George Ranken Askwith was a key figure in the development of British industrial relations. This new biography is based on a wide range of archival sources including government records, newspaper articles, Askwith's personal correspondence and his wife's private diaries.

The fourteen years between 1960 and-1974 saw the trade union and labour movement transformed. In 1959 Labour had been beaten at the polls for the third successive time - with political commentators claiming that class politics in Britain were dead. By 1974 a mobilised trade union movement had forced a Conservative government from office, compelled the abandonment of its anti-trade union legislation, released imprisoned dockers from Pentonville prison and twice provided the miners with the solidarity required for victory. The climax in 1974 was Labour victory in the 1974 general election with a programme calling for an irreversible shift of wealth and power in favour of working people. This volume of the TGWU's centenary history documents the role of Britain's biggest union in this transformation. Two remarkable general secretaries, Frank Cousins and Jack Jones, provided leadership. However, it was the TGWU's members who achieved it: the women and men in the factories, transport depots and docks, who forged the new class unity. The book records their voices. It brings together their struggles from Clydeside, Dublin and Belfast to Longbridge, Dagenham and Heathrow - and it does so with a wealth of new material revealing the tactics of government and employers and the complexity of the struggles for sex equality and against racial discrimination that helped cement the new class unity.

Reflecting the increased attention to gender and women in the field of employment relations, there is now a growing international literature on women and trade unions. The interest in women as trade unionists arises partly from the fact that women comprise 40 percent of trade union membership in the USA and over 50 percent in the UK. Further, despite considerable overall union membership decline in both the UK and USA, more women than men are joining unions in both countries. Recognition of the importance of women to the survival and revival of trade union movements has in many cases produced an unprecedented commitment to equality and inclusion at the highest level. Yet the challenge is to ensure that this commitment is translated to action and improves the experience of women in their union and in their workplace.

Gender and Leadership in Trade Unions explores and evaluates the similarities and differences in equality strategies pursued by unions in the US and the UK. It assesses the conditions experienced by women union members and how these impact on their leadership, both potential and actual. Women have made gains in both countries within union leadership and decision-making structures, however, climbing the ladder to leadership positions remains far from a smooth process. In the trade union context, women face multiple barriers that resonate with the barriers facing aspiring women leaders in other organizational contexts, including the gendered division of domestic work; the organization and nature of women s work; the organization and nature of trade union work and the masculine culture of trade unions. The discussion of women trade union leaders is situated more broadly within debates on governance, leadership and democracy within social justice activism.

Militant Minority tells the compelling story of British Columbia workers who sustained a left tradition during the bleakest days of the Cold War. Through their continuing activism on issues from the politics of timber licenses to global questions of war and peace, these workers bridged the transition from an Old to a New Left.

In the late 1950s, half of B.C.'s workers belonged to unions, but the promise of postwar collective bargaining spawned disillusionment tied to inflation and automation. A new working class that was educated, white collar, and increasingly rebellious shifted the locus of activism from the Communist Party and Co-operative Commonwealth Federation to the newly formed New Democratic Party, which was elected in 1972. Grounded in archival research and oral history, Militant Minority provides a valuable case study of one of the most organized and independent working classes in North America, during a period of ideological tension and unprecedented material advance.

Examining the experiences of leadership among trade unionists in a range of unions and labor movements around the world, Trade Union Diversity, Leadership, and Change addresses perspectives of women and men from a range of identities such as race/ethnicity, sexuality, and age. This volume analyses existing models of leadership in various political organisational forms, especially trade unions, but also including business and management approaches, leadership forms which arise from fields such as community, pedagogy, and the third sector.

Analyzing and critiquing concepts, expectations, and experiences of union leaders and leadership in labor organizations, comparing and contrasting gender, cultural and diversity perspectives, contributors to the volume draw on empirical research to identify key ideas, beliefs and experiences critical to achieving change, setting up resistance, and in transforming the inertia of traditionalism.

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.

European union movements played a central role in promoting a "European model of society" -- a humane industrial relations system, high labor standards, generous welfare states, and collective political representation -- which reached its pinnacle in the post-World Was II era. The recent shift to lower growth, rising unemployment, renewed European integration, neo-liberalism, and globalization has challenged this "European Model" and the unions' place in it. These essays, written by some of the leading scholars in the field, examine responses of six major European union movements to the dramatic changes in economic and political conditions in the last two decades. They are the result of a group research effort and are based on a common framework which lends it quite an exceptional coherence. Its value is enhanced by the editors' conclusion that reflects upon new union positions and their implications, in particular the most important question of what will happen to the 'European model of society' in consequence.

