Trade union is an important aspect in protecting workers rights and improving their working conditions. According to Sidney and Beatrice Webb (1920), trade union is “a continuous association of wage earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their working lives” (Sidney and Beatrice Webb, 1920). For many years, trade unions in most advanced market economies like UK, US, German, Italy, have been on the decline and faced increasingly challenging conditions in representing their members.
The declining of trade union would influence over the government and employers; Howell (2005) argued these factors would contribute to diminishing revenues and pushing many unions into financial crisis and the lack of labour resources (Howell, 2005). Despite this, there is evidence of exists of trade union revitalization (Heery et al. , 2001).Union revitalization has been defined as “variety of attempts or a range of effort to tackle and potentially reserve union’s problems” (Frege C. M.
and J. Kelly, 2003); problems including membership density declining, weakening capacity for mobilization or reduction in bargaining coverage, etc. Frege and Kelly (2003) argued that these problems are often more quantifiable and partly drawn from empirical evidence, such as looking at the member density data to conclude whether the power of trade union declined without taking into account the potentially different meanings in different industrial relations contexts.For example, the losses in membership number would be a strong indicator in Britain but not necessarily the case in German. According to Frege and Kelly (2003), union revitalization is a “multi-dimensional concept including “membership” (number and composition of members); “economic” (ability to achieve wage and benefit improvement, and the distribution of wealth);“political” (effectiveness of unions in influencing policy- making process); and “institutional” (organizational structures and internal dynamics of unions).
Derived from this conceptualization, there are six strategies developed at the center of union revitalization: “organizing”- acquisition of membership, “organizational restructuring”- mergers/internal reorganization, “coalition building”- with other social movements, “partnerships”- with employers, “political action”- with a focus on legislation and labour market regulation policies and “international links”- exchange of information (Frege and Kelly, 2003).The varieties in revitalization strategies can be distinguished as efforts aimed at redistributing power and resources among unions. The next section examines the evidences of union revitalization in Europe and North America. The analysis is based on four countries including United Kingdom, United States, Germany and Italy- where unions are constituted in significant different industrial relation systems. Due to the difference in industrial relations systems and purpose of revitalisation, each country may pursue different strategies.With membership focused, the revitalization strategy developed in UK is mainly “organizing”, in which the main aim is to increase the membership number, thus enhancing the union’s labour market power and mobilizing capacity (Frege and Kelly, 2003).
The new trade union movement strategy in UK emerged through the initiative of the trade union national centre - Trade Union Congress (TUC). TUC have launched a series of recruitment initiatives; for instant, TUC established an Organizing Academy in 1998 to train specialist organisers and recruited approximately around 18000 employers between 1998 and 2000, thereby increasing 0. % of the union density in the same period (Trade Union Density Databases- ) Besides organizing, British unions also focused on “social partnership” in their revitalization effort, which is related to “economic dimension”. Social partnership is a tool for union revitalization in helping unions to protect and develops collective bargaining institutions; allow them to express and pursue new interests.
According to Clark (2000), if union succeeded to win better working conditions for their members, they could increase the perceptions and image of unions among non-union employees (Clark, 2000); thereby reducing negative image that unions are associated with militancy and conflicts. British Union was hostile to partnerships with employers in the beginning due to political and economic environment but there was a change in 1990’s when there have been a number of agreements between unions and managements.For example, partnership agreements against membership loss by reducing the employer's incentive to de-unionize: at Tesco, the shop-workers' union USDAW increased its membership by almost 20,000 during the first twelve months of the agreement, a rise in density from 51 to 58% (Haynes and Allen, 2000:12). Or in term of wages and conditions, According to TUC, partnership companies offer levels of pay 50% higher than in non-partnership firms and very rarely declare compulsory redundancies because of their commitment to employment policies (TUC Partnership Institute, 2001b).TUC believes that both social partnership and organizing are essential to the revitalization of British labour movement: without organizing success, British unions would lack the strength to engage in meaningful and equal relations of social partnership with employers.
