This book provides an understanding of the processes in which unions engage with young people, and views and opinions young people hold relating to collective representation. It features a selection of specific national cases of high relevance to contemporary debates of precariousness, trade union revitalization strategies and austerity policies.

This publication sets out a practical framework for specific measures for trade union involvement at the local, national and international levels to protect against the use of child labour, based on the variety of approaches taken by workers' organisations around the world. The book summarises the nature and extent of the child labour problem; gives examples of trade union activities in the campaign against child labour; sets out a framework for action based on these case studies; and examines the international response to child labour.

Explores the significance of stopgap work and unionization for young service and retail workers in groceries, supermarkets and fast-food restaurants in Canada and the United States. Concludes about the potential of unions to improve youths' workplace conditions.

Organizing Matters demonstrates the interplay between two distinct logics of labour’s collective action: on the one hand, workers coming together, usually at their place of work, entrusting the union to represent their interests and, on the other hand, social bargaining in which the trade union constructs labour’s interests from the top down. The book investigates the tensions and potential complementarities between the two logics through the combination of a strong theoretical framework and an extensive qualitative case study of trade union organizing and recruitment in four countries – Austria, Germany, Israel and the Netherlands. These countries still utilize social-wide bargaining but find it necessary to draw and develop strategies transposed from Anglo-American countries in response to continuously declining membership.

In Forms of Collective Engagement in Youth Transitions, renowned and emerging sociologists analyse new phenomena of collectivity among young people around the globe.

Collective bargaining and workers’ voice are often discussed in the past rather than in the future tense, but can they play a role in the context of a rapidly changing world of work? This report provides a comprehensive assessment of the functioning of collective bargaining systems and workers’ voice arrangements across OECD countries, and new insights on their effect on labour market performance today.

A sustainable working life that prevents work-related health problems and facilitate inclusion of young workers is vital to ensure the health, safety and work participation among young workers in the Nordic countries. This report provides Nordic statistics, scientific knowledge and discussions on how to achieve a sustainable work life for young workers in the Nordic countries. Under the Swedish presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2013, the focus was on youth and young workers' working conditions. As part of this focus, the Nordic Council of Ministers commissioned this report. The report shows that an inter-disciplinary and comprehensive approach is essential to ensure a sustainable work life among young workers. Six characteristics are emphasized as important: the characteristics of the worker, the workplace, the work task, the employment, the education and the youth.

This book is a theoretically rich and empirically grounded account of UK trade union engagement with climate change over the last three decades. It offers a rigorous critique of the mainstream neoliberal and ecological modernisation approaches, extending the concepts of Marxist social and employment relations theory to the climate realm. The book applies insights from employment relations to the political economy of climate change, developing a model for understanding trade union behaviour over climate matters. The strong interdisciplinary approach draws together lessons from both physical and social science, providing an original empirical investigation into the climate politics of the UK trade union movement from high level officials down to workplace climate representatives, from issues of climate jobs to workers’ climate action. This book will be of great interest to students and researchers in environmental politics, climate change and environmental sociology.

Think your union doesn't represent you? Then maybe it's time to change it.