The Future of Union Organising

Transcription

1 The Future of Union Organising

2 Also edited by Gregor Gall UNION ORGANISING: Campaigning for Trade Union Recognition (Routledge, 2003) UNION RECOGNITION: Organising and Bargaining Outcomes (Routledge, 2006) UNION REVITALISATION IN ADVANCED ECONOMIES Assessing the Contribution of Union Organising (Palgrave, 2009) Also written by Gregor Gall THE MEANING OF MILITANCY? Postal Workers and Industrial Relations (Ashgate, 2003) THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF SCOTLAND: Red Scotland? Radical Scotland? (University of Wales Press, 2005) SEX WORKER UNION ORGANIZING: An International Study (Palgrave, 2006) LABOUR UNIONISM IN THE FINANCIAL SERVICES SECTOR: Struggling for Rights and Representation (Ashgate, 2008)

3 The Future of Union Organising Building for Tomorrow Edited by Gregor Gall University of Hertfordshire

4 Selection and editorial matter Gregor Gall 2009 Individual chapters contributors 2009 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act First published 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number , of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data International Labour Process Conference (2007 : Dublin, Ireland) The future of union organising : building for tomorrow / edited by Gregor Gall. p. cm. Papers presented at a special stream at the 2007 International Labour Process Conference in Dublin. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN (alk. paper) 1. Labor unions Congresses. 2. Labor unions Organizing Congresses. 3. Labor unions Case studies Congresses. 4. Labor unions Organizing Case studies Congresses. I. Gall, Gregor. II. Title. HD6483.I dc

5 To Bob Crow, general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers probably one of the finest union leaders of his generation in Britain today

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7 Contents List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors ix xi 1 Union Organising Past, Present and Future 1 Gregor Gall 2 Union Organising in the US: New Tactics, Old Barriers 10 Kim Moody 3 Opening Pandora s Box: The Paradox of Institutionalised Organising 28 Sheila Cohen 4 Social Partnership and Union Revitalisation: The Irish Case 45 Kieran Allen 5 Union Organising in the Netherlands a Combination of Organising and Servicing Strategies 62 Maarten van Klaveren and Wim Sprenger 6 Reinvention of Activism: A Chance for Union Renewal in New Market Economies? The Case of Poland 79 Adam Mrozowicki, Valeria Pulignano and Geert van Hootegem 7 The Servicing Organising Community Continuum : Where Are Australian Unions Today? 97 Marjorie Jerrard, Sandra Cockfield and Donna Buttigieg 8 Labour Union Strategies in the European Union Steel Sector 114 Dean Stroud and Peter Fairbrother 9 CleanStart Fighting for a Fair Deal for Cleaners 131 Michael Crosby 10 Organising Immigrants: State Policy and Union-Organising Tactics in the Republic of Ireland 150 Maria-Alejandra Gonzalez-Perez, Tony Dundon and Terrence McDonough vii

8 viii Contents 11 Union Organising with Old and New Industrial Relations Actors: Sex Workers in Australia and the United States 175 Gregor Gall 12 Reconstructing Construction Unionism: Beyond Top-Down and Bottom-Up 187 Dale Belman and Allen Smith 13 Contrasts and Contradictions in Union Organising: The Irish Mushroom Industry 205 Francisco Arqueros-Fernández 14 Union Renewal and Young People: Some Positive Indications from British Supermarkets 223 Iona Byford References 239 Index 259

9 Illustrations Tables 2.1 Private sector union membership Organising efforts by type Density by industry and occupation (%), Unions with net gains, Net organising membership gains, TGWU membership Adjusted wage share of total economy: Compensation per employee as percentage of GDP at factor cost per person employed Total expenditure on social protection as a proportion of GDP at current prices Trends in union density in Ireland, Processes in 14 FNV projects Contents of FNV projects Target groups in FNV projects Types of union activism in a post-socialist context: A summary of propositions Case study federations and affiliate unions by country Contract type and length of service for young workers Union membership by age Joining a union young people Union participation of young people Non-members/young workers renewal strategy 236 Figures 10.1 Work permits issued in Ireland Work permits issued in Ireland ( ) by sector Work permits issued in the agriculture/fisheries sector in Ireland, ix

10 x Illustrations 10.4 Work permits issued in the medical and nursing sector in Ireland, Top 25 national origin work permits issued in Ireland,

