Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Trade union practices'

Work design and content is changing. Accompanying this change has been an increasing demand by workers for policy makers to factor the issue of managing workers’ work and life. Work–life balance as a concept has attracted attention for several years as a result of individuals attempting to juggle multiple demands from both work and outside the workplace. The number of multiple demands on individuals usually vary from one person to the other and can increase or decrease at different stages of the person’s life. Essentially, this study reviewed work–life balance literature as espoused from the UK and US schools of thought. The purpose of this research is to explore the extent to which work–life balance policies and practices are a reality for employees and managers in the Nigerian banking sector; to investigate the adoption and use of policies/practices in Nigerian banks and finally to examine the barriers to and reasons for their muted adoption and utilisation of work–life balance policies and practices in Nigerian banks. This research is exploratory in nature and it adopted a mixed-method research technique which allowed for in-depth information from the respondents. The methodological approach used in this study is a qualitative dominant mixed method. A mixed-method approach was used in this study following the traditions of McCarthy, Darcy and Grady (2010); Kalliath and Brough (2008); Halford, (2006) and Beauregard and Henry (2009) to ensure the validity and reliability of the study and also to offer different insights in order to make the final result of the research more robust. A questionnaire and semi structured interview technique was utilised. The study was based on 20 of the 24 banks in the Nigerian banking sector. The total sample size was three hundred and sixty nine (369), of which two hundred and fifteen (215) questionnaires were completed and one hundred and thirty four (134) semi-structured interviews conducted for the bankers while (20) semi structured interviews were conducted for the trade union officials. In order to ensure that the cross-section of relevant respondents was as representative as possible, interviewees were divided into three categories: employees, managers and trade union officials. SPSS was used to analysis the quantitative data, while qualitative data was analysed using NVivo software through the coding of the large quantity of data collected. The themes that emerged from the analysis were used to discuss the research issues in the light of prior research findings from various empirical researches. The quantitative contribution of the study revealed that age was not significant to the bankers as regards issues relating to work life balance. The qualitative findings on the other hand revealed that there is diversity in terms of how both managerial and non-managerial employees understood and experienced WLB initiatives in the Nigerian banking sector. In addition, the study showed that cultural sensitivity affects how WLB is appreciated and utilised. The research also contributes to the spill-over theory by adding age, gender, implementation and benefits of work–life balance. This research has contributed to the body of knowledge on work–life balance issues in the Nigerian banking industry. This study also contributes to the existing literature on connotations of work–life balance by utilising a mixed method approach to explore and explain the different notions of work–life balance and usage of work–life balance initiatives.

Defence date: 11 March 2008
Examining board: Prof. Bruno De Witte, European University Institute (Supervisor) ; Prof. Francesca Martines, Faculty of Economics, University of Pisa ; Prof. Petros C. Mavroidis, Columbia Law School, NY and University of Neuchâtel ; Prof. Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann, European University Institute
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
Both the European Community (EC) and its Member States agree that it is in their best interest to coordinate their action vis-à-vis the rest of the world in international trade agreements. Theory and Practice of EC External Trade Law and Policy looks at the intricacies of the institutional framework of EC trade law, and with special emphasis on services trade, examines the law and practice of EC external trade relations from a policy, economic, legal and an overarching European constitutional perspective. The objective of the author’s analysis is not only to find ways to nurture and preserve the unitary character of EC external trade relations in areas of shared competence between EU Member States and EU institutions, but also to understand the management of the EC’s external trade relations. The book begins with an analysis of the evolution of the EC common commercial policy, through which the author examines the checks and balances at the micro, meso and macro levels. The author then proceeds to analyse the problems faced by the EU in its external relations and the legal complexity of mixed agreements. This unique legal phenomenon is tackled from an intra-EC perspective as well as from an extra-EU perspective taking into account various implications for third parties. The major EU institutions are examined: the Commission as the negotiator of international trade agreements, the role of the EU Council and the European Parliament in concluding and ratifying of agreements and the European Court of Justice in relation to judicial enforcement. The EU’s decision-making process in the trade arena and its relation with national institutions are examined. The book concludes with an analysis of the EC’s contribution to the Doha Round in the area of services trade.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD
