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Book Review
| Mark Harcourt and Geoffrey Wood (eds), Trade Unions and Democracy: Strategies and Perspectives, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, 2007. pp. x + 422. US $39.95 paper.
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| This collection of essays, according to the editors, seeks 'to explore the role of trade unions as products of, and agents for democracy' (p. 1). It consists of 17 chapters, and is divided into seven themes, which range from theoretical approaches through to empirical studies of unions in emerging economies. The editors draw attention in the introductory chapter to the dual issues debated when considering unions and democracy – the role of unions in promoting democracy within the wider society, and the tensions which may arise between union internal democratic processes and strategic alliances with external parties. |
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The first of the thematic sections is trade unions and the crisis of democracy. Wood introduces this section with an overview of unions and theories of democracy, traversing developments from the rational choice tradition through to contemporary institutionalist accounts, including a justification for community unionism based upon democratic processes being overshadowed by corporate influence. In his chapter comparing neo-liberal reforms and accords, Harcourt finds in favour of accord economic systems from the perspective of both socio-economic outcomes and democratic processes. Neo-corporatism, he asserts, is inherently democratic. Australian readers with memories of the neo-corporatist experiment in Australia might wonder at the largely unquestioned way in which this assertion is made. Later chapters offer a more critical analysis. Section two, titled 'Unionisation in a fragmented world: organising non-traditional constituencies' includes a chapter by James on union strategies to recruit non-standard employees in Great Britain. Most of the strategies reviewed have a more generalist application and, as James points out, evidence of their effectiveness in relation to non-standard employment is scant. Webster, on the other hand, presents an enlivened discussion and analysis of a women's organisation in South Africa which has successfully organised street traders and homeworkers otherwise beyond the sphere of more traditional industrial based unions. Webster's analysis illustrates the importance of such organisation to wider democratic processes, whilst offering a cautious forecast of the potential for such organisation to be sustained unless drawn into the broader labour movement. |
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Section three looks at the changing impact and strength of the labour movement in advanced societies. These chapters offer well-developed and articulated analyses of union responses to declining membership in a number of countries. Rigby, Smith and Brewster draw together data on a range of measures on the changing impact of unions, such collective bargaining coverage and works council representation in the European Union (EU). They highlight the importance of EU institutions to the on-going defence of unions and their continuing role in social dialogue, whilst also acknowledging this strength is limited to areas of traditional union coverage. This, they argue, may ultimately be a source of weakness as institutional security is sought at the expense of achievements at the shop floor level and resources focused upon recruiting new members. Godard's critical analysis of explanations for union decline, based upon a comparative analysis of Canada and the United States (US), challenges market explanations of union decline, preferring instead explanations centred on the role of the state intertwined with societal explanations. He posits a choice of union strategies to counter the decline, but is sceptical about most. Hird takes the analysis a step further with an account of the history of the organising model in the USA, and a critique of its effectiveness. He presents a bleak picture that encompasses inherent problems with the model, including dysfunctional recruitment strategies in response to numeric membership goals. Like other writers in this collection, he calls for the development of more diversity and experimentation in representation models. A common theme in this section is the need for the labour movement to reassess contemporary approaches to unionism in order to revitalise and grow union membership. The links with democracy are implied rather than discussed; the exclusion of large sections of the workforce from contemporary union activities is clearly spelt out. |
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