This book examines countries that have tried, with varying degrees of success, to use legislative strategies to encourage and support collective bargaining, including Australia s Fair Work Act. It is the first major study of the operation and impact of the new collective bargaining framework introduced under the Fair Work Act, combining theoretical and practical perspectives. In addition, a number of comparative pieces provide rich insights into the Australian legislation s adaptation of concepts from overseas collective bargaining systems including good faith bargaining, and majority employee support as the basis for establishing bargaining rights. Contributors to this volume are all leading labor law, industrial relations, and human resource management scholars from Australia, and from Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the United States.

East Asia has undergone an intense period of economic development and accompanying social change in recent years and among the unforeseen social phenomena that have emerged are new forms of trade unions. This book analyzes the importance of such a new union movement in Korea by focusing on the promotion of social reforms by, and the intensification of interunion solidarity between the white-collar movement factions. Three sectors of the white-collar movement are examined-financial, hospital, and research unions. In comparing their success in raising social reforms and fortifying interunion solidarity, Doowon Suh considers diverse macro and micro social relations, such as the structure of political opportunities, organization leadership, and the effects of internal labor markets. This book is an important read for those interested in industrial relations, labor history and social movements in Korea.

First published in 1990, this work examines the link between the economic performance of companies and profit sharing. The relationship is a complex one: industrial relations may be improved by schemes, but good employers are likely to introduce profit sharing in any case; and though attitudes to work do change, schemes have more immediate impact on satisfaction an communications than on productivity and effort put into work.

By World War I, the Northwestern Knitting Company was the largest workplace for gainfully employed women in Minnesota and the largest garment factory in the United States. Lars Olsson investigates the interplay of class, gender, marital status, ethnicity, and race in the labor relations at the factory, illuminating the lives of the women who worked there. Representing thirty nationalities, particularly Scandinavian, the women worked long hours for low pay in roles that were strictly divided along ethnic and gendered lines, while the company directors and stockholders made enormous profits off of their labor. Management developed paternal strategies to bind the workers to the company and preempt unionization, including bonus programs, minstrel shows, and a pioneering industrial welfare program. With the US entry into the war, the company was contracted to produce underwear for soldiers, and management expanded the metaphor of "the Munsingwear Family" to construct not just company loyalty, but national loyalty. This book sheds new light on women's labor in WWI and the lives of textile workers in the United States.

This comprehensive collection brings together an impressive range of papers on the economics of labor unions. Some of these are classics, and others are less well known - included because they cover significant but under-researched areas, or because they raise interesting questions that as yet remain unanswered. The study of labor unions has long fascinated economists. Over the last quarter of the twentieth century there has been a tremendous evaluation of research in this area. This blossoming occurred with the growth of labor economics as a discipline separate from industrial relations, and with the development of micro data sets and the dissemination of sophisticated new micro-econometric techniques with which to analyse them. These volumes include papers that not only span the most important topics in the economics of labor unions, but also offer a useful overview of the field and its methodology. They will prove invaluable both to researchers and practitioners.

This book presents ethnographic data and analysis in eight case studies from several very diverse industries. It covers a wide range of topics, from the role of women and community in strikes to the importance of place in organization, and addresses global concerns with studies from Mexico and Malawu. Union-organized workplaces consistently afford workers higher wages and better pensions, benefits, and health coverage than their non-union counterparts. In addition, women and minorities who belong to unions are more likely to receive higher wages and benefits than their non-union peers. Given the economic advantages of union membership, one might expect to see higher rates of organization across industries, but labour affiliation is at an all-time low. What accounts for this discrepancy? The contributors in this volume provide a variety of perspectives on this paradox, including discussions of approaches to and findings on the histories, cultures, and practices of organized labour. They also address substantive issues such as race, class, gender, age, generation, ethnicity, health and safety concerns, corporate co-optation of unions, and the cultural context of union-management relationships. The first to bring together anthropological case studies of labour unions, this volume will appeal to cultural anthropologists, social scientists, sociologists, and those interested in labour studies and labour movements.

Workers' rights are not defined by law or contract. Workers' rights are defined by struggle.

Gregg Shotwell's "Live Bait & Ammo" newsletter chronicled the outrages and absurdities of corporate managers, exposed union leaders who acted in "partnership" with employers, and sounded the alarm about the devastating effects of auto industry job losses and union concessions. "LB&A" fliers grew legs of their own, distributed by rank-and-file workers in auto plants across the United States and cited by industry analysts. This collection spans a decade of autoworker resistance--and it's a call to action for a new generation of workers coming of age in recession-wracked America.

