What explains the different strategies adopted by Portuguese metal and textiles trade unions in the face of the liberalization of collective bargaining?

The role of trade unions in pushing back the liberalization of industrial relations has been of great interest to scholars in Political Economy over recent decades. The widely popular dualization theory (Rueda, 2005), according to which trade unions may collude with centre-left parties and sacrifice the regulation of the most fragile segment of the workforce (‘outsiders’) in order to restrain the effects of liberalization on ‘insiders’, has been subject to criticisms from new strands that document solidaristic behaviours from trade unions towards outsiders, in rejection of liberalization altogether. The idea behind this dissertation is to contrast these different strategies of trade unions in pushing back liberalization, as well as the motives behind them. For such, the focus is put on the cases of the Portuguese metal and textiles sector, in a period of liberalization following the introduction of the Portuguese Labour Code (2003). Different trade unions in these sectors adopted different strategies, either conceding to signing worsened collective agreements (relative to those previously in force) or choosing to allow their caducity. Through content analysis of 10 collective agreements and expiry notices, as well as 5 interviews with trade union representatives, the importance of factors such as union ideology and economic context in determining trade union strategies is gauged. The results obtained demonstrate the importance of ideological factors in defining trade union strategies – as suggested in the literature – but also of other factors, such as the sectoral institutional context or individual agency.O papel dos sindicatos na resistência à liberalização das relações de trabalho tem sido de grande interesse para a Economia Política nas últimas décadas. A popular teoria da dualização (Rueda, 2005), segundo a qual os sindicatos tendem a conluiar com partidos de centro-esquerda, sacrificando a regulação do segmento mais frágil da força de trabalho ("outsiders") para conter os efeitos da liberalização para os "insiders", tem sido objeto de críticas por parte de novas correntes que documentam comportamentos solidários por parte dos sindicatos para com os “outsiders” – em rejeição total (e não parcial) da liberalização. Esta dissertação propõe-se a contrastar diferentes estratégias sindicais face à liberalização, bem como as motivações a elas subjacentes. Para tal, consideram-se os casos dos setores metalúrgico e têxtil portugueses, num período de liberalização que seguiu a introdução do Código do Trabalho (2003). Nestes dois setores, os diferentes sindicatos adotaram estratégias distintas, quer pela concessão e assinatura de contratos coletivos de trabalho menos favoráveis aos trabalhadores do que os anteriores, quer pela recusa de tal cedência, levando à caducidade de alguns contratos. Através de uma análise de conteúdo das 10 convenções coletivas e notas de caducidade em questão, aliada à realização de 5 entrevistas a representantes sindicais, a dissertação tenta estabelecer a relação entre as estratégias adotadas e os fatores que as influenciaram. Os resultados corroboram a importância da ideologia– como sugerido pela literatura - na definição de estratégias sindicais, mas demonstram também a importância de outros fatores, como o contexto institucional setorial ou a agência individual

Monitoring 2 REINFFORCE Network arboretums. Health status, growth and phenology

Mestrado em Engenharia Florestal e dos Recursos Naturais / Instituto Superior de Agronomia. Universidade de LisboaClimate change is affecting plant and animal composition in forest ecosystems. Understanding how trees and insects are coping with climate change is most relevant to develop sustainable forest plantations, in the future. Using two REINFFORCE network arboretums, we aimed to analyse how different species and provenances are affected by abiotic and biotic damaging. Additionally, we also aimed to assess phenology influence on herbivory, having as model two Oak species, a native and an exotic, as well as their provenances. In general, there were significant differences in survivorship from different species. However, it did not differ between coniferous and broadleaved species (p = 0.659). It differed at genus level, such as Pinus, where we observed a higher survivorship on natives when compared to exotics. This relation was not verified in oak species. Discolouration was the main damage type verified in some species, in particular on Carob tree, Ceratonia siliqua, which suggests the presence of abiotic stressors, possibly linked to climate conditions and soil. Defoliation values were higher in two broadleaved genera, Quercus and Fagus. Lisbon arboretum had higher damaging and pests than Sintra arboretum, which might be related with the climate differences on both sites and also, the physiological and vegetative status of trees, which presented higher stamina in Sintra. Overall, herbivore damaging was lesser in exotic species than native ones. In herbivory assessment from the two studied Oak species, along Spring season, it was shown that the native species Quercus robur suffered three times more damage, than the exotic species Quercus rubra. Additionally, we showed that herbivore damaging was directly related to phenology development from provenances, thus proving this factor influenceN/