However, British unions still face some internal and external constraints in organizing like opposition from existing members, inter-union competition and so on (Heery, Kelly and Waddington, 2003).Researches indicated that the new emphasis more concerned on organizing new members rather than those who have already joined up. Additionally, despite of number of agreements between unions and management, it has not much given significant impact- the role of workplace union representatives has diminished and they spent less time on union duties (Heery, Kelly and Waddington, 2003) In contrast, social partnerships are far smaller matter in American union revitalization project.By focusing on membership and institutional dimensions, their revitalization efforts mainly focused on “organizing”- aiming at membership recruitments; and “coalition building” with other social movements Firstly, there have been significant organizing achievements by US unions like SEIU or HERE: the number of new workers organized has increased significantly: from less than 100,000 workers a year before 1995 to about 350,000 in the year 2000.
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has been the national leader for claiming about 70000 new recruits in 2000. SEIU has been very innovative in its organizing strategies: Rather than waiting for workers interested in unionization, SEIU has taken a proactive approach by identifying key sectors, industries, occupations, and local labour markets where organizing efforts can capture significant ground, which is rarely seen in traditional union approach.Another example of union organizing is The Hotel and Restaurant Employees (HERE) union, where they made the transition within local unions to focus on new external organizing. However, by adopting this organizing strategy, union may face political crisis on local levels and a need of support from national unions (Hurd, Milkman and Turner, 2003).
However, although US unions seem to be focusing on organizing, the research shows that only few unions like SEIU or HERE are actually concentrating on the organizing ctivity.There still must be a need for combination of support from national and local union officials and the use of mobilization for successful organizing activities (Hurd, Milkman and Turner, 2003) Secondly, coalition building with other social movements, such as the anti-globalization or environment movement, could help unions acquire power resources, the role of incorporating the access to key individuals and networks within specific communities who could assist with organizing campaign (Hyman, 1997)In U. S coalition building is the central component of revitalization; the anti-sweatshop in late 1990’s is an example: A project of Sweeney-led AFL-CIO, Union Summer placed hundreds of college students in summer internships in organizing and collective bargaining campaigns, encouraging them to build centres of labour activism on their return to campus (Hurd, Milkman and Turner, 2003). Although the project was successful but there exist criticisms in term of national union support for resources and education, the capacity to mobilize thousands of students, the building of lasting local organizations and especially it is costly to start-up.
However, coalition building has been criticised to the current revitalization of American labour movement: problems in building alliances with other interest groups; lack of support from national unions (advice, resources, contacts); lack of mobilization efforts in building activists; and finally, the development of ongoing relationships and experience. In sum, there were significant differences between UK and US in the way the revitalization strategy were undertaken.In UK, the coming into power by Labour Party, which has been traditionally identified with trade union movement, provided a favourable environment, enabled social partnership and organizing to be sufficient strategies for revitalization. In contrast, in US, the absence of labour-friendly political party and strictly anti-unionism of employers gave rise a need of organizing and coalition building with social movement In Germany and Italy, on the other hand, organizing – especially recruitment of new membership –was not a central priority.
Unlike in UK and US, German unions are using a more traditional approach for organising. They often use advertisement and recruitment campaigns to promote union images to the public and potentially new members to establish an identifiable role of unions in society. Thereby although German unions are showing a concern for membership decline and strategy to tackle the loss of membership number, they have not yet developed a coherent organising strategy needed for revitalisation (Behrens, Fichter and Frege 2003).In Italian Unions, organising has not been the central to their revitalisation project but it has increased in Italy: unions have improved and developed their services capacities to attract new members (Baccaro, Carrieri and Damiano, 2003). The revitalization strategies in Germany and Italy focused on restoring the union influence in the extent of economic and political dimensions through social partnership and political activities as mainly.
German unions turned their attention to social partnership through such initiative as "Alliance for Jobs", etc which the unions pursued with the Social Democratic Party that came to power in 1998 (Behrens, Fichter and Frege, 2003). German union activity has centred on the use of collective bargaining and works councils to protect terms and conditions of employment. For a long time, collective bargaining is seen as a wide concerning in German industrial relations.At the national or regional level, strong and centralized unions and comprehensive employers associations negotiated collective agreements and thus removed conflicts from management and works councils. For example, Debis, the service subsidiary of DaimlerChrysler, its union tried to develop a collective agreement that fits the needs of special group of employees: providing an institutional framework, which encourages employees to be flexible and to take personal risk.In 1998, the company’s management agreed on an additional collective bargaining agreement for special regulations in the fields of pay, working time and training: fixed monthly pay accounting for approximately 85 percent of their annual income; flexible working times and a range of high quality trainings.
