This is a comparative study of how workers and their unions respond to privatisation. Drawing upon research from a variety of disciplines, the author examines the push toward privatisation in diverse national settings, its profound impact on organised labour, and the often innovative responses of workers and their unions in the affected industries. By means of a detailed analysis of the privatisation of the electricity industries in the United Kingdom and Argentina, and the various initiatives of workers and their trade unions in these two countries, this book offers an engaging comparative case study that sheds new light on key issues in contemporary labour studies: the strategic choices available to workers and their organisations when faced with the radical restructuring of their industries; the types of resources available to trade unions and how they are mobilised; and the impact of widespread worker unrest on their organisations. This book also provides fresh insight into the use of mobilisation theory in the field of labour studies. The author employs mobilisation theory to make sense of worker and trade union responses to privatisation, and he argues that this theoretical framework can be useful for cross-national comparisons.

This book assesses the labor market consequences of privatization in developing countries (the Republic of Korea, India and Mexico) and transition economies (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Eastern Germany and Hungary) during the first half of the 1990s. Based on over 20 case studies in seven countries, it considers the effect of privatization on productivity and on the level and structure of employment. The evolving patterns of industrial relations in privatized firms and the subsequent changes in wages, remuneration systems and non-wage benefits are also examined.

Many commentators expected the Russian trade unions to collapse along with the system of which they were an integral part, but the trade unions survived the storms of the Yeltsin era by adopting a strategy of 'social partnership'. This book, based on case-study and survey research in eight Russian regions, provides a detailed account of the development of trade unionism in Russia since the collapse of the soviet system. Against the background of the role of the trade unions in the soviet system, the book reviews the political role, structure and functions of the trade unions, development of social partnership at federal and regional levels, and provides a detailed account of the activity of the trade unions at the level of enterprise. The book concludes with a critical assessment of the Russian unions' strategy of 'social partnership' and locates it in comparative perspective.

Overview This book offers the detailed historical background required for a holistic appreciation of current problems faced and the possibilities for revitalisation. In two volumes it provides introductory overviews of trade union development since the end of World War II in 26 countries from every corner of the globe. Each chapter explains the main contours of trade union growth and development in one country from the pivotal year 1945 to the present. Each chapter assesses the often dynamic expansion of trade unionism in the 1950s and 1960s; the role of trade unionism in the movements for national liberation in the Global South and the erection of social welfare systems in the developed North; the economic shocks that resulted in membership decline and loss of political influence from the late 1970s onward; the economic restructuring and growing labour market diversity of the 1980s and 1990s that undercut the traditional bases of trade union membership; and the historical roots of the contemporary political and economic context in which revitalisation efforts are taking place.

Politische Transformation - und dann? 25 Jahre nach dem Ende der Apartheid sieht sich die südafrikanische Gesellschaft nach wie vor mit drastischen Ungleichheiten konfrontiert. Carmen Ludwig nimmt den Wandel öffentlicher Dienstleistungen im Post-Apartheid-Südafrika und die Auswirkungen der kommunalen Privatisierungen in den Blick. Sie zeigt anhand dreier Großstädte politische Konfliktlinien und lokale Gewerkschaftsstrategien im Spannungsfeld von in- und exklusiver Solidarität auf. Zudem stellt sie die Frage, wie es Gewerkschaften gelingen kann, Solidarität in fragmentierten Belegschaften herzustellen.