| Reviews / Comptes Rendus | Labour/Le Travail, 61

REVIEWS / COMPTES RENDUS

Richard B. Freeman, Peter Boxall, and Peter Haynes, eds., What Workers Say: Employee Voice in the Anglo-American Workplace (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press 2007)

THE EDITORS OF this book have assembled an impressive group of labour relations/ human resources specialists to report on "employee voice" in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Britain, and Ireland and have asked other leading scholars to attempt a synopsis of the varying national findings in terms of union, employer, and government perspectives. The directions given to authors of the specific country studies and to the summarizers have resulted in a far more consistent text than many edited collections: the book is an excellent guide to understanding workers' voice in the chosen countries.

The chapters documenting developments in individual countries rely heavily on survey material but are also informed in places by the authors' knowledge of case study material and other data sources. Employee voice in this collection is not only focused on union recognition, representation, and union involvement in managerial consultative bodies but also non-union "employee voice" mechanisms. While this may be understandable given the diminishing union density figures, it is difficult to assess how independent and effective such voice can be in the absence of an organizational structure to support critical observations by workers. We know workplace unionism along with national union hierarchies are susceptible to incorporation into managerial goals and can only surmise that non-union voice is even more susceptible: a professional employee may be listened to by management but will a line worker who cannot speak as a union representative?

The country chapters follow a similar pattern and provide some fascinating evidence on the similarities and differences among the primarily English-speaking countries studied. These countries are inevitably grouped geographically with some comparisons drawn between Australia and New Zealand, Britain and Ireland, and the USA and Canada. Canadian readers will be familiar with interprovincial Canadian differences and the distinctiveness of Quebec legislation and workers' culture and the key differences between Canada generally and the USA, but may be surprised to find that Irish developments are recognizably distinct from those in Britain: with higher union density and a more Euro-centred focus on structure and representation. The work had of course been completed prior to the recent change in government in Australia. It will be interesting to observe whether or not the new Labour government will reverse recent anti-union legislation and the focus on individual contracts and what impact that might have on workers' voice Down Under.

All country studies were able to report on a desire for higher levels of unionization by workers than they currently experienced and for more involvement in key decisions at work. In relation to the first point it's difficult to know what this means in practice if workers do not act on it, a point clearly acknowledged in one study but not in all: "This approach assumes, of course, that those who say they are fairly likely to join would actually join." (152)

In relation to the second point it was unclear how many private sector employers that trumpeted "employee empowerment" or "participation" or had "consultative" bodies understood that even consultation implies taking note of employee perspectives prior to decision- making and amending employer behaviours and goals. This lack of understanding was made clear to me more than 30 years ago by Tony Eccles who had been employed as a consultant to Arnold Weinstock's GEC ; he reported that Weinstock never envisaged his company's participation structure being more than an information sharing, employee "involvement" body, but insisted on calling it a "consultative council." This point is picked up in the summary: "In most cases, employee representatives are merely informed of upcoming changes by management with no input into decision making." (177) But this is not always acknowledged in the individual chapters.

Reading through the chapters and reviewing the evidence provided, it is at times difficult to accept that a particular survey question can accurately reflect a tendency towards "individualism" rather than "collectivism" or that an answer accurately reflects workers' understanding of how union voice rather than non-union workers' voice would work in practice. (87) Surveys are notorious for not getting at deep understanding, or for sifting out culturally acceptable responses from concrete beliefs, let alone discovering preferences that go beyond current experiences. Overall however this is a fascinating study of countrywide workers' opinions that would be difficult to gather in any other way and is complemented by a number of thoughtful chapters drawing the data together and offering opinions as to what unions, employers, and governments should do to expand workers' voice.

The first of these chapters reflects on unionization across the six countries and notes that membership has declined but appears to have stabilized at lower levels. The chapter reviews what unions are doing to try and reach those who would be willing to join. This includes community organizing and some imaginative use of the internet. One area not discussed is the role union education can play in boosting representation and voice, a surprising omission given the extent of union education and the links with the differing organizing initiatives in Australia (Organising Works), Britain (Organising Academy), and the USA (Organizing Institute).

The chapter on employers' and workers' voice recognizes that private sector employers are using "direct voice" mechanisms to avoid unionization. It also reviews the rhetoric that organizational effectiveness is improved by employee involvement and looks at employee voice and grievance settlement. There is some evidence to support the view that employers recognize that employee voice is socially desirable and needed to meet employee expectations.

While these concluding chapters are more considered than much of the "workplace learning" literature that has flourished recently, they fall short of insisting that union recognition should be considered a key element of liberal democracy, that legislation should support union rights and constrain anti-union employers. To some extent this is a reflection of what can be expected from the current climate but nonetheless could be clearly asserted in a study of this kind.

This book certainly adds to our knowledge of what workers want and say in these global neo-liberal times; it is realistic without being too bleak. The focus on the countries chosen is a limiting factor but the comprehensive nature of the country studies compensates for this limitation.


BRUCE SPENCER Athabasca University

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