Suchergebnisse

Trade union leaders serve dual, seemingly contradictory roles. They must command militant organizations in conflicts with employers. Simultaneously, they must be accountable and democratically responsive to their members. Few unions possess the institutions or leadership to accomplish both. This article analyzes the practices of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), in which effective contract negotiation (including leadership during strikes) and an informed, active rank-and-file democracy are mutually supportive. We offer an alternative to standard accounts of union democracy. While the claims are based on a detailed case study, the theoretical model and its insights hold for labor unions and organizations more broadly.

UMR 5600, coordinators of the UNESCO chair "Urban policies and citizenship". With the help of Solène Compingt, consultant on citizen participation and empowerment. ; Avec le soutien de Solène Compingt, consultante sur la participation citoyenne et le pouvoir d'agir.

UMR 5600, coordinators of the UNESCO chair "Urban policies and citizenship". With the help of Solène Compingt, consultant on citizen participation and empowerment. ; Avec le soutien de Solène Compingt, consultante sur la participation citoyenne et le pouvoir d'agir.

UMR 5600, coordinators of the UNESCO chair "Urban policies and citizenship". With the help of Solène Compingt, consultant on citizen participation and empowerment. ; Avec le soutien de Solène Compingt, consultante sur la participation citoyenne et le pouvoir d'agir.

UMR 5600, coordinators of the UNESCO chair "Urban policies and citizenship". With the help of Solène Compingt, consultant on citizen participation and empowerment. ; Avec le soutien de Solène Compingt, consultante sur la participation citoyenne et le pouvoir d'agir.

UMR 5600, coordinators of the UNESCO chair "Urban policies and citizenship". With the help of Solène Compingt, consultant on citizen participation and empowerment. ; Avec le soutien de Solène Compingt, consultante sur la participation citoyenne et le pouvoir d'agir.

UMR 5600, coordinators of the UNESCO chair "Urban policies and citizenship". With the help of Solène Compingt, consultant on citizen participation and empowerment. ; Avec le soutien de Solène Compingt, consultante sur la participation citoyenne et le pouvoir d'agir.

Focusing on the cases of Italy and Poland, this article examines the link between union organizational democracy and the economic and political inclusion of precarious workers. It argues that union membership of vulnerable groups is not a necessary condition for the representation of their voice and economic interests by labour organizations; rather, these two forms of inclusion are shaped primarily by the institutional contexts in which unions operate as well as by their identities and structural characteristics. In both examined countries the economic inclusion of precarious workers has been more advanced, while the degree of their political inclusion has lagged behind and varied across major union confederations in line with two distinct models of unionism: a solidaristic and a diversity-oriented one.

Strengthening democracy in unions by convincing members that this movement truly belongs to them can convert the 16 million labor troops into a powerful movement for social justice. Union democracy as an idea has been legitimized by forty years of effort by insurgents from below. But the actual battle for union democracy continues. Its success depends upon the efforts of union reformers, enforcement of their rights under federal law, and support by liberal and civil libertarian allies.

International audience ; Since the 2000s, workplace democracy has become the vehicle of a new political imagination that may offer an alternative to the excesses of capitalist globalization. However historical and sociological research has regularly highlighted difficulties of establishing democratic structures in the workplace. What happens when a trade-union becomes the main actor of this democratization? Underlining the strong bureaucratization of the trade union field, studies on trade unionism seem to predict low potentials. The case of a cooperative takeover of a French company by the CGT union in the early 2010s gives us the opportunity to verify this claim empirically. The examination of the transformation of this printing company into a worker cooperative leads to two main results: firstly, we will see that while trade union bureaucratization allows the takeover of the companythanks to trained and professionalized organizersit also constitutes an obstacle when setting up the main cooperative schemes, as shown by the lack of participation in general meetings. In a second phase, however, it will be seen that trade unionism produces its own participatory mechanisms: by placing members from each sector on the board of directorsfrom the reception to the printing presses and the sales departmentthe union sets up a "sociological democratization" which has important effects on the functioning of the enterprise: the cooperative thus creates a continuum of interactions and the possibility to contest which constitute "worker control" over the new management.

International audience ; Since the 2000s, workplace democracy has become the vehicle of a new political imagination that may offer an alternative to the excesses of capitalist globalization. However historical and sociological research has regularly highlighted difficulties of establishing democratic structures in the workplace. What happens when a trade-union becomes the main actor of this democratization? Underlining the strong bureaucratization of the trade union field, studies on trade unionism seem to predict low potentials. The case of a cooperative takeover of a French company by the CGT union in the early 2010s gives us the opportunity to verify this claim empirically. The examination of the transformation of this printing company into a worker cooperative leads to two main results: firstly, we will see that while trade union bureaucratization allows the takeover of the companythanks to trained and professionalized organizersit also constitutes an obstacle when setting up the main cooperative schemes, as shown by the lack of participation in general meetings. In a second phase, however, it will be seen that trade unionism produces its own participatory mechanisms: by placing members from each sector on the board of directorsfrom the reception to the printing presses and the sales departmentthe union sets up a "sociological democratization" which has important effects on the functioning of the enterprise: the cooperative thus creates a continuum of interactions and the possibility to contest which constitute "worker control" over the new management.

Approaching Euro-democracy and its alternatives -- Do unions have an interest in Euro-democratization? -- Wage policy and the European economic and monetary unions -- The rise of national competitive corporatism in Western Europe -- European wage-bargaining coordination networks : contrasting insights from manufacturing and the construction industries -- Beyond competitive corporatism? : contrasting insights from Germany, France, and Italy -- The European regulation of transnational company mergers -- A Euro-democratization union strategy : the ABB Alstom Power case -- A Euro-technocratization union strategy : the Alcan-Pechiney-Algroup case