Presenting an extensive 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 diverse cases and experiences examined in this book hold valuable lessons for labour everywhere." - Elaine Bernard, Harvard Law School

Trade unions in Canada are losing their traditional support base, and membership numbers could sink to US levels unless unions recapture their power. Unions, Equity, and the Path to Renewal brings together a distinguished group of union activists and equity scholars who trace how traditional union cultures, practices, and structures have eroded solidarity and activism and created an equity deficit in Canadian unions. Informed by a feminist vision of unions as instruments of social justice, the contributors argue that equity within unions is not simply one possible path to union renewal � it is the only way to reposition organized labour as a central institution in workers' lives.

In The Politics of Social Inclusion and Labor Representation, Heather Connolly, Stefania Marino, and Miguel Martínez Lucio compare trade union responses to immigration and the related political and labour market developments in the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The labor movement is facing significant challenges as a result of such changes in the modern context. As such, the authors closely examine the idea of social inclusion and how trade unions are coping with and adapting to the need to support immigrant workers and develop various types of engagement and solidarity strategies in the European context. Traversing the dramatically shifting immigration patterns since the 1970s, during which emerged a major crisis of capitalism, the labor market, and society, and the contingent rise of anti-immigration sentiment and new forms of xenophobia, the authors assess and map how trade unions have to varying degrees understood and framed these issues and immigrant labor. They show how institutional traditions, and the ways that trade unions historically react to social inclusion and equality, have played a part in shaping the nature of current initiatives. The Politics of Social Inclusion and Labor Representation concludes that we need to appreciate the complexity of trade-union traditions, established paths to renewal, and competing trajectories of solidarity. While trade union organizations remain wedded to specific trajectories, trade union renewal remains an innovative, if at times, problematic and complex set of choices and aspirations.

An authoritative overview of the question of power in trade union strategy

A comprehensive introduction to the state of trade unionism in the world today. Leading labour scholars discuss the health of the trade union movement, the present political and economic climate for trade union advancement, the dominant revitalisation strategies, and future prospects for each nation.

This book charts the path to revitalisation for trade unions in Australia, the USA, the UK, and Italy. It examines the examples of innovation and digital campaigning that are enabling unions to build new forms of worker power – and overcome decades of declining membership wrought by neoliberalism, globalisation, and hostility from employers and the state. The study evaluates the responses of unions in each country to falling membership levels since the 1980s. It considers the US 'organising model' and its adoption in Australia and the UK, comparing this with the strategies of Italian unions which have been more deliberately focused on precarious and migrant workers. The increasing reliance of US unions on community alliances, as seen in the 'Fight for $15' and similar campaigns, is scrutinised along with new union prototypes like Hospo Voice in Australia, the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain and SI Cobas in Italy. The book includes an in-depth analysis of union responses to the gig economy in the four countries, and the emergence of self-organised worker collectives to combat this exploitative business model. The vital role played by unions in defending the interests of workers during the COVID-19 pandemic is also examined. As well as highlighting the most successful union initiatives to meet the challenges of the past 30 years, the book assesses the strengths and deficiencies of the legal framework for union representation in the four nations. It identifies the labour law reforms needed to rebuild collectivism, but argues that more is needed than favourable laws. This cross-national study provides a rich basis for identifying the combination of reforms, strategies and linkages required to ensure that unions can remain relevant for a new generation of digitally-active workers.

Marketization in the healthcare sector affects the quality and delivery of care, as well as healthcare workers’ working conditions. Based on a comparison of England and Germany, along with an in-depth case study looking at New York, USA, this volume examines how trade unions respond to marketization processes and the determinants of successful strategies. The author draws on a rich empirical study to develop a theoretical framework that accounts for sector-specific opportunity structures stemming from marketization processes and on the relevant unions’ local-level leeway that opens if they build up and mobilise the available resources and capacities. The book identifies determinants of successful trade union strategies, explains the puzzling observation of similar strategic choices across different systems, and draws conclusions for prospects of trade unionism in the marketized healthcare sector. This book emphasizes the transformative effect of marketization on healthcare and the opportunities this change creates for unions, while giving special attention to the local-level conditions of trade unionism in the analysis of conflicts evolving around marketization in the hospital sector. It is of interest to academics and practitioners working in healthcare management, human resource management, and employment relations.

Examining the experiences of leadership among trade unionists in a range of unions and labor movements around the world, this volume addresses perspectives of women and men from a range of identities such as race/ethnicity, sexuality, and age. It analyses existing models of leadership in various political organizational forms, especially trade unions, but also including business and management approaches, leadership forms which arise from fields such as community, pedagogy, and the third sector. This book analyzes and critiques concepts, expectations, and experiences of union leaders and leadership in labor organizations, while comparing gender and cultural perspectives. Contributors to the volume draw on empirical research to identify key ideas, beliefs and experiences which are critical to achieving change, setting up resistance, and transforming the inertia of traditionalism.

This edited collection examines the relevance of trade unions 100 years on from the 1913 Lockout in Dublin. The general argument underpinning the papers in this book is that trade unions are still relevant in the 21st century, since they provide an independent collective representation for workers and address the power imbalance between the worker and employer. All of the chapter authors are based at the Department of Personnel and Employment Relations, Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick. The chapters are grouped under three broad headings: The demand for trade unions in the 21st century; partnership at work and the legal context of union recognition; and case studies dealing with union organising and recognition campaigns This book provides a focus on an area not covered in any detailed way by any comparable text book.It will be of interest to undergraduates and postgraduates in the area of employment relations and to practioners such as trade union officials and human resource managers.In addition it will be of interest to a wider body of academics internationally who wish to understand trade unions in Ireland for comparative purposes.