Social-movement unionism in theory and in Sweden

Many union leaders and observers of unionism in industrially advanced countries have recently argued for stronger links between unions and social movements but their arguments leave the nature of social movements underspecified. This article reviews the literature on social movements and argues in favour of a minimalist theory of the social actor rather than choose between American and European approaches to studying social movements. Both Melucci's European approach and McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly's American approach to integrating the European and American schools of thought on social movements are inadequate to the task of specifying social-movement unionism. Hindess's minimalist theory of the social actor and articulated arenas of conflict offers a stronger approach to understanding social-movement unionism and appreciating its strategic pertinence in particular times and places. Two episodes of contention in Sweden illustrate the advantages of a minimalist theory of articulated social-movement unionism.

The effects of unions on labour productivity: a meta-analytic review

The impact of unions on productivity has been an important area of debate in
industrial relations and economics. The theoretical and empirical literature has produced conflicting results. In this paper, meta-analysis is used to quantify the association between unions and productivity and reach a quantitative assessment of the empirical literature. The results suggest that the union-productivity association is not invariant, and is country, industry and time specific.

Labour law

Second edition university text discussing the principles of labour law, first published in 1999. Provides a comprehensive discussion of such topics as the employment relationship, termination of employment, the federal system of labour regulation and legal regulation of trade unions. Revised edition has been updated to reflect recent changes in the common law and under the Workplace Relations Act 1996. Features case examples, summary questions and graded exercises for students. Includes table of cases, table of statutes and index. Author is a Barrister and Solicitor and a lecturer in the School of Law at Deakin University.

Unions and productivity growth: a meta-analytic review

The impact of unions on productivity growth has received extensive
attention from researchers in industrial relations and economics. Despite
a voluminous literature, controversy continues regarding the effect of unions on productivity growth. In this paper, meta-analysis and metaregression
analysis is used to quantify the association between unions and productivity growth and to accomplish a quantitative assessment of the empirical literature. The results indicate that the overall association between unions and productivity growth is negative, especially for the U.S. The search for moderator variables revealed that most of the variation in the published results is artificial and can be attributed to specification differences.

Biography and the project of labour history: Marxist anticipations and Australian examples

The popularity of biography among the general public and historians has been despite a theoretical ambivalence among historians about the validity of the project. This has particularly been the case for labour historians who aspire to write the history of a class rather than that of individuals. This article identifies two divergent traditions within labour biography, broadly defined as reflection on the role of the individual in historical movements. One, uniting traditional Marxists and labourists, regards individuals as no more than the symbol of a class. Examples are Karl Kautsky and in Australia Fin Crisp. Another, unites activist revolutionaries and revisionist social democrats, and argues that the individual can make a difference. Examples include Trotsky and in Australia the young Evatt and Gordon Childe. Political disillusionment encouraged both Childe and Evatt to move towards the determinist position. This article suggest that recent discussions of the inherently divided nature of the self may offer an alternative to both these positions.

Re-gendering labour: class and gender determinants of New South Wales electoral behaviour 1930-32

Historians have neglected tbe impact of female enfranchisement on Australian electoral outcomes. This papers employs multivariate analysis to explore electoral behaviour in New South Wales during the Great Depression. It argues that women were less prone to support Labor than men, but that women in paid employment constituted a partial exception to this pattern. In 1932 the conservative parties significantly eroded Labor's working-class support. Part of this success was due to the ability of employers to coerce workers with the threat of dismissal. Female wage earners were particularly vulnerable to this coercion. Conservative electoral appeals recast masculinity in terms of family responsibility rather than class assertion. Conflict in the household economy possibly influenced women to vote against Labor due to its identification with the cause of male breadwinners. Overall female voting behaviour was more stable than that of men and this despite the higb profile of issues that would have been expected particularly to influence female voters.

Unions and tangible investments: a review and new evidence in France

A number of conflicting theoretical hypotheses have been advanced regarding the impact of unions on investment behaviour. The net impact of unions on investment is thus an empirical issue. In this article, the available empirical literature is reviewed. In addition, new evidence of the impact of unions on investment is presented using French data. In contrast to previous studies, both aggregate and disaggregate measures of union activity are used. The results indicate that French unions, in general, have not had a negative impact on investment behaviour. However, there is some evidence that the more militant unions have a negative impact on investment.

What do unions do to productivity? A meta-analysis

The impact of unions on productivity is explored using meta-analysis and meta-regression analysis. It is shown that most of the variation in published results is due to specification differences between studies. After controlling for differences between studies, a negative association between unions and productivity is established for the United Kingdom, whereas a positive association is established for the United States in general and for U.S. manufacturing.

Case note - Roosters, ducks and labour hire arrangements : Damevski v Guidice (2003) 202 ALR 494 (FCA Full Court)

One of the features of the current Australian labour market is the growth in the number of businesses "contracting out" work that was previously performed by their employees. The "contracting out" is often done through labour hire arrangements: the business engages a labour hire agency to provide it with suitable labour on an "as needs" basis. A common scenario is that the labour hire agency contracts both with the workers who provide the services to the agency's client, and with the client to whom those services are provided. Often the agency pays the workers and bills its client for the labour costs, plus a service fee. Research indicates that during the first half of the 1990s, "the number of agency workers more or less doubled."1 Analysis of the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics on the number of workers employed through labour hire arrangements has suggested: "290,100 employees were 'on-hired' through agencies in June 2002 and 162,000 workers were paid by labour hire firms in November 2001 (almost doubling from 84,300 some three years earlier)." The value of the employment services industry in 2001-02 was $10.2 billion. 2

The impact of U.S. unions on productivity : a bootstrap meta-analysis

Resampling methods are used to calculate confidence limits in a metaanalysis of the association between unions and productivity for the population of U.S. studies. The available evidence points to a positive and statistically significant association between unions and productivity in the U.S. manufacturing and education sectors, of around 10% and 7%, respectively

Employer matters in 2004

n 2004, employers were active in arguing their cases in a number of important hearings of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission. However, despite a united position among employer ranks and the federal government, employers were generally disappointed with the Commission’s safety net review decision. Both the Australian industry Group and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry found some common ground with the Australian Council of Trade Unions, in a consent position on extending carers leave, but overall employers presented a detailed argument opposing any extension of employee rights in the Commission’s work and family test case. Employers in some sectors were able to reach collective agreements with unions with little industrial disruption, whereas others, such as banking, found the going tougher. Overall, employers, like unions, faced a great deal of uncertainty over what were or were not ‘matters pertaining’, as a number of decisions after the Electrolux case clarified or clouded the issue. Understandably, the year ended on a positive note for most employers, with the Howard Government re-elected with a majority in the Senate, enabling it to pass a further round of radical labour market reforms in 2005.