessments have brought together a broad and diverse group of activists. While many activists foreground concerns of equity and justice, opting out has been concentrated in affluent suburban communities. These differences highlight questions of power and privilege within the movement: in what ways is opting out more acceptable—and politically persuasive—because it has primarily been driven by affluent white communities? How has the opt-out movement incorporated—or elided—the voices, interests, and perspectives of communities of color? Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study To explore these questions, this study focuses on how opt-out activists describe the aims of their movement and how they negotiated tensions related to race, power, and privilege in education activism. How might we understand the potential coalitions and fault lines within the diverse opt-out movement? Research Design Drawing on the insights of critical discourse analysis (CDA), we analyze presentations and interactions from a national conference on opting out held in 2016. We focus on publicly accessible video recordings of major sessions (keynotes and panels) to describe how activists describe the aims, strategies, and potential compromises of the opt-out movement. We also draw on several secondary sources of data (social media, webinars, blog posts, and other publications from opt-out leaders) to add context to our analysis. Data Collection and Analysis We use concepts in social movement theory, including movement identity and “splintering,” to frame some emerging fissures among opt-out activists, particularly across lines of class, race, and power. We organize our findings into three interrelated themes, describing how activists framed and negotiated the aims of opting out, often across lines of race and class, and worked to build solidarity amid moments of dissent. Conclusions/Recommendations While politically successful in some respects, the anti-testing coalition remains fragile and divided, leaving its goals for equity-oriented reform uncertain. Certain longstanding issues (the inclusion of communities of color) and particular policy decisions (collaborating with local union and civil rights chapters) have contributed to fractures in the movement. However, activists may capitalize on dissent to expand the boundaries of their movement and build more diverse and expansive networks.

Do local union strategies explain the (unexpected) union pay premium in China?

PurposeThe authors investigate the extent to which differences in provincial union legislation have impacts on the union earnings premium.Design/methodology/approachContent analysis of provincial union regulations of 25 provinces is conducted to create two indices: one reflecting the degree of stringency of the local requirement that unions be established in a timely fashion and the other reflecting requirements for employers to negotiate wages with the union. The authors use individual level data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) of 2010 to estimate the union earnings premium.FindingsThe authors find that unionised workers in China receive an earnings premium ranging from 6.4 to 9.6%, which is in range of other studies (but not all) for China that tend to find a (perhaps surprising) union wage premium in spite of the fact that unions tend to be “company unions” designed to foster stability and growth and to serve as a transmission belt for the wishes of the Party rather than bargaining for the benefit of their members. The authors also find that provincial requirements to establish unions in a timely fashion enhance the impact of unions on the earnings of their members, but provincial requirements to negotiate wages dampen the effect of unions on the earnings of their members. Reasons for these results are discussed.Originality/valueDespite this lack of independence of the Chinese unions, research continuously finds that Chinese unions have effects that are surprisingly similar to those of unions in Western countries. This paper drills deeper into the underlying mechanisms to see if local union strategies, exemplified by provincial union legislation, can explain the unexpected union effects on compensation. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to do so. Moreover, the authors use individual-level data in contrast to most studies on China that use firm or provincial level aggregate data.

Promoting Opioid Awareness Through a Union-Based Peer Training Model

Work factors, including physical job demands, appear to be risk factors for opioid overdoses. We collaborated with unions representing workers in high-risk occupations and offered resources to develop tailored educational interventions for their members. An ironworkers’ local, a statewide nurses’ union, and a Teamsters local union participated, at levels higher than we had anticipated. The three unions trained 285 workers, including apprentices, stewards, and those nearing retirement. Short surveys assessed pre- and post-training knowledge, attitudes, confidence in helping others, and related domains. Seventy percent of respondents reported heavy or very heavy physical demands at work, and one-half had experienced work-related pain. After training, participants reported more knowledge about opioids, less concern about stigma related to help-seeking, and more ability to provide help to a co-worker struggling with opioids. Peers with recovery experience provided a unique contribution to training. Tailored job-specific and peer-delivered educational interventions may be able to reduce the potential impact of opioids on working people.

The Impact of New Member Orientation Programs on Union Member Commitment: Evidence from a National Study in a Post-Janus Setting

This article presents the findings of a study that examined local union new member orientation programs and their impact on member attitudes toward the union. Data for this study were collected through a survey of new members of six geographically dispersed local and regional affiliates of a large national public sector union. Members were asked about their experiences as new members. The findings provide strong evidence that high-quality new member orientation programs have a positive impact on member commitment to the union and that unions and union leaders can invest resources in initiating or improving these programs with the confidence that they will have a positive and significant impact on member attitudes. It also provides specific insights into the elements of effective new member orientation programs and includes action recommendations on how unions can use new member orientations programs to build stronger organizations.