Patent-driven M&A - an inside-out approach on pre- and post-acquisition operational performance

The acquisition of technology entails one of the main knowledge gathering strategies of modern-day companies. This Work Project analyses the operational performance and the synergies in the acquisition of Osram Licht AG by ams AG. I find evidence of post acquisition operational performance deterioration on key financial indicators such as operational margin, operational asset turnover, return on invested capital and return on equity, at least in the short term. Even though this patent-driven acquisition generated a net synergy of EUR 2,648 million, non-negligible financial dyssynergies also seem to be present, particularly associated to higher WACC conditions

What if simulation for a Brazilian company regarding marketing budget

The article research is a case study regarding how to design the marketing budget for a small Brazilian company that started the activity one year ago. Taking into account the data that we gather, we decided to use What-if simulation. The case study is a simplified model representation of a company, adjusted according to the data that is released as target for the following year. In practice, the formulation of a scenario allows the construction of a hypothetical world that the analyst can see and navigate.

“Mistérios do Som” – development of a serious game for children with speech and hearing disorders

The way we speak is extremely important when communicating with others, and out of all the forms of communication, this is surely the one that reveals most of our personality and emotions. Therefore, there is a problem to be solved when children begin to reveal some difficulties pronouncing and saying certain sounds and words, making it important to solve them promptly, as these problems can later reveal themselves in other topics, such as writing. Nowadays there are several types of exercises and tools that aim at diagnosing, treating and accompanying children to overcome these problems. Although the exercises used in the therapy sessions are somewhat successful, it is difficult to captivate and in-centive children during each session. To mitigate these issues, serious games arise, a concept that unites education and entertainment into one. Serious games can improve results in therapy sessions, stimulat-ing children and the therapist through a differentiating experience, and helping parents when their child is at home. It is within this concept that the “Mistérios do Som” game emerges, a serious game for children aged 6 to 10 that have speech and hearing disorders, combining gameplay in a 3D world with exercises that suit the needs of the child, giving the appropriate feedback according to their performance

Herding through the tails?

This paper investigates institutional herding for extreme event-days in the US stock market between 2000 and 2010. We show that, for more extreme return’ stocks, abnormal returns and abnormal turnover are strongly linked to institutional ownership. Six month post-event performance show evidence of overreaction and underreaction by institutions on the event-days, consistent to findings related to informational cascades and the uncertain information hypothesis

How to improve the business model of Olá: srategies to mitigate the limitations of the visibility model

CEM

Novelty detection for semantic place categorization

Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Informática e Computação. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 201

From the April revolution to times of austerity in Portugal: a portrait of poverty, social exclusion and inequalities

In the last forty years Portugal was confronted with a series of transformations. The revolutionary process of April 1974 and the European integration drove the country towards the economic policy convergence of the most developed member-states of European Union. This approach was slowing since the beginning of the Millennium, reversed with the advent of the economic and financial crisis in 2007. The crisis generated a response on austerity policies, with deep impacts on public policy with consequences in different dimensions. Poverty, a persistent phenomenon in Portugal, affecting hundreds of thousands of families in the last decades, increased with the crisis. This article discusses ideas about poverty, social exclusion and inequality, to analyze in synthetic form the recent evolution of the Portuguese case in the context of austerity