The Economics of Trade Unions: New Directions

The Economics of Trade Unions: New Directions PDF Author: J.J. Rosa
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401713715
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
The crisis in trade unionism is now a prevailing concern in the United States, as well as in Europe. Its main symptom is, of course, the decrease in union membership. Still, other, less observable elements account for the concern, namely the obsolescence of discourse, the decrease of militant motivation, and the question of efficiency of strikes or collective bargaining. One must keep in mind, however, that trade unions will evolve differently from one country to another. What we know about trade unions has changed over the years. We can now more accurately assess the effects of union action, especially with regard to labor market, wages, and productivity. This book adds to the assessment by integrating the new theories of organizations, contracts, and property rights. In doing so, we shift from a study of markets to one of hierarchies. Thus, the current literature comes back to its sources (but with improved analytical instruments) by returning to the Ross-Dunlop debate on the nature of the trade union. This more complex outlook of trade unions as an organization-not only as an abstract or bodyless supplier of monopolistic labor-allows one to understand better the apparent differences between unions (mainly American) whose action is oriented towards work relation ships and labor contract management and unions (European or "Latin") who are closer to a pressure group wielding power on the political front.

The Economics of Trade Unions: New Directions

The Economics of Trade Unions: New Directions PDF Author: J.J. Rosa
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401713715
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Get Book Here

Book Description
The crisis in trade unionism is now a prevailing concern in the United States, as well as in Europe. Its main symptom is, of course, the decrease in union membership. Still, other, less observable elements account for the concern, namely the obsolescence of discourse, the decrease of militant motivation, and the question of efficiency of strikes or collective bargaining. One must keep in mind, however, that trade unions will evolve differently from one country to another. What we know about trade unions has changed over the years. We can now more accurately assess the effects of union action, especially with regard to labor market, wages, and productivity. This book adds to the assessment by integrating the new theories of organizations, contracts, and property rights. In doing so, we shift from a study of markets to one of hierarchies. Thus, the current literature comes back to its sources (but with improved analytical instruments) by returning to the Ross-Dunlop debate on the nature of the trade union. This more complex outlook of trade unions as an organization-not only as an abstract or bodyless supplier of monopolistic labor-allows one to understand better the apparent differences between unions (mainly American) whose action is oriented towards work relation ships and labor contract management and unions (European or "Latin") who are closer to a pressure group wielding power on the political front.

Trade Unions in the Green Economy

Trade Unions in the Green Economy PDF Author: Nora Räthzel
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1849714649
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
Combating climate change will increasingly impact on production industries and the workers they employ as production changes and consumption is targeted. Yet research has largely ignored labour and its responses. This book brings together sociologists, psychologists, political scientists, historians, economists, and representatives from international and local unions based in Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Taiwan, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the USA. Together they open up a new area of research: Environmental Labour Studies. The authors ask what kind of environmental policies are unions in different countries and sectors developing. How do they aim to reconcile the protection of jobs with the protection of the environment? What are the forms of cooperation developing between trade unions and environmental movements, especially the so-called Red-Green alliances? Under what conditions are unions striving to create climate change policies that transcend the economic system? Where are they trying to find solutions that they see as possible within the present socio-economic conditions? What are the theoretical and practical implications of trade unions' "Just Transition", and the problems and perspectives of "Green Jobs"? The authors also explore how food workers' rights would contribute to low carbon agriculture, the role workers' identities play in union climate change policies, and the difficulties of creating solidarity between unions across the global North and South. Trade Unions in the Green Economy opens the climate change debate to academics and trade unionists from a range of disciplines in the fields of labour studies, environmental politics, environmental management, and climate change policy. It will also be useful for environmental organisations, trade unions, business, and politicians.

The Economics of Trade Unions

The Economics of Trade Unions PDF Author: Hristos Doucouliagos
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317498283
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
Richard B. Freeman and James L. Medoff’s now classic 1984 book What Do Unions Do? stimulated an enormous theoretical and empirical literature on the economic impact of trade unions. Trade unions continue to be a significant feature of many labor markets, particularly in developing countries, and issues of labor market regulations and labor institutions remain critically important to researchers and policy makers. The relations between unions and management can range between cooperation and conflict; unions have powerful offsetting wage and non-wage effects that economists and other social scientists have long debated. Do the benefits of unionism exceed the costs to the economy and society writ large, or do the costs exceed the benefits? The Economics of Trade Unions offers the first comprehensive review, analysis and evaluation of the empirical literature on the microeconomic effects of trade unions using the tools of meta-regression analysis to identify and quantify the economic impact of trade unions, as well as to correct research design faults, the effects of selection bias and model misspecification. This volume makes use of a unique dataset of hundreds of empirical studies and their reported estimates of the microeconomic impact of trade unions. Written by three authors who have been at the forefront of this research field (including the co-author of the original volume, What Do Unions Do?), this book offers an overview of a subject that is of huge importance to scholars of labor economics, industrial and employee relations, and human resource management, as well as those with an interest in meta-analysis.