11 Contributors Kieran Allen is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Sociology in University College Dublin. He is the author of Fianna Fail and Irish Labour: 1926 to the Present (Pluto Press, 1997), The Celtic Tiger: the Myth of Social Partnership (Manchester University Press, 2000) and The Corporate Takeover of Ireland (Irish Academic Press, 2007). His current research is on economic globalisation. Francisco Arqueros-Fernández is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Anthropology, National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Previous published work includes Low Wages, Migrant Labour and Politics in the Irish Mushroom Industry in the Irish Journal of Anthropology (2006). Dale Belman is a Professor of Labor Relations and Human Resources, School of Labor and Industrial Relations, Michigan State University. He has carried out extensive research on wage issues and the construction and transport sectors. He is co-editor of a number of books, such as How New Is the New Employment Contract?: Evidence from North American Pay Practices (Upjohn Institute, 2002) and Trucking in the Age of Information (Ashgate, 2005), and co-author of a number of books, such as Sailors of the Concrete Sea: A Portrait of Truck Drivers Work and Lives (MSU Press, 2004). Donna Buttigieg is an Associate Professor in the Department of Management and the School of Business and Economics at Monash University. She is the Director for the School of Business and Economics (Gippsland) and is the Acting Director of the Family and Small Business Research Unit. Her research interests include union participation and exit behaviour, community unionism, vulnerable workers (including women and older workers), bullying and strategic HRM. She has recent publications in the Journal of Applied Psychology, British Journal of Industrial Relations and Work, Employment and Society. Earlier publications include the Journal of Management Studies, Human Relations, Relations Industrielles and Journal of Industrial Relations. She has also recently co-edited a book on community unionism. Dr Iona Byford is a Senior Lecturer in the Human Resources and Marketing Department at Portsmouth University Business School. She has recently completed her PhD thesis entitled: A comparative study of trade union renewal strategies: partnership, organising and social xi

12 xii Contributors unionism. This is her first publication. Her next publication (forthcoming) is a chapter on the Canadian Auto Workers union and Social Unionism in Canada in an edited volume on Community Unionism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). Her current research interests include union renewal and union democracy. Dr Sandra Cockfield is a lecturer in the Department of Management at Monash University and a member of the Australian Centre for Research on Employment and Work (ACREW). She has published in the Journal of Industrial Relations, Labour History and the Labor Studies Journal. She also has a recent co-edited book on community unionism. Her current research focuses on the possibilities and limitations of information and communication technologies in relation to union renewal strategies, including in the hospitality and higher education sectors, and on community and social movement unionism. Dr Sheila Cohen is a Visiting Lecturer in Industrial Relations and a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Employment Studies, University of Hertfordshire. She is the author of Ramparts of Resistance: Why Workers Lost Their Power and How to Get It Back (Pluto Press, 2006) as well as numerous articles and pamphlets on trade unionism, working-class activism and the nature of work. Michael Crosby is the Director of the Change to Win Organizing Center in Amsterdam. He was formerly the Director of the ACTU Organising Centre in Australia and has been for many years a leading advocate in that country of the need for unions to change to an organising focus. He was the coordinator of CleanStart between 2005 and 2007, and is the author of Power at Work: Rebuilding the Australian Union Movement (Federation Press, 2005). He recently chaired the Irish union SIPTU s Commission of Review and works with a range of unions in Europe advising on union change and strategic campaigning. Dr Tony Dundon is College Lecturer in the J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics at the National University of Ireland, Galway. He is co-author of Employment Relations in Non-union Firms (Routledge, 2004) and Understanding Employment Relations (McGraw Hill, 2007) and editor of the Human Resource Management Journal. Peter Fairbrother is Professor of International Employment Relations at RMIT University, Victoria, Australia. For most of his academic life, he has worked at the University of Warwick and more recently at Cardiff University. He has published widely on unions, the state and labour,

