Leadership and Followership in the Context of Trade Unionism

Trade union leadership and followership are complimentary and symbiotic. Pragmatic followership serves to engender effective trade union leadership. Union leaders are expected to work with and stand by their members in order to attain union mandates. Union ethos demands that leaders must place the interest and welfare of workers as their most paramount goal and work assiduously towards satisfying them. Union members must consider the antecedents and pedigree of aspirants and ensure that only unionists with track records of tenaciously and selflessly championing the union's cause should be elected as leaders. Through leadership by example, trust, integrity, and candor, union leaders can bring about positive changes to both workers and their union. Finally, the authors called on union leaders to be alive to their responsibilities and demonstrate ethical and servant forms of leadership in order to cope with the challenges of giving vent to the aspirations of their members.

Mapping domestic workers’ organizing globally

Domestic workers face challenges for organizing, e.g. decentralization of the workforce, nature of the employment relationship. This article analyses, based on a multiple country-comparison, how domestic workers organize despite constrictions. We identify three forms of organizing: the trade union model and the association model (Shireen Ally). We propose, though, an additional third model, the ‘hybrid type’: domestic workers organize ‘amongst themselves’ in associations and at the same time these associations are linked to or integrated into trade unions, which provides representation, services and contact with other workers. Related to this finding, we see a trend of an ‘emerging trade unionism’. Which means that we tend to find more trade union-related forms of organizing than a decade ago. One explanatory factor is the “governance struggle” of winning the International Labour Organization’s Convention “Decent Work for Domestic Workers” in 2011, which led to an increased collaboration and trust-building between organized domestic workers and trade unions.

Poetry, Rock ’n’ Roll, and Cinema in Turkey’s 1960s

Using developments in poetry, music, and cinema as case studies, this article examines the relationship between left-wing politics and cultural production during the long 1960s in Turkey. Intellectual and artistic pursuits flourished alongside trade unionism, student activism, peasant organizing, guerrilla movements. This article explores the convergences between militants and artists, arguing for the centrality of culture in the social movements of the period. It focuses on three revealing debates: between the modernist İkinci Yeni poets and young socialist poets, between left-wing protest rockers and supporters of folk music, and between proponents of radical art film and those of cinematic “social realism”.

Women empowerment in trade union movements: A strategy for national and economic development

Nigerian Trade Union (NTU) serves as a platform to safeguard and guarantee the interests and rights of workers in government organizations, regardless of gender and age. There is, however, a contrasting trend with regard to women empowerment in the trade Unionism in the Northern region. Hence, this study examines the participation of women in Nigerian trade union movements of Northern region. This study adopts a qualitative method of data collection. A total of eleven respondents from the Northern region were interviewed using unstructured questions. MAXQDA 2018 software version is used to analyze the data obtained from the field. In explaining the topic under investigation, the study has adopted the following two theories as a tool of research analysis: Empowerment and Social Constructivism theories. The key framework of these theories is largely premised on women empowerment and gender equality. These theories emphasize on the need for empowering women and gender fairness in every organization. The basis of the Social Constructivism theory is that gender inequality is socially constructed. The findings of this study demonstrate that women in the Northern region are not adequately empowered in the trade union movements this is because most of them are often subjugated to domestic activities. Therefore, the study recommends that the Nigerian government should enact national policies and strategies to encourage women participation and empowerment in the trade union movements in the region. The study adds that there is a need for women to be educated on gender discrimination by implementing the 35 percent Geneva Affirmative Action.

Labour in Turkey during the 1960s: The Long Hot Decade of the Working Class

The 1960s were unique and sui generis years for the labour movement in Turkey. This decade not only witnessed the emergence of industrial capitalism, but also was a critical and intense period of class struggle in which the formation of the country’s working class accelerated. As the working class gained momentum, it proved itself to be a new social class after being dismissed in previous decades. At the beginning of the period, trade unions gained constitutional guarantees, thereby increasing the momentum of the labour movement, even as traditional trade unionism eroded somewhat following a period of dominance in the previous two decades. Ultimately, class-based and independent unionism grew in strength in the 1960s, while the decade also represents a critical moment in the process of working-class politicisation.

AS A RESULT OF THE TRANSFORMATION IN PRODUCTION RELATIONS, THE SEARCH FOR A NEW VISION IN TURKISH LABOR UNIONISM

After experiencing its half-century golden period between 1950-2000, the system of trade unionism and collective bargaining, which arose with the concern of turning the class political struggle, which entered the agenda of humanity into a peaceful situation, faced a crisis of existence and function. A change in the understanding of Labor Relations and Business Management, a change in the perspective of working and production with modern human resource management techniques, has led to the need to reproduce the system of trade unionism and collective bargaining. Globalization, international competition and small businesses succumbing to mass production have led to trade union monopolism and cumbersome organizations. Trade union organizations have fallen behind the human resource vision they represent and have begun to fade in the trap of wage unionism. This led to a trend of changes in the way trade unionism was conducted, but the components of new trade unionism did not fall into place. The traditional collective bargaining system, which can find a living space thanks to the introduction of wage costs against the price-quality-sales performance in production, has had to express itself again as this cycle begins to be questioned. The main concerns about trade unionism have changed as follows: It has become vital that unionism is peace-oriented rather than fight-oriented, compromise-oriented rather than debate-oriented, solution-oriented rather than Problem-Oriented, Development and life-oriented rather than wage-oriented, strategy and employment-oriented rather than bargaining-oriented. Therefore, especially in trade unionism, it is clear that there is a need for “trade unionism and community bargaining system reform”, which begins with the qualifications and election times of trade union managers and extends to managing flexible working models and from there to the correct perception and correct interpretation of international company relations and paves the way for entrepreneurship. Keywords: Trade Unionism, Collective Bargaining, Labor, Industrial Relations, Productivity, Innovation, Human Resources

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