Trade Unions and the State

Trade Unions and the State PDF Author: Chris Howell
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400826616
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
The collapse of Britain's powerful labor movement in the last quarter century has been one of the most significant and astonishing stories in recent political history. How were the governments of Margaret Thatcher and her successors able to tame the unions? In analyzing how an entirely new industrial relations system was constructed after 1979, Howell offers a revisionist history of British trade unionism in the twentieth century. Most scholars regard Britain's industrial relations institutions as the product of a largely laissez faire system of labor relations, punctuated by occasional government interference. Howell, on the other hand, argues that the British state was the prime architect of three distinct systems of industrial relations established in the course of the twentieth century. The book contends that governments used a combination of administrative and judicial action, legislation, and a narrative of crisis to construct new forms of labor relations. Understanding the demise of the unions requires a reinterpretation of how these earlier systems were constructed, and the role of the British government in that process. Meticulously researched, Trade Unions and the State not only sheds new light on one of Thatcher's most significant achievements but also tells us a great deal about the role of the state in industrial relations.

Democracy, Social Justice and the Role of Trade Unions

Democracy, Social Justice and the Role of Trade Unions PDF Author: Caroline Kelly
Publisher: Anthem Press
ISBN: 1785277812
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
Trade unions worldwide face a powerful paradox at this critical juncture: collective organisations for workers are urgently needed and yet there are serious pressures undercutting the legitimate role of trade unions. The aim of this book is to examine how trade unions can effectively navigate this deeply contradictory challenge. It is underpinned by the conviction that trade unions are – and should be – vital institutions for democracy and social justice. Written by leading scholars in industrial relations and labour law as well as those in political philosophy and political science, the collection tackles a range of pressing topics for trade unions including: the climate crisis; the COVID-19 pandemic; economic democracy; democracy within trade unions; precarious work; and election campaigns.

Transnational Trade Unionism

Transnational Trade Unionism PDF Author: Peter Fairbrother
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136681841
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
Transnational trade union action has expanded significantly over the last few decades and has taken a variety of shapes and trajectories. This book is concerned with understanding the spatial extension of trade union action, and in particular the development of new forms of collective mobilization, network-building, and forms of regulation that bridge local and transnational issues. Through the work of leading international specialists, this collection of essays examines the process and dynamic of transnational trade union action and provides analytical and conceptual tools to understand these developments. The research presented here emphasizes that the direction of transnational solidarity remains contested, subject to experimentation and negotiation, and includes studies of often overlooked developments in transition and developing countries with original analyses from the European Union and NAFTA areas. Providing a fresh examination of transnational solidarity, this volume offers neither a romantic or overly optimistic narrative of a borderless unionism, nor does it fall into a fatalistic or pessimistic account of international union solidarity. Through original research conducted at different levels, this book disentangles the processes and dynamics of institution building and challenges the conventional national based forms of unionism that prevailed in the latter half of the twentieth century.

Unions and Collective Bargaining

Unions and Collective Bargaining PDF Author: Toke Aidt
Publisher: Directions in Development
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
This book offers an extensive survey and synthesis of the economic literature on trade unions and collective bargaining and their impact on micro-and macro-economic outcomes. The authors demonstrate the effects of collective bargaining in different country settings and time periods. A comprehensive reference, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of labor policy as well as to policy makers and anyone with an interest in the economic consequences of unionism.

Trade Unionism in the United States

Trade Unionism in the United States PDF Author: Robert Franklin Hoxie
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Labor unions
Languages : en
Pages : 478

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Book Description


Organizing Matters

Organizing Matters PDF Author: Guy Mundlak
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1839104031
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 359

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Book Description
Organizing Matters demonstrates the interplay between two distinct logics of labour’s collective action: on the one hand, workers coming together, usually at their place of work, entrusting the union to represent their interests and, on the other hand, social bargaining in which the trade union constructs labour’s interests from the top down. The book investigates the tensions and potential complementarities between the two logics through the combination of a strong theoretical framework and an extensive qualitative case study of trade union organizing and recruitment in four countries – Austria, Germany, Israel and the Netherlands. These countries still utilize social-wide bargaining but find it necessary to draw and develop strategies transposed from Anglo-American countries in response to continuously declining membership.

The Economics of the Trade Union

The Economics of the Trade Union PDF Author: Alison L. Booth
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521468398
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
This book analyses the crucial features of unionised labour markets. The models in the book refer to labour contracts between unions and management, but the method of analysis is also applicable to non-union labour markets where workers have some market power. In this book, Alison Booth, a researcher in the field, emphasises the connection between theoretical and empirical approaches to studying unionised labour markets. She also highlights the importance of taking into account institutional differences between countries and sectors when constructing models of the unionised labour market. While the focus of the book is on the US and British unionised labour markets, the models and analytical methods are applicable to other industrialised countries with appropriate modifications.