Caloric vestibular stimulation reduces pain and somatoparaphrenia in a severe chronic central post-stroke pain patient: a case study

Central post-stroke pain is a neuropathic syndrome characterized by intolerable contralesional pain and, in rare cases, somatic delusions. To date, there is limited evidence for the effective treatments of this disease. Here we used caloric vestibular stimulation to reduce pain and somatoparaphrenia in a 57-year-old woman suffering from central post-stroke pain. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to assess the neurological effects of this treatment. Following vestibular stimulation we observed impressive improvements in motor skills, pain, and somatic delusions. In the functional connectivity study before the vestibular stimulation, we observed differences in the patient's left thalamus functional connectivity, with respect to the thalamus connectivity of a control group (N = 20), in the bilateral cingulate cortex and left insula. After the caloric stimulation, the left thalamus functional connectivity with these regions, which are known to be involved in the cortical response to pain, disappeared as in the control group. The beneficial use of vestibular stimulation in the reduction of pain and somatic delusion in a CPSP patient is now documented by behavioral and imaging data. This evidence can be applied to theoretical models of pain and body delusions

Trade unions participation and infuence in decentralised collective bargaining

The aim of this chapter is to analyse the role of trade unions in decentralised collective bargaining, specifically regarding trade union and works council participation in and influence on the processes and outcomes of collective bargaining at company level. To identify and explain differences and similarities in trade union and works council practice regarding company-level collective bargaining, the authors use an analytical framework based on the power resources approach and focus on structural, associational, and institutional power. The analysis suggests a degree of interchangeability in these power resources. Structural power resources are, for example, important for the outcomes of company bargaining, however, institutional and associational power resources may complement the lack or presence of such structural power resources

The role of collective bargaining in addressing flexibility and security : a multi-level comparative institutional analysis of three countries and four companies within the chemical and pharmaceutical sector

The main contribution of this thesis is to demonstrate that collective bargaining represents a fundamental source of flexibility and security for the labour market. This original finding emerges from a comparative analysis of bargaining arrangements in the chemical and pharmaceutical sector in three countries – Italy, Denmark, and the UK – with a detailed examination of arrangements at company level in two of these – Italy and Denmark. The sector chosen for the analysis is a solid manufacturing industry exposed to international competition and characterised by a long tradition of collaboration between the social partners. A focus on collective bargaining which is both multi-level and comparative enabled this research to establish: first, that sector level industrial relations institutions account for the degree of within-country homogeneity in the content of firm level agreements over issues of flexibility and security; and second, that the degree of cross-company heterogeneity is conditioned primarily by firm-level contingencies – both union density and organisational characteristics. This means that at company level both institutional structures and non-institutional variables play an important role. Significantly, the increasing attention paid at EU level to policies aimed at achieving greater flexibility while protecting the level of security for the workforce, and the ineffectiveness of the Member States to fully embrace such a policy paradigm, have required academic debate on flexicurity to look beyond public policies and legal regulation as sources of flexibility and security for the labour market. In line with this stream of research the thesis shows that sector level bargaining institutions act as beneficial constraints on company level negotiations over flexibility and security. In light of this it is argued that the flexicurity literature has not only overlooked the role of collective bargaining in shaping different regimes of flexibility and security, it has also ignored a further form of security: the procedural security that a well-functioning multi-employer system provides to lower bargaining levels. Furthermore, by paying exclusive attention to collective bargaining institutions, the research responded to the challenge of offering a clearer account of the context within which the notion of flexicurity is deployed

Decentralised Collective Bargaining in Ireland - National Report

The institutional framework for collective bargaining in Ireland is underpinned by the principle of voluntarism. Employers and trade unions voluntarily engage in collective bargaining, and their agreed terms and conditions of employment are not legally binding. Workers have the right to form and join a trade union. However, unions cannot force employers to enter collective bargaining, meaning that there is no legal right to bargaining in Ireland. There is only one trade union confederation, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. Equally, there is one major cross-sectoral employers’ association, the Irish Business and Employers Confederation. These two organisations played a very significant role in the regulation of the economy during the national social partnership in Ireland between 1987 and 2009, negotiating wage rates for all unionised workers. Since the collapse of the national social partnership in 2009, the main levels at which collective bargaining takes place are the company and the workplace levels. Sectoral bargaining still occurs in a number of low-paid and weakly unionised sectors and in construction and allied sectors. Sectoral bargaining also takes place in public services. Recently, employers and unions have called for a deepening of tripartite social dialogue, and this has occurred in several areas central to Ireland’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this emerging forum cannot be considered as a precursor to a new form of national social partnership. Neither unions nor employers favour the alignment of social dialogue directly with pay bargaining in a renewal of the social partnership-type centralised pay agreements of the 1987–2009 era. The main actors involved in decentralised bargaining are, on the side of the union, full-time trade union officials, organising workers at the sector level alongside shop stewards working in companies, and, on the side of the employer, Human Resource (HR) Directors and their delegation of managers, variously composed of the HR Manager(s), Head of Finance, and Operations Manager(s). In the largest companies, which are considered to be pattern setters in collective bargaining, the employers’ association also takes part in the negotiations. There are no works councils within companies in Ireland, and only trade unions with a licence are authorised to sign a collective agreement with their management counterpart. In some companies, particular industrial relations arrangements, whereby trade unions and management collaborate in various areas, such as information sharing, training, and work organisation, can be found. These are called workplace partnerships and are supported by formal workplace participation forums that are used by both management and shop stewards to voice their concerns as well as to discuss any issue that is relevant to the workers and the company. These forums, however, are never the locus of collective negotiations

Power resources and successful trade union actions that address precarity in adverse contexts: The case of Central and Eastern Europe

Is it possible for trade unions to fight precarity in an adverse global context? Although existing research suggests this is possible, there is limited understanding of the interplay of resources that enable unions to address precarity in deregulated markets. This study employs a power resource approach to investigate how unions overcome their external constraints. It draws upon 130 in-depth interviews with key informants across nine Central and Eastern European countries to investigate successful and unsuccessful union actions in sectors with differing external resources. In each sector, unions that mobilise their internal resources have been able to reduce various precarity dimensions, such as low wages, lack of voice, and irregular working time. The results reveal that unions whose objectives are based on convincing win–win discourses can make strides, acting as drivers of change in precarity patterns even in unfavourable conditions. Moreover, the study introduces a multi-dimensional conceptualisation of union success, identifying union actions that result in measurable improvements in precarity dimensions for all worker types. To deepen understanding of the role unions play in fighting precarity in adverse contexts, future research could investigate union actions that improve a wider range of precarity dimensions for all workers