This article considers the state of unionism today and argues that in strategizing for more workers' power and effective worker representation, unions have - unsurprisingly - focussed upon the primary domain that workers occupy: the labour market and workplaces, applying a particular repertoire of tools. While social conditions beyond the terrain of work have always mattered and sometimes been recognized by activists and theorists, these are often under-attended in analysis and strategy. The article argues that the relevant social context includes the three “microsystems” of work, household and community life, their intersecting “mesosystems” and the larger “macrosystem” of labour law, social norms and gender cultures within which they are located. Together these construct a system which affects the ways in which unions can build power, the tools available to them, and the industrial issues that matter to workers. Significant changes in the three interacting domains of work, household and community life since the mid-1970s in many industrialized countries have changed the system within which workers' create collective power. This is illustrated by evidence drawn from the Australian experience, and the changing forms and occupational structure of employment, and the changing shape of households and communities within which Australian workers live. Workers' increasing mobility and work, family and community transitions make some of the traditional vehicles of union power outmoded - like collectivizing through a longstanding job or craft affiliation. Such changes call for new forms of collectivization and create new priorities for workers in their bargaining and industrial conditions. They also have implications for the tools - collective bargaining, substantive and procedural statutory rights or social security - that will most effectively improve workers' circumstances.

There have been numerous accounts exploring the relationship between institutions and firm practices. However, much of this literature tends to be located into distinct theoretical-traditional 'silos', such as national business systems, social systems of production, regulation theory, or varieties of capitalism, with limited dialogue between different approaches to enhance understanding of institutional effects. Again, evaluations of the relationship between institutions and employment relations have tended to be of the broad-brushstroke nature, often founded on macro-data, and with only limited attention being accorded to internal diversity and details of actual practice. The Handbook aims to fill this gap by bringing together an assembly of comprehensive and high quality chapters to enable understanding of changes in employment relations since the early 1970s. Theoretically-based chapters attempt to link varieties of capitalism, business systems, and different modes of regulation to the specific practice of employment relations, and offer a truly comparative treatment of the subject, providing frameworks and empirical evidence for understanding trends in employment relations in different parts of the world. Most notably, the Handbook seeks to incorporate at a theoretical level regulationist accounts and recent work that link bounded internal systemic diversity with change, and, at an applied level, a greater emphasis on recent applied evidence, specifically dealing with the employment contract, its implementation, and related questions of work organization. It will be useful to academics and students of industrial relations, political economy, and management.

This cutting-edge book charts the latest ideas and concepts in employment relations research. Mapping out the intellectual boundaries of the field, The Future of Work and Employment outlines the key research and policy outcomes for work and employment in the age of digitisation and artificial intelligence.

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.

« The book presents the findings of a four-year study of the challenges facing trade unions and their responses in ten west European countries. The project involved 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 trade unionism in each country, the main recent challenges that unions have faced, and responses in terms of recruitment and mobilisation; organizational restructuring; new approaches to collective bargaining; changing political strategies; and international activities. The analytical starting point is that trade unions are conservative institutions containing significant veto points to organizational change, but at the same time can display dynamism and innovation, and that external challenges can therefore stimulate important internal adaptation. 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 with the literature on varieties of capitalism. The central theme is that while trade unions do not easily change identities and core practices, they are not locked into inertia. Trade unions are not unitary actors but are internally contested organizations, and internal conflict is itself a potential source of dynamism. The literature on "revitalization" has tended to divide between the over-optimistic and the over-pessimistic; this study presents a more nuanced and differentiated account. In particular, it attempts to identify some of the key internal and external conditions for effective strategic innovation. »--

Argues that unionism in Northern Ireland can best protect the British link by developing a more sophisticated civic unionism, with an enlarged vision of the scope and nature of politics. This edition also covers the peace talks, the Belfast Agreement and the Assembly elections of June 1998.

Rethinking the American Labor Movement tells the story of the various groups and incidents that make up what we think of as the "labor movement." While the efforts of the American labor force towards greater wealth parity have been rife with contention, the struggle has embraced a broad vision of a more equitable distribution of the nation’s wealth and a desire for workers to have greater control over their own lives. In this succinct and authoritative volume, Elizabeth Faue reconsiders the varied strains of the labor movement, situating them within the context of rapidly transforming twentieth-century American society to show how these efforts have formed a political and social movement that has shaped the trajectory of American life. Rethinking the American Labor Movement is indispensable reading for scholars and students interested in American labor in the twentieth century and in the interplay between labor, wealth, and power.