Different rooms, different voices: double-breasting, multi-channel representation and the managerial agenda

Abstract

Double-breasting has been identified as where companies run union voice and nonunion voice mechanisms across different plants. While research has focused on the incidence of such arrangements, there is a dearth of evidence into the dynamics of it. This article seeks to complement existing research by examining the contours of double-breasting in a case study organisation. The findings suggest more research is necessary into the dynamics of double-breasting in terms of how voice in sites affects each other and the extent to which running different regimes affects the managerial agenda.

Union Status and Double-Breasting at Multinational Companies in Three Liberal Market Economies

“…Double-breasting is often characterized as as an employer strategy to suppress unionization, whereby nonunion sites are added to existing unionized sites ). But it may not always be a union avoidance technique (Beaumont and Harris 1992;Cullinane et al 2012). It may reflect a legacy of site acquisition or the different organizing proclivities of workforces at various sites.…”

Blacklisting and its legacy in the UK construction industry: employment relations in the aftermath of exposure of the Consulting Association

“…A dual approach—known as double‐breasting—is sometimes used by multinationals where collective bargaining is in operation in one location whilst elsewhere trade unions are resisted (Beaumont and Harris, ; Cullinane et al ., and and Dundon et al ., 2015). Northrup () points to the ways in which such practices were deployed by US construction employers, using both approaches simultaneously for different sites (open and closed shop), with the intention of reducing the advantages and cost of the union mark‐up on the unionised site.…”

“…Double breasting identified by Dundon (), Cullinane et al . () and Dundon () will continue, not on the Northrup model () where non‐union sites are used to counter the costs of those that are unionised. Rather, larger and more significant sites will continue to have a union presence where public policy, key clients or lead contractors play a particular part in setting standards, for example on direct employment, and access for union officers to recruit.…”

“…Cullinane et al . () argue that employer moves to adopt parallel and apparently contradictory perspectives on employment relations are not necessarily the product of carefully formulated, rational choice. Rather such perspectives may be random and ad hoc.…”

Union suppression and union substitution strategies of multinational enterprises in Ghana

“…The literature on industrial relations (IR) and the labour movement in Africa is generally limited. While there is extensive research supporting the potential productive role of employee voice and involvement towards realising organisational objectives (Tüselmanna et al, 2014;McDonnell et al, 2014;Cullinane et al, 2012;Budd et al, 2010;Flood and Toner, 1997), there have been calls for analysis of the contribution of alternative voice and involvement mechanisms and individual performance management practices to union substitution and union avoidance (Collings, 2008;Dundon and Gollan, 2007;Marchington et al,1992). Union avoidance or employers' resistance to unions and its forms have a long history in developed economies (Fiorito and Maranto, 1987;Gunnigle et al, 2015).…”