Organising campaigns as ‘revitaliser’ for trade unions? The example of the Lidl campaign

Gajewska, Katarzyna; Niesyto, Johanna

doi:10.1111/j.1468-2338.2008.00518.x

Cited by 17 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Another example was the campaign by ver.di in Germany, in association with various NGOs, around the retail chain Lidl. This campaign succeeded in exposing the employer's blatant violations of the human rights of its workers but did not lead to a long‐term increase in trade union membership or representation (Artus, 2007; Gajewska and Niesyto, 2009). Such examples indicate a tension between political/community campaigning and trade union organising and recruitment.…”

Section: Trade Union Responsesmentioning

confidence: 99%

European trade unions and ‘atypical’ workers

Gumbrell‐McCormick¹

2011

Industrial Relations Journal

128

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The increase in 'atypical' or precarious forms of work, including part-time, temporary or agency, contracted-out, posted, dependent self-employed and undocumented work, has created one of the major challenges facing trade unions in Europe today. Indeed, the 'atypical' has become more and more 'typical' in a number of European countries, particularly among women and younger workers. The rise in atypical forms of work calls for changes in the way trade unions develop strategies, policies and structures and presents a challenge to their traditional ways of thinking and organising. This article begins with the definition of atypical work and a general overview of the literature on the subject before moving on to the nature of the challenge it creates for trade unions in Europe and an overview of their responses, drawing on preliminary findings from a three-year research project in unions in 10 European countries. The article concludes that while unions have made a great deal of progress in addressing the concerns of atypical workers, they will have to make substantial changes to their structures, thinking and way of operating in order to be fully able to respond to the challenge of this growing form of work.

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Section: Trade Union Responsesmentioning

confidence: 99%

European trade unions and ‘atypical’ workers

Gumbrell‐McCormick¹

2011

Industrial Relations Journal

128

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“…Centralized membership recruitment is a difficult and costly endeavour and may fail even in trade unions whose financial resources largely exceed modest budgets of the majority of CEE trade union confederations (cp. Gajewska and Niesyto on German Ver.di). However, even if financial problems are overcome, the lack of consensus regarding feasibility of comprehensive organizing campaigns observable within the largest union confederations, as well as limited know‐how on organizing techniques and practices hinder implementation of organizing strategy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Institutions and Strategies: Trends and Obstacles to Recruiting Workers into Trade Unions in Poland

Czarzasty

Gajewska

Mrozowicki

2012

Brit J Industrial Rel

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In this article, we examine the role of institutional context, organizational structures and trade union strategies in tempering membership decline in the number of trade unions in Poland. Empirical data include membership statistics collected for NSZZ Solidarność and 54 affiliates of two other largest trade union confederations (OPZZ and FZZ) supplemented by semi‐structured interviews with union leaders. In a decentralized collective bargaining system in Poland, a centralized trade union confederation (NSZZ Solidarność) can more easily shift resources to efficiently organize workers than decentralized confederations, OPZZ and FZZ, whose development is mostly driven by competing trade unions representing narrower occupational groups. In conclusion, this observation is put in a broader context of the debates about trade union renewal in Eastern Europe.

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“…In practice, some arrangements operate at the The International Journal of Human Resource Management 749 organisational and workplace level, such as US approaches to 'mutual gains', which rest on the notion of high performance work systems (HPWS) (Kochan and Osterman 1994;Budd, Gomez and Meltz 2004). European approaches rely on legislation and mandatory structures (in large firms) such as works councils, resulting in a diversity of national settlements concerning how collaboration is implemented (Dølvik and Waddington 2004;Hyman 2005;Gajewska and Niesyto 2009). Other national approaches lack a legislative basis and are strongly voluntarist, but have government support and funding: UK 'partnership agreements' are one such model (Brown and Oxenbridge 2004;Kelly 2004;Wilkinson 2009, 2010).…”

Section: Collaborationmentioning

confidence: 97%

Varieties of collaboration: the case of an Australian retail union

Price

Bailey

Pyman

2012

The International Journal of Human Resource Management

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Much has been written about varieties of collaboration and the interplay between conflict and collaboration in industrial relations. This paper explores the preconditions, processes and outcomes associated with the collaborative strategies of an Australian retail trade union: the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association. The data were collected from an extensive series of interviews with officials and organisers within the union across all Australian states. We find that despite taking a servicing approach, and indeed never aggressively organising members, the union has managed to achieve a range of outcomes that exceed retail employment conditions in other countries. We argue that this is partly a result of the Australian legislative framework, which is inherently pluralist and supportive of collective bargaining. This environment, whereby unions are not forced to fight to represent members, can be conducive to collaborative employment relations, particularly in industries where the parties do not adopt an adversarialist stance.

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Organising campaigns as ‘revitaliser’ for trade unions? The example of the Lidl campaign

Cited by 17 publications

References 22 publications

European trade unions and ‘atypical’ workers

European trade unions and ‘atypical’ workers

Institutions and Strategies: Trends and Obstacles to Recruiting Workers into Trade Unions in Poland

Varieties of collaboration: the case of an Australian retail union

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