However, the shifting autonomy back to the employees would make union officials vulnerable to pressure by the company’s management (Drinkuth, 1999).In Italy, the reconfigurations of political parties, and economic crisis, etc, are an opportunity to redefine their ideological orientation and strategy (Frege and Kelly, 2003). In seizing political opportunity, the unions were able to enhance their social influence. Ties between unions and parties in Italy between 1992 and 1994, has become looser (Frege and Kelly, 2003); thus unions used negotiation with government over welfare reforms and labour market.The union revitalization emerged out of the abandonment of class struggle orientation to adopt a trategy of co-determination.
The union movement navigated through the re-organization of the welfare state and the labour market that had reigned through 1990s by pursuing social pacts and new industrial relations framework. So far we know that unions in UK, German, Italy and US have engaged in revitalization; besides strategy like organizing, social partnership or coalition building; they have also embraced political actions as one of the main elements in their revitalization strategy.Political actions involve unions in governmentpolicies and provide unions the access to power resources that lead to a more favourable labour legislation (Frege and Kelly, 2003). Thus, political action features as one of the most prevalent strategies in revitalization project. Unions in four analysing-countries have sought to acquire and deploy political power resources in order to overcome the limits of labour process and labour market power.
Because of differences in systems and choices of unions, each country has pursued different forms of political actions. In UK, since 1997 unions’ political revitalization has been heightened by the Labour Party coming into power; the relationship between the party and unions has become looser as the neoliberal government policies have diverged from union goals (Heery, Kelly and Waddington, 2003). In Italy, political activity has comprised a major component of successful union revitalization.Italian unions use negotiation with government over welfare reforms and labour market as their main political strategy In contrast with developments in Italy and UK, unions in US attempted to move closer to the Democratic Party through legislative lobbying; same in German as unions have largely maintained the autonomy from political parties they had gained in the post-war period (Frege and Kelly, 2003) Thus, political action has been an essential strategy for revitalization: UK unions have used political action to heighten membership composition through union-recognition laws and push up the establishment of minimum wage; in Italy, wages are the central focus of social pacts; in Germany, union workplace representation and employment creation are the most dominant issues of political actions; and American unions have used political action strategically to strengthen different dimensions of revitalization.However, the link between union political action and union revitalization is not straightforward. Other factors, such as unemployment affect union membership; the behavior of other actors also makes a difference to union outcomes; there must be a need for the combination of political actions with other strategies.
In conclusion, the analysing of union revitalization strategies in the four countries brings forth the following conclusions. First, whilst the experience of union decline has crossed the advanced capitalist world since the early 1980s, there are union movements in a number of countries that are showing clear signs of revitalization.Second, the differences in the political and institutional environment greatly influence the differences in the substance and effectiveness of strategies adopted by the unions in their revitalization strategies The UK has experienced significant union growth and political influence after many years of decline and political exclusion. This has largely been the result of increased organizing activity, social partnership, and undertaken by individual unions with TUC support.
In US, there have been increases in membership resulting from increased organizing. Political activity’s influences have also increased through local and international alliances with social movements.German union activity has centred on the use of collective bargaining and works councils to protect terms and conditions of employment in cooperation with employers and despite pressures toward decentralization of bargaining and declining coverage, there has also been political action- new works council legislation. In Italy, political activity has comprised a major component of successful union revitalization. Finally, despite the problems they have faced in recent years, trade unions still remain a powerful force in society. We can not deny their role in industrial relations systems, together with all employment rights and benefits they bring to their members and society: They significantly reduce the pay gap between rich and poor in the labour force and provide workers with a voice, more respects in state and employer policymaking and better working conditions for minority ethnic groups.
