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Union Responses (union + response)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting66%

Selected Abstracts

Labor Union Response to Diversity in Canada and the United States

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 3 2000
Gerald Hunt
Canadian and American research finds that organized labor's engagement with race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation until recently has been largely exclusionist. The Canadian labor movement emerges as having been somewhat more responsive to equity issues, particularly gender and sexual orientation, and at an earlier stage than its U.S. counterpart. The American movement, however, did create limited room for African-American issues and unionization from early this century and now shows signs of broader engagement with diversity issues in general. The literature is strong in case studies pointing to exceptional situations involving minority militancy and union acceptance and in highlighting the role of activists inside and external to the labor movement. It suffers from a lack of large-scale analysis and comparison. [source]

The Privatization of Health Care Cleaning Services in Southwestern British Columbia, Canada: Union Responses to Unprecedented Government Actions

ANTIPODE, Issue 3 2006
Marcy Cohen
This paper analyzes the political dynamics between a newly elected, right-leaning provincial government and a left-leaning public sector union that resulted in the privatization of 4000 health support housekeeping jobs in southwestern British Columbia in less than a year. The article documents how government set the stage for privatization, the struggle that ensued when the union resisted concessionary bargaining, and the new challenges that emerged for both union and management once housekeeping and other support services were taken over by multi-national service corporations. This case is significant because the size and scope of this privatization and the legislation that facilitated it are unprecedented in Canadian history. [source]

Ageism, early exit, and British trade unions

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 3 2000
Colin Duncan
Union responses to ageism and the early exit phenomenon are here examined, based on documentation received from some 40 British unions. Our results show that though age discrimination is now accorded some prominence in union agendas, policies towards exit are only partially informed by current conceptions of ageism. [source]

The resurgence of national-level bargaining: union strategies in Spain

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 2 2001
Kerstin Hamann
Spain has witnessed an oscillating pattern of bargaining in which national-level agreements were first present, then declined, and have since resurfaced. While economic pressures may have motivated changing union responses, the specifics of the bargaining patterns can be better understood if domestic institutions are included in an explanation of union strategies. [source]

United by a Common Language?

ANTIPODE, Issue 1 2008
India to Call Centre Offshoring, Trade Union Responses in the UK
Abstract:, The offshoring of business processes from the global North to low-cost countries of the global South has grown spectacularly in the current decade. Self-evidently, transnational relocation presents considerable challenges for organised labour since it suggests both a ,race to the bottom' in respect of pay, conditions and workers' rights and wholesale redundancies in the developed economies. This paper examines the specific case of the migration of call centres from the UK to India and trade union responses in both geographies. Informed by theoretical developments, insights and evidence from diverse disciplines and literatures, the authors concur particularly with Herod's conviction that union strategies to counter TNCs should not be counterposed between ,organising globally' and ,organising locally'and that ,organising at both scales simultaneously may best serve their goals'. Following reflection upon the nature of the call centre and consideration of important contradictions in the offshoring process, we present evidence of UK union responses ranging from the nationalistic, even xenophobic, to the internationalsist, and conclude that membership mobilisation on a principled basis has been key to the limited successes unions have achieved. The paper also evaluates developments in India and the emergence of an embryonic organisation UNITES which is attempting to organise its call centre and business process outsourcing (BPO) workforce. We conclude by considering the gap between the potential and the reality of effective internationally co-ordinated union activity. [source]

Third time lucky for statutory union recognition in the UK?

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 3 2002
Stephen Wood
A third statutory trade union recognition procedure was introduced in the UK in 2000. This paper explores the scope for increased recognition, employers' willingness to concede recognition, unions' response to the procedure and, finally, the use of it so far. The paper concludes that, while the procedure may be sustainable in the long run, its direct impact on union membership and recognition may be minimal. The indirect effect, through voluntary recognition will be greater. But any reversal in union decline will ultimately be dependent upon successful union recruitment well beyond their conventional territories. [source]