Bücher der Reihe Routledge Studies in Employment and Work Relations in Context

As the world economy is liberalized, it is vital for non-governmental organizations to create an international agenda. This title studies what makes such organizations successful on an international level. The focus is on trade unions, as a key international group of NGOs.

Public services throughout Europe have undergone dramatic restructuring processes in recent years in connection with liberalization and privatization. While evaluations of the successes of public services have focused on prices and efficiency, much less attention has been paid to the impacts of liberalization and privatization on employment, labor relations, and working conditions. This book addresses this gap by illustrating the ways in which liberalization has contributed to increasing private and foreign ownership of public services, the decentralization of labor relations has amplified pressure on wages, and decreasing employment numbers and increasing workloads have improved productivity partly at the cost of service quality. Examining diverse public-service sectors including network industries, public transportation, and hospitals, and using international case studies, Privatization of Public Services covers a wide range of aspects of service provision, with particular emphasis on companies and workers. The result is a unique picture of the changes created by the liberalization processes in Europe.

Why is vocational training seen to be an "old" institution? This book seeks to respond to these important questions. It does so through an in-depth comparative analysis of the vocational training systems in ten different countries.

Unfree labor has not disappeared from advanced capitalist economies. In this sense the debates among and between Marxist and orthodox economic historians about the incompatibility of capitalism and unfree labor are moot: the International Labour Organisation has identified forced, coerced, and unfree labor as a contemporary issue of global concern. Previously hidden forms of unfree labor have emerged in parallel with several other well-documented trends affecting labor conditions, rights, and modes of regulation. These evolving types of unfree labor include the increasing normalization of contingent work (and, by extension, the undermining of the standard contract of employment), and an increase in labor intermediation. The normative, political, and numerical rise of temporary employment agencies in many countries in the last three decades is indicative of these trends. It is in the context of this rapidly changing landscape that this book consolidates and expands on research designed to understand new institutions for work in the global era. This edited collection provides a theoretical and empirical exploration of the links between unfree labor, intermediation, and modes of regulation, with particular focus on the evolving institutional forms and political-economic contexts that have been implicated in, and shaped by, the ascendency of temp agencies. What is distinctive about this collection is this bi-focal lens: it makes a substantial theoretical contribution by linking disparate literatures on, and debates about, the co-evolution of contingent work and unfree labor, new forms of labor intermediation, and different regulatory approaches; but it further lays the foundation for this theory in a series of empirically rich and geographically diverse case studies. This integrative approach is grounded in a cross-national comparative framework, using this approach as the basis for assessing how, and to what extent, temporary agency work can be considered unfree wage labor

Through the work of leading international specialists, this collection of essays examines the process and dynamic of transnational trade union action and provides analytical and conceptual tools to understand these developments. The research presented here emphasizes that the direction of transnational solidarity remains contested, subject to experimentation and negotiation, and includes studies of often overlooked developments in transition and developing countries with original analyses from the European Union and NAFTA areas. Providing a fresh examination of transnational solidarity, this volume offers neither a romantic or overly optimistic narrative of a borderless unionism, nor does it fall into a fatalistic or pessimistic account of international union solidarity. It instead disentangles the processes and dynamics of institution building and challenges the conventional national based forms of unionism that prevailed in the latter half of the twentieth century.

This book examines countries that have tried, with varying degrees of success, to use legislative strategies to encourage and support collective bargaining, including AustraliaΓÇÖs 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 legislationΓÇÖs adaptation of concepts from overseas collective bargaining systems ΓÇô 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.

Social Regionalism in the Global Economy collects essays by international specialists attempting to move beyond textual analyses of regional agreements to offer new accounts of regional integration by combing insights from developing countries with original analyses from the EU.

Through the work of leading international specialists, this collection of essays examines the process and dynamic of transnational trade union action and provides analytical and conceptual tools to understand these developments. The research presented here emphasizes that the direction of transnational solidarity remains contested, subject to experimentation and negotiation, and includes studies of often overlooked developments in transition and developing countries with original analyses from the European Union and NAFTA areas. Providing a fresh examination of transnational solidarity, this volume offers neither a romantic or overly optimistic narrative of a borderless unionism, nor does it fall into a fatalistic or pessimistic account of international union solidarity. It instead disentangles the processes and dynamics of institution building and challenges the conventional national based forms of unionism that prevailed in the latter half of the twentieth century.

First Published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book examines countries that have tried, with varying degrees of success, to use legislative strategies to encourage and support collective bargaining, including Australiäs 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.

Featuring research from Australia, Europe and North America, this collection of cutting-edge, multi-disciplinary research-based chapters on work, workers and the regulation and management of workplace health and safety explores important historical examples and emerging contemporary trends in international and historical perspectives.

This book illustrates the ways in which liberalization has contributed to increasing private and foreign ownership of public services, the decentralization of labor relations has amplified pressure on wages, and decreasing employment numbers and increasing workloads have improved productivity partly at the cost of service quality. Examining diverse public-service sectors including network industries, public transportation, and hospitals, and using international case studies, Privatization of Public Services covers a wide range of aspects of service provision, with particular emphasis on companies and workers.

Unfree labor has not disappeared from advanced capitalist economies. It is in the context of this rapidly changing landscape that this book consolidates and expands on research designed to understand new institutions for work in the global era. This edited collection provides a theoretical and empirical exploration of the links between unfree labor, intermediation, and modes of regulation, with particular focus on the evolving institutional forms and political-economic contexts that have been implicated in, and shaped by, the ascendency of temp agencies. What is distinctive about this collection is this bi-focal lens: it makes a substantial theoretical contribution by linking disparate literatures on, and debates about, the co-evolution of contingent work and unfree labor, new forms of labor intermediation, and different regulatory approaches; but it further lays the foundation for this theory in a series of empirically rich and geographically diverse case studies. This integrative approach is grounded in a cross-national comparative framework, using this approach as the basis for assessing how, and to what extent, temporary agency work can be considered unfree wage labor.

Offering a sociological analysis of trade unionism in the globalized era, this book gives a comparative analysis of the debate surrounding trade unions and their renewal. Using theory and a variety of case studies, it explores: the debate about the form of trade unionism; the bases for collective organization; and the struggle of trade unionism.

Regional trade agreements have expanded over the years, and have become a significant, if controversial, factor in the expanse of economic globalization. This book attempts to take an interdisciplinary approach to address labour regulation. It argues that there is a dynamic interplay between institutions and actors of social regulation.

An exploration of the interplay between employment and domestic relations within a specific group of young women, which includes single working women without children and working mothers. The text is based on actual experiences, as related in interviews.

Why is vocational training seen to be an "old" institution? This book seeks to respond to this question. It offers a comparative analysis of the vocational training systems in ten different countries.

Drawing from the fields of industrial sociology, management studies and labour process theory, this title attempts to understand the reform agenda in relation to teachers, their professional identities and their experience of work by drawing on critical perspectives that seek to challenge orthodox policy discourses relating to remodelling.

Presenting a survey of continuity and change in trade unions of the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK, this contemporary text provides a firm basis for informed discussion about the place of trade unions in modern economies.

The focus of this work is unionization in the road haulage industry, in particular the role of leadership in determining the quality of union organization. It assesses theories of unionization and democracy and utlizes oral and documentary sources, including archives of the TGWU.

Trade union movements in many countries face uncertain futures. After three decades of economic restructuring at both national and international levels, the way forward for unions is unclear. This title expores the background, current roles and prospects of trade unions in six countries.

This book examines the responses of unions and workers to regional integration and restructuring in the automobile industry in North and Central America.