“Judases”

Chapter 3 examines the reasons that caused workers to leave or reject unions. Scholars normally associate union decline with workers disillusion with unionism. This chapter, however, argues that workers’ faith in unionism did not waver as much as their faith in union leaders did. As Gilded Age unions like the United Mine Workers implemented a more centralized hierarchy, local union autonomy waned. As a result, workers doubted whether union leaders made decisions with the workers’ interests in mind, and they left the union when it seemed their leaders went astray. Rather than abandoning unionism altogether, however, many of these individuals formed local unions that rivaled the national unions, indicating that workers had more problems with union leadership than they did with unionism itself.

The Ecclesiology of Visible Unity at Lambeth 1920: Lost beyond Recovery?

According to the ecumenical ecclesiology of the 1920 Lambeth Conference ‘Appeal to All Christian People’, Christians are called to make known to the whole world the fellowship of human persons that is God’s will. They are to do so by means of the visible unity of Christ’s church in faith, sacraments and ministry, which requires the union of churches in each place and the communion of churches in every place, for which universal acceptance of the historic episcopate is pivotal. While this ecumenical ecclesiology faced significant challenges during the following five decades within international Anglican ecumenism, it continued to be widely influential until hopes for the union of churches in each place went into eclipse from the 1970s onwards, with work towards the communion of churches in every place becoming unhinged from it. A re-imagining of the interdependence of local union and universal communion in the contemporary context is needed for the renewal of an ecumenical ecclesiology that holds together unity and mission in a relationship that is not narrowly instrumental but demonstrates the profound inseparability between the communication of Christ and communion in Christ.

STATUS OF THE STATE THEORY OF LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT IN THE WORLD DOCTRINE OF MUNICIPAL LAW

Representatives of the “free community” theory were among the first to draw attention to the issues of local self-government. In the early nineteenth century. Treasury, ie government officials, was responsible for the affairs and property of the communities. As a result, the community economy has been virtually destroyed to nothing. Therefore, there is a need for scientific substantiation of the need to limit the intervention of central executive bodies in the public system of the economy. This task was intended to be solved by the theory of “free community”, which argued that the right of the community to settle its affairs has the same inalienable character as human rights and freedoms since the community has historically emerged before a state that should respect the freedom of public administration. At the same time, the idea of the inalienability of community rights was sufficiently vulnerable, because, on the one hand, to justify the inalienability of the rights of large territorial self-governing units (departments, provinces, lands, or regions) created by the state was rather difficult and, on the other, to deny them. other types of self-government, except for small rural and urban communities, was rather strange because it did not correspond to the real state of affairs. That is why the social theory of self-government is beginning to emerge, which, as characteristic features of local self-government, has advanced the non-state and usually economic nature of the activity of local self-government bodies. However, the practice has proved that self-government bodies exercise not only private-legal but also public functions, that is, those that are inherent to public authorities, which derive their powers from the state. In addition, the impossibility of clearly separating community affairs from state affairs entrusted to the community was clarified. That is why the state theory of self-government arises. The basic principle of all legal theories was the recognition of the community, county, city, province, in general, any self-governing local union, as a body of public law. At the same time, all representatives of legal theories recognized that the competence of local self-government bodies is not their independent function, it is a state function, that is, transferred by the state to be performed by independent local communities. Therefore, all cases that are administered by local governments are state affairs. The state government itself sets the limits of its competence, entrusting part of its affairs to local self-governing communities and recognizing them as independent public-law corporations. Local self-government bodies, although performing public duties, are not bodies of the state but of independent self-governing unions of communities, possessing the will and independence of the state and independent entities of public law, independent of the will of the state power, because the power itself wants to make them legally independent. Keywords: local self-government; state theory of local self-government; the theory of «free community»; public theory of self-government.

Trump, Carrier, and the Invisible Worker

Chapter 1 analyzes news media coverage of President-elect Donald Trump’s visit to the Carrier furnace assembly plant in Indianapolis in December 2016. The plant became Trump’s symbolic beachhead in his “plan” to save jobs, only after the steelworkers there gained national visibility for efforts to prevent outsourcing of their jobs to Mexico. The news media, including CNN, Fox News, NBC, and the Washington Post, emphasized stories of grateful white men whose jobs had been saved by Trump, playing into his(and the conservative media’s) public relations narrative. A few news organizations continued to follow the story when Trump’s promises to save jobs at Carrier fell short by hundreds of workers and the local union president accused Trump of lying.