This study investigates workers’ perceptions of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) practices on elections and living wage issues from a social movement perspective from the Apartheid (South Africa) and Unilateral Declaration of Independence (Zimbabwe) eras to 2009. The trade union social movement perspective refers to labour movements that develop a socio-political character, and concern themselves not only with workplace issues but with broad social and political issues. A study of COSATU and ZCTU practices in South Africa and Zimbabwe at this time in the field of social movements is consistent with current calls for a conceptual shift, away from looking for invariant causes and effects to looking for mechanisms and processes that occur in many different kinds of movements and that lead to different outcomes depending on the specific contexts within which they occur. The study draws insights from social movement unionsm theory to understand mechanisms and processes pursued by COSATU and ZCTU in seeking to influence policy outcomes. This study used a qualitative approach and a case study strategy. In the study, questionnaire and in-depth interview responses were drawn from COSATU secretariat, two affiliates, the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) and National Union of Mine Workers (NUM). Questionnaire and in-depth responses were also drawn from the ZCTU secretariat, two affiliates, the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GPWUZ) and the Zimbabwe Urban Municipal Workers Union (ZUMWU). The objective was to gain insights from a broad cross-section of union members – blue-collar workers, professionals, state or semi state institution workers and ordinarily low income farm workers. The study concludes that workers’ perceptions of the two labour social movements is that they can influence changes in the political system (through elections) as a means to securing living wages by engaging in five practices, namely, disruption mechanisms, public preference mechanisms, political access mechanisms, judicial mechanisms and international access mechanisms. However, while the study noted that workers perceive COSATU and ZCTU practices as essential in influencing elections and living wage issues, the popularity of the mechanisms was lower in Zimbabwe where workers often face persecution. In South Africa, utilisation of these practices is also affected by the less militant public sector affiliates and non- standard forms of work such as subcontracting, casualisation, informalisation, externalisation and the ballooning informal sector. Given these problems, social movement trade unionism remains a viable means of representing the interests of the working poor. Establishment of these challenges leads to areas of possible further research such as how the unions can effectively represent the unorganised workers of the informal sector. A broader research on the impact of the exponential growth of non-standard forms of work is also relevant at this time in the two countries.

Afin d'analyser la résistance en actes, au ras du sol, depuis des pratiques pédagogiques ordinaires resituées dans leur contexte, cette thèse porte sur la proposition pédagogique alternative du syndicat dissident d'enseignants·es du Michoacán (Mexique). Elle mobilise pour cela un ancrage théorique puisant dans les sciences de l'éducation et l'anthropologie de l'éducation, et une méthodologie qualitative, l'observation ethnographique. Depuis la profession qui est la leur, l'enseignement, et à partir du pouvoir politique qu'ils·elles construisent en tant que membres d'un mouvement social, ces enseignants·es ont pensé, écrit et mis en œuvre, au sein des écoles d'éducation basique dites intégrales, un curriculum alternatif et politiquement situé à gauche. Ces écoles sont brandies comme outil de lutte et de résistance face aux réformes éducatives nationales répondant aux injonctions internationales. En analysant cette lutte spécifique, cette thèse s'inscrit dans des questionnements plus généraux concernant les formes de subversion du nouvel ordre éducatif mondial. Par le fait même d'être menée au sein de l'espace scolaire, la résistance se trouve soumise aux mêmes tensions et aux mêmes contradictions que l'école. Les enseignants·es doivent en même temps faire l'institution et lui résister. Dans ce mouvement social, les enseignants·es mobilisés·es ont pour référence un passé