The Economics of Technology Transfer presents a selection of the most important articles in the field, many of which are not easily accessible. The volume pays particular attention to issues facing developing countries in the context of rapid technical change, globalisation of production and the international spread of innovation itself. Part I focuses on theory and concepts. Part II, which examines multinationals, deals with the main engines of technology development and transfer. Part III discusses developing countries, pointing to the possible conflict between internalised technology transfer (via multinational enterprises) and the needs of domestic technological capability building. The final two parts include papers on technology transfer processes and issues in selected countries of Latin America, East Asia, the transition economies and the mature industrial economies. The Economics of Technology Transfer will be essential reading for students, researchers and policy makers concerned with international technology transfer.

Trade unions in most of Europe are on the defensive: in recent decades they have lost membership, sometimes drastically; their collective bargaining power has declined, as has their influence on government; and in many countries, their public respect is much diminished. This book explores the challenges facing trade unions and their responses in ten west European countries: Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Italy. Based on a substantial number of interviews with key union representatives and academic experts in each country, together with the collection of a large amount of union documentation and background material, the book gives an account of how trade unionism has evolved in each country, the main recent challenges that unions have faced, and their responses. The book engages with the debates of the past two decades on union modernization and revitalization, and more generally with theories of institutional change and the literature on varieties of capitalism. Some observers ask whether unions remain relevant socio-economic actors, but challenging times can stimulate new thinking, and hence provide new opportunities. This book aims to show why trade unions are (still) important subjects for scientific analysis: first, as a means of collective 'voice' allowing employees to challenge management control and bringing a measure of balance to the employment relationship; second, as a form of 'countervailing power' to the socio-economic dominance of capital; and third, their potential as a 'sword of justice' to defend the weak, vulnerable and disadvantaged, express a set of values in opposition to the dominant political economy, and offer aspirations for a different-and better-form of society.

Globalisation has put national labour movements under severe pressure, due to the increasing transnationalisation of production, with the production of many goods being organised across borders, and the informalisation of the economy. Through a range of case studies, this volume examines the possibilities and obstacles to transnational solidarity of labour in a period of global restructuring and changing global political economy. It brings together a range of international and transnational case studies, examining successful and failed transnational solidarity covering inter-trade union co-operation as well as co-operation between trade unions and social movements within the formal and informal economy, and the public and private sector. It is structured in six parts and examines: Globalisation and the new challenges for transnational solidarity Inter trade union co-operation across borders. The dynamics of co-operation between trade unions and social movements across borders, looking at developing and developed countries. The struggles to defend the public sector against private service providers. The possible ways forward towards transnational solidarity of formal and informal labour in the global economy. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of International Political Economy, International Relations, Industrial Relation, Globalisation, Geography and History.

Politicians and public managers utilize branding to communicate with the public as well as to position themselves within the ever-present media now so central to political and administrative life. They must further contend with stakeholders holding contradictory opinions about the nature of a problem, the desirable solutions, and the values at stake. Branding is used as a strategy to manage perceptions, motivate stakeholders, communicate clear messages in the media, and position policies and projects. Brands have a unique ability to simplify such messages and motivate different actors to invest their energy in governance processes.

Public administration scholars so far have however paid little attention to branding. This book provides a systematic analysis of branding as phenomenon in governance. It deals with the nature of public branding, its relation to existing theories in public administration, the way branding is used as a managerial strategy in governance processes, and the risks and limitations of branding. Branding in Public Governance and Management highlights the growing importance of public banding as a public management strategy to influence political events, decision-making processes and outcomes in governance processes.

Innovative and offering a sociological analysis of trade unionism in the globalized era, this book provides a robust and coherent comparative analysis of the debate surrounding trade unions and their renewal. In recent decades, trade unions suffered major reversals. They experienced declining memberships. Employers were increasingly assertive if not hostile. Transnational corporations and state-owned multi-nationals increasingly implement deteriorating terms and conditions of employment, vulnerable and insecure job contracts. Using theory and a variety of case studies, this book explores: the debate about the form of trade unionism; the bases for collective organization; and the struggle and the future of trade unionism. This is a must read for all those studying industrial relations, human resource management, the sociology of work and employment, economic sociology, economic and labour geography and business studies in general.

