The Politics of the Labor Movement Revitalization: The Need for a Revitalized Perspective

[Excerpt] Unions everywhere are struggling. Globalization, with its supporting neo-liberal ideology, encourages employers and governments to push vigorously against the constraints of employment regulation. Unions have to fight to protect past gains, resist decline and find new allies. To some extent, labor is always on the defensive in a capitalist economy, where ownership and economic decision-making lie largely beyond the reach of workers and unions. Yet the competitive pressures of today\u27s increasingly global capitalism accentuate the pressure. Firms have new options and increasing mobility, far beyond those that most workers and unions can claim. One response is common to all of our country cases, despite other differences. Unions are everywhere re-launching themselves as \u27political subjects\u27, as actors engaged not just in collective bargaining and workplace regulation, but also in the broader aggregation of political and social interests (Pizzorno, 1978). Labor movement politics today go well beyond traditional links with lab our-friendly parties and negotiations with governments, to involve grass-roots politics and local campaigns. The exact forms taken by such political strategies are shaped differently in each country according to the challenges faced, existing institutions and opportunity structures. But in all cases, the shift toward a fuller political subject orientation lies at the center of contemporary strategic adaptation and revitalization

Organizational Determinants of Wage Moderation

This article contributes to the political economic literature regarding the effects of industrial relations institutions on national economic outcomes. Based on an econometric analysis of the determinants of wage moderation in sixteen industrialized countries between 1974 and 2000, it argues that the organizational characteristics of trade unions have a significant impact on wage dynamics. Controlling for a number of institutional and economic factors, the countries in which trade union confederations directly involve workers in the process of collective bargaining ratification have on average lower wage growth relative to productivity than others. The authors also find that collective bargaining coordination and contract ratification magnify each other's wage-dampening effect. Through case studies of Ireland and Italy, the article examines the causal mechanisms underlying the uncovered statistical regularities and concludes that, particularly at a time in which classic political exchange is waning, worker involvement in contract ratification allows confederation leaders to resolve conflicting claims inside their organizations at lower wage levels than are achieved by a less participatory governance proces

Reassessing the role of wages in the Eurozone

A popular explanation for the Eurozone crisis is that differences in wage bargaining institutions led to a major divergence in labour costs between northern and southern member states prior to the crisis. Drawing on a new study, Lucio Baccaro and Tobias Tober find that while this explanation led to wage moderation and labour market reforms ... Continue

Social dialogue during the financial and economic crisis - Results from the ILO/World Bank Inventory using a Boolean analysis on 44 countries

Using information collected by the ILO/WB Inventory of policy responses to the financial and economic crisis on 44 countries, this paper identified conditions under which there was a social dialogue response to the financial crisis between 2008 and 2010. For that purpose, they use a particular definition of social dialogue, e.g. the emergence of tripartite national-level agreements or major agreements at the sector level; and rely on a Boolean analysis, e.g. a statistical method to detect relationships between variables, for example between answers to a questionnaire. Based on this definition, 13 out of 44 countries adopted national level agreement or major sector level agreement in formulating their crisis response, including seven in Europe, three in Americas, two in Asia, and one in Africa. Explanatory factors for the emergence of social dialogue include freedom of association, the severity of the crisis, and the strength of trade unions.social dialogue / freedom of association / labour policy / economic recession / economic implication / social implication / survey / methodology / developed countries / developing countries

Theoretical and empirical links between trade unions and democracy

This special issue wants to honour the memory of Giulio Regeni, a PhD student at the University of Cambridge who was assassinated while he was conducting field research on independent trade unions in Egypt. This introduction and the following articles focus on the theoretical, empirical and methodological questions at the core of Regeni’s research. Unions have traditionally been regarded as crucial for representing the interests of the working class as a whole and for building and sustaining industrial and political democracy; however, there is a debate about the conditions under which unions can be effective, and the role of unions’ internal democracy is particularly controversial. The article discusses the theoretical linkages between trade unions, democratization and union democracy and concludes with a reflection on the new concerns about the risk of conducting field research on these issues raised by Regeni’s death

Threats and solidarity in the Eurozone: how Italian and German citizens respond to information about Italexit

Previous research suggests a form of ‘democratic constraint’ blocks attempts to reform the euro. While voters in creditor countries oppose debt sharing across the Eurozone, voters in debtor countries are unwilling to push for change by threatening to leave the single currency. Drawing on a new study, Lucio Baccaro, Björn Bremer and Erik Neimanns claim this argument overlooks the fact citizens in debtor countries are receptive to information about the costs of remaining in the euro, and that citizens in creditor countries are concerned about the costs of a breakup

Opposition to austerity outweighs support for the euro in Italy

Could a new financial crisis, brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, lead to Italy’s exit from the eurozone? Lucio Baccaro, Björn Bremer and Erik Neimanns present evidence from a new survey experiment on Italian attitudes toward a European bailout and exit from the euro. They find that a majority of voters would opt to stay ... Continue

Softening industrial relations institutions, hardening growth model:The transformation of the German political economy

In contrast with recent literature which sees the German model as either a fundamentally resilient model of coordinated capitalism, or as undergoing liberalization only in the peripheral service sectors but not in the core manufacturing ones, in this paper we make two arguments. First, we argue that a fundamental change is taking place in the German growth model, which is drifting away from the typical wage-led growth pattern of other large Eurozone economies and moving towards exclusively export-led growth. Second, we document a liberalizing trend in German industrial relations institutions in both the manufacturing sectors and in the service sectors, and argue that it stands in a relationship of coevolution with the growth model shift: the liberal erosion of industrial relations institutions has facilitated the pursuit of an economic strategy based on external competitiveness and cost-cutting, while the decline of household consumption as a driver of growth has contributed to lock-in the export-led model and to generate further pressure for industrial relations liberalization