révolutionnaire. Néanmoins, la structure et la dynamique corporatiste mexicaine font également partie du mouvement dissident. Cette thèse propose un regard par le bas, individualisé, qui témoigne des dispositions de chaque enseignant·e en termes de valeurs. Quelles que soient les positions personnelles de chacun·e, le groupe syndical dissident a travaillé pour écrire un curriculum alternatif. Celui-ci est un objet autour, ou à partir duquel, se mettent en place des stratégies administratives, politiques ou pédagogiques pour soutenir la lutte de ces enseignants·es. Cet objet légitime les discours, à l'interne dans le syndicat comme à l'externe quand ils sont dirigés vers la société dans son ensemble. Une fois appliqué, le curriculum se retrouve dans les écoles intégrales qui sont, après tout, des écoles comme les autres : une cour, des salles avec leurs tableaux, pupitres, cahiers et un enseignant face aux élèves. Pour autant, il est possible, dans l'enceinte de ces écoles, de dévoiler l'arbitraire des contenus scolaires, de questionner la structure pédagogique d'un cours, d'y élever des poissons pour les vendre, et même, de reproduire l'école officielle
This thesis focuses on the alternative pedagogical proposal of the dissident union of teachers of Michoacán (Mexico). Combining theory from education science and anthropology of education as well as ethnographic qualitative methods, this research aims to analyse acts of resistance in everyday pedagogical practices. Through their work as teachers and through their political power as members of a social movement, these teachers have thought, written, and implemented an alternative left-wing curriculum in so-called Integral Schools of Basic Education. These schools are raised by their teachers as a tool of struggle and resistance in the face of national educational reforms and international injunctions. By analysing this specific struggle, this thesis is part of more general questions concerning the forms of subversion of the new educational world order. By the very fact of taking place within school, the resistance finds itself subject to the same tensions and the same contradictions the school faces. Indeed, these teachers contribute to building the institution while resisting it at the same time. The teachers of this social movement use the revolutionary past. Nevertheless, the Mexican corporatist structure and dynamics are also part of this dissident movement. This thesis analyses the personal experiences and values of each teacher. At the same time, it considers the fact that those teachers went beyond their differences to put forward this alternative pedagogical proposal. The teachers use the alternative curriculum to think and build political, administrative, and pedagogical strategies for their struggle. This curriculum also legitimises the rhetoric within the union and public discourses. In the end, Integral Schools are a school like any other: playgrounds, classrooms, blackboards, desks, notebooks, and a teacher facing the students. Nevertheless, in these schools, teachers, students, and the community can reveal the arbitrariness of school content, can question the pedagogical structure of a course, can breed fish and sell them, and they even can reproduce the official school
A partir del estudio de caso de la propuesta de un curriculum alternativo del magisterio disidente de Michoacán (México), esta tesis se propone analizar una resistencia educativa en acción, a ras del suelo, desde prácticas pedagógicas cotidianas y contextualizadas. El marco teórico se constituye desde las ciencias de la educación y la antropología de la educación, en complemento con una metodología cualitativa, la observación etnográfica. Desde su profesión de maestros·as, y desde el poder político que construyen como miembros de un movimiento social, el magisterio michoacano disidente concibió, escribió un currículo alternativo, políticamente de izquierda, que implementó en lo que llamaron Escuelas integrales de educación básica. Estas escuelas se manejan como herramienta de lucha y resistencia frente a las reformas educativas nacionales que, por su parte, responden a mandatos internacionales. El análisis de caso de esta tesis hace eco a debates que rebasan las discusiones estatales y nacionales, agregándose a otras formas de subversión frente al nuevo orden educativo mundial. Al llevarse a cabo dentro del espacio escolar, la resistencia estudiada está sujeta a las mismas tensiones y contradicciones que vive la escuela. Es decir, los y las maestras deben al mismo tiempo hacer escuela y resistir a la institución. En un primer momento, el trabajo de campo reveló la necesidad de revisar las raíces históricas que aún se hacen presentes en la vida del magisterio. Por un lado, el movimiento social construido por las y los maestros movilizados se ancla en el pasado revolucionario. Sin embargo, la estructura y la resistencia al cambio del corporativismo mexicano también forman parte del movimiento disidente. En seguida, además de los factores históricos, se planteó la paradoja de ofrecer una mirada desde abajo que le dé cabida tanto a la subjetividad de