Doing democracy in difficult times: oil unions and the Maliki Government

This chapter focuses on the specific case of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU), Iraq’s largest and most powerful independent workers’ union. Leaving aside IFOU’s resistance of foreign occupation and its fight against privatisation, this chapter focuses on the tensions between IFOU and the Maliki government and examines the extent to which IFOU has served as a bulwark against the state’s rising authoritarianism. The chapter begins with a brief history of Iraqi trade unions under the Baathist regime and concludes by arguing that examples of civil society movements such as IFOU are perhaps Iraq’sonly real hope for genuine democratisation.

The comparative efficiency and productivity of labor-managed and capital-managed firms

The available empirical literature comparing the efficiency and productivity of labor-managed and capital-managed firms is reviewed and meta-analysed. The results suggest that labor-managed firms are not less efficient or less productive than capital-managed firms. Labor-managed firms have lower output-to-labor ratios and even lower capital-to-labor ratios. However, the differences in these ratios are not statistically significant. The labor-managed firm's democratic governance, industrial relations climate, and organisational setting do not appear to adversely affect productivity and efficiency. © 1997 by URPE All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

Book reviews : David Palmer, Ross Shanahan, and Martin Shanahan, eds., Australian Labor history reconsidered

An objective of this collection is to bring the history of the Australian labor movement to international attention. The editors introduce the collection with a brief overview of Australian labor history, emphasizing differences between the Australian and American experiences. The introduction argues that a unique aspect of Australian labor history is “laborism,” which is defined as the central place of the labor movement in Australian culture, as compared with the more marginal position of the labor movement in America. In Australia, this centrality is reflected in the embedding of trade unions and labor in the state through wage-fixing tribunals, a social security system designed to support the families of male wage earners, and the Australian Labor Party's strong links to the trade union movement. The introduction is informative and especially benefits from the insights of David Palmer, an American historian teaching at Adelaide's Flinders University. However, the introduction was apparently written later at the suggestion of an American reader and has thus not been fully integrated into the structure of the book.

Eric Reece, society, Labor and developmentalism in Tasmania, 1900-1975

The thesis examines the life and times of former union organiser and Tasmanian ALP Premier, Eric Reece. It analyses the historical and biographical forces shaping state Labor politics in twentieth century Australia and investigates the ideologies of development, progress and environmentalism in Tasmania.

The division of labor, capital, communication technology and economic growth : the case of China 1952–99

The implications of the division of labor, capital, and technology for economic growth have long been a fundamental issue in development economics. This paper employs the bounds testing approach to cointegration to examine the relationship between the division of labor, capital accumulation, communication technology, and economic growth for China over the period 1952–99. We find that in the long run, capital stock and the division of labor both have statistically significant positive effects on growth, while in the short run the effects are not significantly positive. Telecommunication technology, rather surprisingly, has a statistically insignificant impact on growth both in the long run and in the short run. Our findings indicate that there exists a long run equilibrium relationship between capital and the division of labor on the one hand, and economic growth on the other, thereby lending support to the division of labor theory of growth.

Determinants of member-union satisfaction in Australian amalgamated unions

The ACTU amalgamation and rationalisation strategy was successful in reducing the number of unions. However Australian union membership has plunged. The empirical research data extends the existing Australian industrial relations research in several respects and may be used as a bench-mark for future longitudinal research into Australian member-union satisfaction.

Liberating Asia : strikes and protest in Sydney and Shanghai, 1920–39

On 30 May 1925 British officers opened fire on Chinese union protesters in Shanghai’s International Settlement, sparking a series of anti-imperialist protests now known as the ‘May 30th Movement’. This article traces the response of the Australian Labor movement to these events. It examines connections between Chinese and Australian unions and shows how Asian anti-colonial nationalism affected Australian perceptions of class-based inequality in the 1920s and 1930s. Orthodox histories of the Australian Labor movement emphasize its inward-looking and xenophobic nature but these national historiographies have been too quick to assume the isolation of Australia from pan-Asian anti-colonialism. Rather than arguing that Australian unionists supported decolonization in the inter-war period this article explores how class relationships mediated Australian encounters with colonized people in Asia. Treating Shanghai and Sydney as entangled outposts of Empire suggests we need to re-evaluate interpretations of Australian class dissent that regard it either as part of a solely European tradition or as a motivated only by local conditions.

Trust in management: the role of employee voice arrangements and perceived managerial opposition to unions

This study examines the relationship between employee voice arrangements and employees’ trust in management using data from the 2007 Australian Worker Representation and Participation Survey of 1,022 employees. Drawing on social exchange theory and employee relations literature, we test hypotheses concerning the relationships between direct and union voice arrangements, perceived managerial opposition to unions and employees’ trust in management. Consistent with our predictions, after controlling for a range of personal, job and workplace characteristics, regression analyses indicated that direct voice arrangements were positively related to employees’ trust in management. Union voice arrangements and perceived managerial opposition to unions were negatively related to trust in management. The article concludes by highlighting the study’s implications for management practice and avenues for further research.

Industrial relations climate, employee voice and managerial attitudes to unions: an Australian study

This article examines how employee voice arrangements and managerial attitudes to unions shape employees’ perceptions of the industrial relations climate, using data from the 2007 Australian Worker Representation and Participation Survey (AWRPS) of 1,022 employees. Controlling for a range of personal, job and workplace characteristics, regression analyses demonstrate that employees’ perceptions of the industrial relations climate are more likely to be favourable if they have access to direct-only voice arrangements. Where management is perceived by employees to oppose unions (in unionized workplaces), the industrial relations climate is more likely to be reported as poor. These findings have theoretical implications, and significant practical implications for employers, employees, unions and the government.