This comprehensive survey of continuity and change in trade unions looks at five primarily English-speaking countries: the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. The authors consider the recent re-examination by trade union movements of the basis of union organization and activity in the face of a harsher economic and political climate. One of the impetuses for this re-examination has been the recent history of unions in the USA. American models of renewal have inspired Australia, New Zealand and the UK, while Canada has undergone a cautious examination of the US model with an attempt to develop a distinctive approach. This book aims to provide a thorough grounding for informed discussion and debate about the position and place of trade unions in modern economies.

This comprehensive survey of continuity and change in trade unions looks at five primarily English-speaking countries: the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. The authors consider the recent re-examination by trade union movements of the basis of union organization and activity in the face of a harsher economic and political climate. One of the impetuses for this re-examination has been the recent history of unions in the USA. American models of renewal have inspired Australia, New Zealand and the UK, while Canada has undergone a cautious examination of the US model with an attempt to develop a distinctive approach. This book aims to provide a thorough grounding for informed discussion and debate about the position and place of trade unions in modern economies.

Through a series of interviews with workers in the automotive parts industry, Negotiating Risk argues that the restructuring of labour markets and welfare states, paired with firm-level work and management reorganization, has exposed working-class families to greater levels of job risk and insecurity. Focusing on workers in Canada and Mexico and using a gender and race analysis, this book paints a bleak portrait of the lives of working people, where workers and their families continually renegotiate the effects of neo-liberal economic and social change. These changes see individuals working harder, longer and travelling further from home to keep their jobs, while straining familial and community relations and eroding the basis for worker solidarity and collective action.