Economic Crisis Trade Unions And The State

Originally published in 1986, this book analyses the impact of the changing economic and political climate on trade unions in Europe. The first part of the book deals with general issues, and the succeeding parts look at developments in the UK, Italy and the former West Germany.

If the recent global economic crisis has debilitated labour in many parts of the world, many segments of the trade union movement have been fighting back, combining traditional and innovative strategies and articulating alternatives to the dominant political and economic models. Trade unions and the global crisis offers a composite overview of the responses of trade unions and other workers' organizations to neoliberal globalization in general and to the recent financial crisis in particular. The essays here, by trade unionists and academics from around the world, explore the state of labour in Brazil, China, Nepal, South Africa, Turkey, Europe and North America. The authors offer a range of short-term strategies and actions, medium- and long-term policies, and alternative visions that challenge the current development paradigm. This book makes a stimulating contribution to the continuing debate on labour's role as an economic, political and social force in building a more democratic and just society.

In May and June of 1968 a dramatic wave of strikes paralyzed France, making industrial relations reform a key item on the government agenda. French trade unions seemed due for a golden age of growth and importance. Today, however, trade unions are weaker in France than in any other advanced capitalist country. How did such exceptional militancy give way to equally remarkable quiescence? To answer this question, Chris Howell examines the reform projects of successive French governments toward trade unions and industrial relations during the postwar era, focusing in particular on the efforts of post-1968 conservative and socialist governments. Howell explains the genesis and fate of these reform efforts by analyzing constraints imposed on the French state by changing economic circumstances and by the organizational weakness of labor. His approach, which links economic, political, and institutional analysis, is broadly that of Regulation Theory. His explicitly comparative goal is to develop a framework for understanding the challenges facing labor movements throughout the advanced capitalist world in light of the exhaustion of the postwar pattern of economic growth, the weakening of the nation-state as an economic actor, and accelerating economic integration, particularly in Europe.

In response to mounting debt crises and macroeconomic instability in the 1980s, many countries in the developing world adopted neoliberal policies promoting the unfettered play of market forces and deregulation of the economy and attempted large-scale structural adjustment, including the privatization of public-sector industries. How much influence did various societal groups have on this transition to a market economy, and what explains the variances in interest-group influence across countries? In this book, Agnieszka Paczyńska explores these questions by studying the role of organized labor in the transition process in four countries in different regions—the Czech Republic and Poland in eastern Europe, Egypt in the Middle East, and Mexico in Latin America. In Egypt and Poland, she shows, labor had substantial influence on the process, whereas in the Czech Republic and Mexico it did not. Her explanation highlights the complex relationship between institutional structures and the “critical junctures” provided by economic crises, revealing that the ability of groups like organized labor to wield influence on reform efforts depends to a great extent on not only their current resources (such as financial autonomy and legal prerogatives) but also the historical legacies of their past ties to the state. This new edition features an epilogue that analyzes the role of organized labor uprisings in 2011, the protests in Egypt, the overthrow of Mubarak, and the post-Mubarak regime.

The Great Recession was the largest crisis of capitalism since the Great Depression and the largest crisis in neoliberalism to date, sending shockwaves throughout the global economy. States scrambled to right the sinking capitalist ship in order to maintain high levels of accumulation. In Canada, as in so many other countries, the state introduced austerity measures aimed at organized labour and the broader working class. This volume explores the political economy of The Great Recession in Canada, and focuses on how labour has responded to the crisis, neoliberalism, and austerity measures. Table of Contents: 1. From Crisis To Austerity: An Introduction/Tim Fowler 2. The Canadian State and the Crisis: Theoretical and Historical Context/ Stephen McBride & Heather Whiteside 3. From the Great Recession of 2008-2009 to Fiscal Austerity: The Role of Inequality/Akhter Faroque and Brian K. MacLean 4. Neoliberalism, Capitalist Crisis, and Continuing Austerity in the Ontario State/Tim Fowler 5. Collective Bargaining in a Time of Austerity: Public-Sector Unions and the University Sector in Ontario/Mathew Nelson & James Meades 6. "We Will Fight This Crisis" Auto Workers Resist an Industrial Meltdown/ Bill Murnighan & Jim Stanford 7. The Decline of the Labour Movement: A Socialist Perspective/ Murray E.G. Smith & Jonah Butovsky 8. Labour's Response to the Crisis and the Future of Working-Class Politics/ David Camfield Endorsements: "...[a] thought-provoking collection on contemporary austerity and the attack on labour reveals how divergent interpretations of capitalist crisis frame different understandings of the contemporary crisis of the workers' movement." - Bryan D. Palmer is Canada Research Chair at Trent University, author of James P. Cannon and the Origins of the American Revolutionary Left, 1890-1928 and Editor of Labour/Le Travail. "...a big-picture look at how Canadian governments and business sought solutions favouring the wealthy at the expense of an ever more constrained labour movement. The collection will be a critical read for anyone seeking a comprehensive account of the crisis and how Canada's politics of austerity have affected unions and workers across the country." - John Peters teaches labour studies at Laurentian University and is editor of Boom, Bust, Crisis: Labour, Corporate Power, and Politics in 21st Century Canada

The crisis in trade unionism is now a prevailing concern in the United States, as well as in Europe. Its main symptom is, of course, the decrease in union membership. Still, other, less observable elements account for the concern, namely the obsolescence of discourse, the decrease of militant motivation, and the question of efficiency of strikes or collective bargaining. One must keep in mind, however, that trade unions will evolve differently from one country to another. What we know about trade unions has changed over the years. We can now more accurately assess the effects of union action, especially with regard to labor market, wages, and productivity. This book adds to the assessment by integrating the new theories of organizations, contracts, and property rights. In doing so, we shift from a study of markets to one of hierarchies. Thus, the current literature comes back to its sources (but with improved analytical instruments) by returning to the Ross-Dunlop debate on the nature of the trade union. This more complex outlook of trade unions as an organization-not only as an abstract or bodyless supplier of monopolistic labor-allows one to understand better the apparent differences between unions (mainly American) whose action is oriented towards work relation ships and labor contract management and unions (European or "Latin") who are closer to a pressure group wielding power on the political front.

This book analyzes the adverse effects of globalization and liberalization — acutely manifest in the increased financialization of capital and the concomitant global financial crisis of 2008–09 — on the labour force, especially in the developing countries. Drawing upon case studies from several countries including India, Columbia, Malawi, Brazil and Thailand, it highlights the worsening plight of working class as a whole and informal labour in particular. The essays examine issues such as down-sizing, lowering of wages, insecurity and erosion of labour rights, and show how labour is grappling with the situation. The volume critically re-assesses varied aspects of the growing informal sector: its dubious credential as an employment provider during crises; its non-adherence to internationally recognized standards of decent work; the problems and potential of workers' unions; and the need for a regulatory regime. It also discusses changes in the Indian labour market induced by business environment and technology as well as its future dynamics. Presenting a historical review of labour markets, the work explores the deregulation wave under the globalization of 1980s and the interactions between existing unstable asset markets and labour markets. The book will prove especially useful to students and scholars in economics, labour studies and sociology, and those engaged in public policy and governance.