13 Contributors xiii and workplace recomposition, training and workplace learning in the steel sector. His work focuses on Australia, Britain and Europe more generally, addressing the interrelationship between the local and the global. He has co-edited a number of books on globalisation, the state and labour (Routledge, 2006) and union renewal (Continuum, 2002, 2003) and is author of numerous books on unions, such as Trade Unions at the Crossroads (Continuum, 2000). Gregor Gall is Research Professor of Industrial Relations and Director of the Centre for Research in Employment Studies at the University of Hertfordshire. His previous work includes three edited volumes on union organising (Routledge, 2003, 2006; Palgrave, 2009) and books on postal workers (Ashgate, 2003), the labour movement in Scotland (University of Wales Press, 2005), sex workers (Palgrave, 2006) and finance workers (Ashgate, 2008). He writes regular columns for the Morning Star, Respect Paper, Solidarity and the Guardian s CommentisFree. Dr Maria-Alejandra Gonzalez-Perez is Professor of International Business in the Department of International Business, Eafit University, Colombia. She is the director of the International Studies research group at the same university. She has published in the areas of international labour migration, corporate social responsibility and civic engagement of higher education. Marjorie Jerrard is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Management, Monash University, and is Deputy Director of the Australian Centre for Research on Employment and Work (ACREW) and President of the Pacific Employment Relations Association (PERA). She has published on union strategies, community unionism, unions and employment rights, and industrial relations in the Australian and New Zealand meat processing industries. She has recently co-edited a book on community unionism and has forthcoming work on community unionism published in Labor Studies Journal. She is currently engaged in research projects with a number of Victorian unions and is also working on a project examining careers in the Australian meat processing industry. Dr Terrence McDonough is Professor of Economics in the J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics at the National University of Ireland, Galway. He has published in American economic history, colonialism in Ireland, public policy, and labour education. A new volume extending the arguments in his co-edited Social Structures of Accumulation: The Political Economy of Growth and Crisis (Cambridge University Press, 1994) will shortly be published by Cambridge University Press.

14 xiv Contributors Kim Moody is a Senior Lecturer in industrial relations and a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Employment Studies at the University of Hertfordshire. He is the author of three books on American labour relations (Verso, 1988, 1997, 2007), as well as a book on New York City politics (The New Press, 2007) and recent articles on trade union mergers, immigrant labour, and US labour history. Adam Mrozowicki is doctoral researcher at the Centre for Sociological Research, the Catholic University of Leuven. His research explores the problems of the agency and subjectivity of blue-collar workers in Poland after the end of state socialism. The selected results of this study have been recently published in European Journal of Industrial Relations (2008). Valeria Pulignano is Professor of Sociology of Labour and Industrial Relations at the Katholieke Universiteit in Leuven, Belgium, and Associate Fellow at the universities of Warwick and West of England. She is also Co-researcher of the Interuniversity Research Center on Globalisation and Work (CRIMT) at the University of Montréal. Her research focuses on comparative European industrial relations such as systems of employee representations, social dialogue and collective bargaining, changes of employment relationships within new European socio-economic and productive models, and MNCs and employment relations. Among her recent publications are an edited volume on Labour Flexibility (Palgrave, 2008) and an edited special issue in Transfer (2007) on industrial restructuring and unions. She has extensively published in international journals and is Belgian expert in the Societae Europea network at the ETUI-REHS. Dr Allen Smith is currently a consultant for various building trades unions and labour compliance organisations. He is also founder and president of Innovative Construction Research, Washington DC. Previously, he worked for the Food and Allied Service Trades Department, the Building Trades Organizing Project, the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, and the Building and Construction Trades Department. He received his PhD in American History in Wim Sprenger is a researcher in industrial relations and work organisation (Amsterdam, Opus 8). He worked with STZ Advies & Onderzoek in Eindhoven (2005 8) and before that as a researcher and policy officer with the FNV union confederation in the Netherlands. He was a member of the Administrative Board of Eurofoundation, Dublin, and participated in a series of European and international projects. His main

15 Contributors xv research interests are self-employment, participative work redesign, age-proof work organisations, training/employability, and the informal economy. Dean Stroud is a lecturer at Cardiff School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University. He is also Centre Manager of the Regeneration Institute and member of the Centre for Global Labour Research, both at Cardiff University. He has recently published on training and trade union strategy in the Journal of Education and Work (2006), Policy Studies (2008), Studies in Continuing Education (2008) and the Journal of Workplace Learning (2008). He is currently involved in a project looking at the organisation of women in ports. Geert van Hootegem is Professor of Sociology of Work and Organisation at the Centre for Sociological Research, the Catholic University of Leuven. His main areas of research include labour market analysis, teambased work, job and organisations redesign, flexibility and well-being at work. He has published in International Journal of Management Reviews, European Journal of Industrial Relations, Work, Employment, and Society, and Journal of Management Studies. Currently, he leads a research project on the interrelations of globalisation and labour market changes and has co-established a consortium (with the participation of the Flemish government) which aims at supporting organisational innovation and workers well-being at work. Maarten van Klaveren works at the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands and at the STZ consultancy and research, Eindhoven. He is author of numerous research outputs on unions, work and employment in the Netherlands. He is co-editor of Low-Wage Work in the Netherlands (Russell Sage Foundation, 2008).