Paths to Union Renewal

Paths to Union Renewal
Author: Pradeep Kumar
Publisher: Broadview Press
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2006
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781551930589

"The diverse cases and experiences examined in this book hold valuable lessons for labour everywhere." - Elaine Bernard, Harvard Law School

Unions, Equity, and the Path to Renewal

Unions, Equity, and the Path to Renewal
Author: Janice R. Foley
Publisher: UBC Press
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2010-07-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0774858982

Trade unions in Canada are losing their traditional support base, and membership numbers could sink to US levels unless unions recapture their power. Unions, Equity, and the Path to Renewal brings together a distinguished group of union activists and equity scholars who trace how traditional union cultures, practices, and structures have eroded solidarity and activism and created an equity deficit in Canadian unions. Informed by a feminist vision of unions as instruments of social justice, the contributors argue that equity within unions is not simply one possible path to union renewal � it is the only way to reposition organized labour as a central institution in workers' lives.

The Politics of Social Inclusion and Labor Representation

The Politics of Social Inclusion and Labor Representation
Author: Heather Connolly
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 129
Release: 2019-05-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1501736582

In The Politics of Social Inclusion and Labor Representation, Heather Connolly, Stefania Marino, and Miguel Martínez Lucio compare trade union responses to immigration and the related political and labour market developments in the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The labor movement is facing significant challenges as a result of such changes in the modern context. As such, the authors closely examine the idea of social inclusion and how trade unions are coping with and adapting to the need to support immigrant workers and develop various types of engagement and solidarity strategies in the European context. Traversing the dramatically shifting immigration patterns since the 1970s, during which emerged a major crisis of capitalism, the labor market, and society, and the contingent rise of anti-immigration sentiment and new forms of xenophobia, the authors assess and map how trade unions have to varying degrees understood and framed these issues and immigrant labor. They show how institutional traditions, and the ways that trade unions historically react to social inclusion and equality, have played a part in shaping the nature of current initiatives. The Politics of Social Inclusion and Labor Representation concludes that we need to appreciate the complexity of trade-union traditions, established paths to renewal, and competing trajectories of solidarity. While trade union organizations remain wedded to specific trajectories, trade union renewal remains an innovative, if at times, problematic and complex set of choices and aspirations.

Solidarity Divided

Solidarity Divided
Author: Bill Fletcher
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 319
Release: 2009-10-19
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0520261569

The US trade union movement finds itself on a global battlefield filled with landmines and littered with the bodies of various social movements and struggles. Candid, incisive, and accessible, this text is a critical examination of labour's crisis and a plan for a bold way forward into the 21st century.

Trade Union Powers

Trade Union Powers
Author: Elísio Estanque
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2020-10-27
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1527561399

This book analyses trade unions’ capacities of resistance following the period of austerity and “bailout crisis” in Portugal (2011-2015). Considering the destructive impacts of those policies on the working class and their unions, it explores three case studies in three productive sectors: the metal sector (Autoeuropa/VW); the telecommunications sector (PT-Telecom/Altice); and the transport sector (TAP – Air Portugal). In order to gather empirical information, the study uses qualitative methods, such as in-depth interviews and focus groups. The book shows that social dumping, brutal unemployment growth, increasing poverty levels, spreading precariousness, wage cuts and labour rights suppression were some of the consequences of this period on the working class and trade unions. Drawing on the “power resources” theoretical approach, it shows how trade unions were able to react and “reinvent” themselves in terms of certain forms of power, while others “imploded” or were relegated to a marginal role.

Defying Expectations

Defying Expectations
Author: Jason Foster
Publisher: Athabasca University Press
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2018-01-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1771991992

In October 2005, Jason Foster, then a staff member of the Alberta Federation of Labour, was walking a picket line outside Lakeside Packers in Brooks, Alberta with the members of local 401. It was a first contract strike. And although the employees of the meat-packing plant—many of whom were immigrants and refugees—had chosen an unlikely partner in the United Food and Commercial Workers local, the newly formed alliance allowed the workers to stand their ground for a three-week strike that ended in the defeat of the notoriously anti-union company, Tyson Foods. It was but one example of a wide range of industries and occupations that local 401 organized over the last twenty years. In this study of UFCW 401, Foster investigates a union that has had remarkable success organizing a group of workers that North American unions often struggle to reach: immigrants, women, and youth. By examining not only the actions and behaviour of the local’s leadership and its members but also the narrative that accompanied the renewal of the union, Foster shows that both were essential components to legitimizing the leadership’s exercise of power and its unconventional organizing forces.

Making Globalization Work for Women

Making Globalization Work for Women
Author: Valentine M. Moghadam
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 355
Release: 2011-11-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1438439601

Explores the potential for trade unions to defend the socioeconomic rights of women. Making Globalization Work for Women explores the potential for trade unions to defend the socioeconomic rights of women in a global context. Looking at labor policies and interviews with people in unions and nongovernmental organizations, the essays diagnose the problems faced by women workers across the world and assess the progress that unions in various countries have made in responding to those problems. Some concerns addressed include the masculine culture of many unions and the challenges of female leadership within them, laissez-faire governance, and the limited success of organizations working on these issues globally. Making Globalization Work for Women brings together in a synthetic and fruitful conversation the work and ideas of feminists, unions, NGOs, and other human rights workers. “Making Globalization Work for Women is an illuminating, timely, and original collaboration among three prominent scholars that fills an important and missing niche in studies of transnational activism, global employment policy, and women’s work.” — Dorothy Sue Cobble, author of The Other Women’s Movement: Workplace Justice and Social Rights in Modern America

Union Revitalisation in Advanced Economies

Union Revitalisation in Advanced Economies
Author: G. Gall
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2009-04-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0230233473

After a decade of 'union organizing' in Britain, the time has come to make a thoroughgoing assessment of it. This book evaluates the efficacy of the union organising in terms of union strategies, tactics, styles and resources, and assesses the impact of differing regulatory regimes on union organizing.

Working in a Global Era

Working in a Global Era
Author: Vivian Shalla
Publisher: Canadian Scholars’ Press
Total Pages: 411
Release: 2011-10-03
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1551303965

Now in its second edition, this reader presents a critical examination of the changing structure of work in Canada and abroad. Its focus is on the role of Canadian labour in the globalized world. Contributors include David Livingstone, Pat Armstrong, Meg Luxton, Dave Broad, and other prominent Canadian scholars. Each of the seven themed sections begins with a contextual introduction by Vivian Shalla and concludes with critical thinking questions and suggestions for further reading. New to this edition: All new content: 14 up-to-date chapters reflecting the current state of research on work in Canada New section on informal care work More workplace-based chapters that provide a view ""from the shop floor""