Trade Unions and Immigration in the Netherlands

This chapter focuses on trade union strategies to represent immigrant and ethnic minority workers in the Netherlands. Since the early 1990s, trade unions in the Netherlands countries started developing policies to better represent the rights of immigrant and ethnic minority workers. Trade unions focused on the labour market inclusion of ethnic minority workers by promoting and supporting initiatives related to education and training, and measures aimed at fighting labour market discriminations. These initiatives were mainly developed through tripartite and bipartite negotiations within an industrial relations system characterised by a strong tradition of social dialogue which also guaranteed a high degree of institutional embeddedness in trade unions. According to the analytical framework presented in Chapter 1, the dominant logic of action of Dutch trade unions was between race/ethnicity and social rights.

Economic pluralism in the study of wage discrimination: a note

Purpose Economic pluralism proposes that economists and social planners should consider alternative theories to establish a range of policy actions. Neoclassical, Feminist and Marxian theories evaluate well-grounded causes of wage discrimination. However, a reluctance to consider less-dominant theories among different schools of economic thought restricts analysis and proposed policies, resulting in a monism method. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach The authors provide a brief review of the theoretical literature on wage discrimination. The significance of a pluralistic analysis is demonstrated by addressing correspondence test patterns of wage discrimination. Findings In considering Neoclassical, Feminist and Marxian theories, racist attitudes, uncertainties regarding minority workers’ productivity and power relations in lower-status sectors might generate discriminatory wages. Each cause deserves corresponding policy action. Research limitations/implications Time is needed to provide a pluralistic evaluation of wage discrimination. In addition, pluralism requires rigorous investigations to avoid incoherencies. Pluralism might be jeopardised if there is a limited desire to engage with less-dominant theoretical frameworks. Also, pluralism might be misled with rejection of dominant theories. Practical implications Given pluralism, wage discrimination might be reduced by implementing equality campaigns, creating low-cost tests to predict workers’ productivity and abolishing power relations towards minority workers. Originality/value Little work has been on economic pluralism in the study of wage discrimination. The current study addresses the gap in the literature.

COMING OUT SEBAGAI STRATEGI PRESENTASI PEKERJA MINORITAS SEKSUAL MELAWAN DISKRIMINASI MENURUT ONTOLOGI MATEMATIKA ALAIN BADIOU

Sexual minority workers often choose to hide their true sexual identity to avoid discriminative action towards them. This leads to their invisible position in the workers presentation. Hiding true sexual identity of sexual minority workers creates exclusive relationship between heteronormative majority workers and non-heteronormative minority workers because of unavailability of intensive and personal interactions between them. Thus it makes sexual minority workers are excluded from the workers presentation and preserving discrimination based on sexuality. Using mathematical theory formulated by Alain Badiou, this writing tries to propose a strategy for sexual minority workers to be visible in the workers presentation through coming out action as an event. Coming out in the end is a strategy to fight for equality and an action for discrimination based on sexuality to end.

Big Visions and Big Hopes

ThIs chapter examines the early Sweeney years, a remarkable time full of optimism for the AFL-CIO, and for many of America’s working people. Sweeney launched a wide range of reforms, putting an increased emphasis on organizing, political mobilization, and grassroots work, and forging new bonds with unions in other countries. He also introduced unprecedented diversity into the AFL-CIO, appointing more female staffers than ever before, and reaching out to female and minority workers. Sweeney’s efforts secured results; in 1998, for example, union membership increased by 101,000 over the previous year, a notable turnaround. The optimism was still evident at the end of 1999, when the AFL-CIO joined with environmentalists and engaged in mass demonstrations at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle. Two events – the contested 2000 presidential election and 9/11 – acted as turning points, initiating a domestic climate that was much more hostile to the AFL-CIO.

Epilogue

This epilogue surveys developments since September 2009, when Richard Trumka replaced John Sweeney as AFL-CIO president. It covers events up to the end of 2015, when the research period of this project ended. Overall, Trumka continued many of Sweeney’s reforms, placing a big emphasis on organizing, political mobilization, and connecting with women and minority workers. He also continued to diversify the AFL-CIO’s leadership; in 2009, for example, for the first time, two of the Federation’s top three officials were women. Trumka also had to confront many negative developments, especially in the wake of the Tea Party elections of 2010. Many Republican governors now sought to take on unions, especially in the public sector, with the high-profile battle in Wisconsin (2011) being the best example. Despite being more “under fire” than ever, the AFL-CIO continued to fight back, defending important progressive legislation and remaining as the only mass membership, national organization fighting for working Americans.

Discrimination as a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Evidence from French Grocery Stores*

Examining the performance of cashiers in a French grocery store chain, we find that manager bias negatively affects minority job performance. In the stores studied, cashiers work with different managers on different days and their schedules are determined quasi-randomly. When minority cashiers, but not majority cashiers, are scheduled to work with managers who are biased (as determined by an implicit association test), they are absent more often, spend less time at work, scan items more slowly, and take more time between customers. This appears to be because biased managers interact less with minorities, leading minorities to exert less effort. Manager bias has consequences for the average performance of minority workers: while on average minority and majority workers perform equivalently, on days where managers are unbiased, minorities perform significantly better than do majority workers. The findings are consistent with statistical discrimination in hiring whereby because minorities underperform when assigned to biased managers, the firm sets a higher hiring standard for minorities to get similar average performance from minority and nonminority workers.