cada maestro·a, como al trabajo colectivo que gestó al propio plan de estudios alternativo. El análisis avanza para revelar un curriculum que es un objeto en torno al cual, o a partir del cual, se ponen en marcha estrategias administrativas, políticas o pedagógicas para sostener la lucha magisterial. Este curriculum legitima discursos, tanto internamente en el sindicato como externamente cuando se dirigen a la sociedad en su totalidad. El plan de estudios alternativo toma vida en las Escuelas integrales, que son, al fin y al cabo, escuelas como las demás: tienen un patio, aulas con pizarrones, pupitres, cuadernos y un·a maestro·a frente a los alumnos. Sin embargo, en los recintos de estas escuelas es posible hacer todo tipo de cosas, como revelar la arbitrariedad de los contenidos escolares, cuestionar la estructura pedagógica de un curso, criar peces para venderlos e incluso reproducir la escuela oficial

The focus of this research is networked learning within European trade union organisations where there is a strong recognition that technology has a key role to play in developing educational opportunities and in extending the trade union influence locally, nationally and globally. This cross-disciplinary study explores a range of theories, models and approaches which underpin the pedagogical process in a distinctive educational environment, drawing on the fields of learning technology and knowledge management. The development and implementation of two transnational projects on networked learning form the basis of the research. Structuration theory, which highlights the interplay between the objective nature of broader social structures and the subjective perspectives of human agency, provides the epistemological foundation. To balance this highly abstract concept, related theoretical frameworks derived from education, learning technology and social informatics research have also usefully informed the investigations. This study contends that the design of networked learning and preparation for key roles can be valuably informed by focusing on the individual, social and technical boundary encounters inherent in the complex interplay of structure and agency. It has cast new light on an under-researched area of adult education and has highlighted the value of cross-disciplinary collaboration in advancing our understanding of networked learning. It has also gone some way towards addressing the recognised imbalance in linking theory and practice in networked learning and signposts new directions for learning technology research. Most importantly, there is evidence that it has influenced practice in the field, thus fulfilling one of the key aims of the research.

Cette thèse a pour objectif principal d’interroger les mécanismes régissant la dynamique corporatiste et les logiques d’action du collectif des instituteurs au Gabon. Cette réflexion a été orientée au départ par deux constats : l’action collective enseignante et les changements statutaires marquant l’évolution de ce groupe professionnel. La démarche méthodologique s’appuie sur l’apport de plusieurs disciplines des sciences sociales et de diverses approches théoriques. L’hypothèse théorique repose sur l’idée de la constitution d’un corps de métier. Cette thèse tente d’appréhender le métier d’instituteur à partir d’un triptyque articulant trois pôles d’analyse : les relations sociales, l’organisation et le contexte social.L’enquête de terrain réalisée auprès des différents acteurs éducatifs, principalement les instituteurs, est centrée sur les conditions de vie et de travail de ces derniers. L’analyse porte à la fois sur les aspects statutaires, les relations entre les instituteurs et les autres acteurs de l’action pédagogique - principalement les élèves, les familles, les pouvoirs publics - et sur la pratique quotidienne de la classe. Elle met en lumière, la pluralité des identités socioprofessionnelles et la variabilité des pratiques professionnelles suivant les configurations relationnelles, les règles organisationnelles et le contexte socioculturel de travail. A titre d’exemple, l’instituteur notable dans un village devient le fonctionnaire mal payé en ville. De même, quand la gestion de la discipline en classe, la multiplicité des activités variées, la recherche des outils didactiques, l’entretien de la classe, rythment une matinée de travail de l’instituteur de l’école publique et de ses élèves, l’exploitation maximale des nombreuses ressources pédagogiques disponibles caractérise une matinée de travail de l’instituteur de l’école conventionnée.L’analyse permet aussi de cerner les mécanismes qui sous-tendent les accords et les désaccords au sein du système scolaire dans sa globalité. Des dispositifs de formation non adaptés aux conditions réelles de travail, la marginalisation de l’instituteur étranger à la province, les attentes des familles vis-à-vis de l’instituteur exerçant dans son village d’origine, la fuite des classes d’examen ou des classes pléthoriques par certains instituteurs, la constitution et la gestion des budgets dans les établissements, la radicalisation ou non de l’action syndicale… sont autant de facteurs sources des oppositions caractérisant les relations des instituteurs entre eux, des instituteurs avec les parents d’élèves ou avec les pouvoirs publics