The German Social Democratic Party was the world's first million-strong political party and was the main force pushing for the democratisation of Imperial Germany before the First World War. This book examines the themes around which the party organized its mainly working-class membership, and analyses the experiences and outlook of rank-and-file party members as well as the party's press and publications. Key topics of inquiry include: the Lassalle cult and leadership, nationalism and internationalism, attitudes to work, the politics of subsistence, the effects of military service, reading and the diffusion of Marx's ideas, cultural organisations, and socialism and republicanism under the Imperial German state. Through these various avenues, Bonnell explores the remarkable degree to which the party successfully addressed workers' everyday concerns while also offering the prospect of a better future.

"European Labor UnionS" provides a picture of the evolution of trade unionism in Europe. It includes 31 national chapters representing all European countries at the time the book was planned in 1988, with the exceptiuon of Andorra, Liechtenstein, and Monaco, but including such countries as Turkey, Iceland, and Yugoslavia. Additionally, there is a chapter on European regional organizations. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 inaugurated a period of uncertainty in Central and Eastern Europe that has involved dramatic changes in national boundaries. Rather than attempting to adapt to a process that showed no sign of stabilizing, it was decided to retain the volume's original chapter structure, while encouraging the authors writing about the affected regions to explore the initial implications of these momentous changes for the trade union movement.

European Labor Unions summarizes a great deal of information, much of it not previously available in English. In addition, it contains the first scholarly account of certain labor organizations in any language. Although coverage is selective, the country chapters generally include profiles of all important national trade union federations and confederations, and of individual unions representing the most significant ideological and political variants, as well as some of the major national occupational sectors. Both defunct and existing organizations are included. Efforts have also been made to discuss and, where possible, to illustrate developments affecting white-collar workers, women, and religious or national minorities. The volume concludes with an appendix of chronologies and a fully cross-referenced index.

This book is a study of contemporary changes in French employment relations and management. It includes an overview of the origins of the present employment institutions and practices as well as a critical appreciation of French work sociology, but its main focus is on the evolution of the French political economy of work at the start of the 21st century. Based on a combination of original research and findings from recent studies into French employment relations and the working practice of French firms, it provides both an essential source for comparative purposes and an original approach to understanding change.

As unions in most other industrialized democracies continue to decline, unions in Spain have been able to regain and maintain strength despite unfavorable institutional, political, and economic conditions. The Politics of Industrial Relations provides a comprehensive analysis of Spanish unions from the Franco dictatorship until the present. It builds on industrial relations, comparative politics, and political economy literature to investigate the trajectory of Spanish unions. The book analyzes unions as political actors, that is, their interaction and involvement with governments, political parties, and nationwide policy-making processes to explain why Spanish unions appear in some ways as atypical in West European comparison. The development of Spanish unions and industrial relations is framed in a historical-institutionalist approach while also taking into account globalization and Europeanization processes. Using the case of the Spanish transition to democracy, the book demonstrates that the historical sequencing of institutional reforms in the political and industrial relations arenas holds significant and long-lasting consequences for the nature of unions and labor relations. The book concludes that by understanding unions as political actors, the history of Spanish unionism and industrial relations institutions is more easily accommodated than looking at unions as industrial actors alone.

Comprehensive in its theoretical scope and empirical depth, The Politics of Industrial Relations presents Spain as an anomaly, and thus as a test case, for a multitude of theories developed in the political economy and industrial relations literatures.

First published in 1990, this work examines the link between the economic performance of companies and profit sharing. The relationship is a complex one: industrial relations may be improved by schemes, but good employers are likely to introduce profit sharing in any case; and though attitudes to work do change, schemes have more immediate impact on satisfaction an communications than on productivity and effort put into work.

Who were the women who fought back at Grunwick and Gate Gourmet? Striking Women gives a voice to the women involved as they discuss their lives, their work and their trade unions. Striking Women is centred on two industrial disputes, the famous Grunwick strike (1976-78) and the Gate Gourmet dispute that erupted in 2005. Focusing on these two events, the book explores the nature of South Asian women's contribution to the struggles for workers' rights in the UK labour market. The authors examine histories of migration and settlement of two different groups of women of South Asian origin, and how this history, their gendered, classed and racialised inclusion in the labour market, the context of industrial relations in the UK in the two periods and the nature of the trade union movement shaped the trajectories and the outcomes of the two disputes. This is the first account based on the voices of the women involved. Drawing on life/work history interviews with thirty-two women who participated in the two disputes, as well as interviews with trade union officials, archival material and employment tribunal proceedings, the authors explore the motivations, experiences and implications of these events for their political and social identities.