This thesis has for objective to examine the mechanisms governing the corporatist dynamics and logics of action of the collective of teachers in Gabon. This reflection has been directed at the outset by two observations: the teacher collective action and statutory changes marking the evolution of this occupational group. The methodological approach relies on the contribution of several disciplines of social sciences and various theoretical approaches. The theoretical assumption rests on the idea of the creation of a corps of business. This thesis attempts to apprehend the profession of schoolmaster from a triptych linking three areas of analysis: social relations, organization and social context.The field survey conducted among different educational actors, mainly teachers, is centered on the life and work of these conditions. The analysis focuses both on the statutory aspects, relations between teachers and other actors of the educational action - mainly students, families, public authorities - and the daily practice of the class. It highlights, the plurality of professional identities and professional practice variability following relational configurations, organizational rules, and, the social and cultural context of work. For example, the significant teacher in a village becomes an employee being poorly paid in the city. Similarly, when the management of discipline in the classroom, the multiplicity of varied activities, looking for teaching tools, maintenance of the class, punctuate a morning's work of public school teacher and of his students, the maximum exploitation of the many educational resources available characterized a morning's work of the partner school teacher.The analysis can also identify the mechanisms underlying the agreements and disagreements within the school system in its entirety. Training devices not adapted to the actual conditions of work, the marginalization of the teacher in the province, the expectations of the families against the teacher in his home village, leakage of exam classes or oversized classes by some teachers, the constitution and the management of budgets in institutions, radicalization or non of Union action... are all factors sources of opposition characterizing the relationships of teachers between them teachers with parents of students or the public authorities

Den här avhandlingen syftar till att utveckla kunskap om lärande på den lokala nivån inom fackföreningsrörelsen. Det är en etnografisk beskrivning och analys av hur en fackföreningsstyrelse på en arbetsplats hanterar vardagens fackliga arbete och de krav på lärande som det innebär. I studien undersöks förutsättningarna för en nytillträdd och oerfaren facklig styrelse. Utifrån ett sociokulturellt perspektiv på lärande beskrivs och analyseras det fackliga styrelsearbetet under tre år, de olika utvecklingsprocesser detta genererar samt hur fackliga aktiviteter och processer samspelar med hur styrelseledamöternas deltagande och den fackliga praktiken förändras. Att det saknas facklig erfarenhet och kunskap på arbetsplatsen har betydelse för den nya styrelsens förutsättningar för lärande. Studien visar att styrelseledamöternas definition av situationen är avgörande för inriktningen på styrelsearbetet. I studien identifieras tre kvalitativt olika perioder av fackligt arbete och lärande: revolutionen, nybygget och reträtten. Styrelsens kontakter med fackföreningsrörelsen utanför den lokala arbetsplatsen har en avgörande betydelse - särskilt hur ledamöterna använder fackföreningsrörelsens samlade erfarenheter, kunskaper och resurser som källa till lärande. Hur styrelsearbetet fördelas inom styrelsen och tillsammans med andra inom fackförbundet (fackliga kollegor, ombudsmän, medlemmar) visar sig också ha betydelse för det lärande som uppstår inom och utanför den lokala styrelsen. Studien visar att det finns omfattande krav på den lokala styrelsens förmåga att hantera det lokala fackliga arbetet och att självständigt hantera de krav på lärande som det innebär. Utifrån de omständigheter som studien synliggör hävdas att detta är ett överkrav på lokala fackliga styrelser i den mening att man inte på egen hand förmår skapa den kunskap som ger makt att hantera alla viktiga frågor som samtidens arbetsliv ger upphov till. I studien framförs att det krävs förändringar inom fackföreningsrörelsen för att ändra villkor och förutsättningar för lokalt fackligt arbete, lärande och kunskapsutveckling. Makt, kunskap och lärande hänger ihop.
The trade union at the local workplace is considered the most important arena for developing the strength of trade unions. Contemporary changes in working life mean new challenges to the trade union, and especially to the local trade union units at the workplaces. Learning is needed to maintain the strength and the capacity of the trade unions. Local trade union boards and representatives are expected to have the capability to learn on their own. The aim of this study is to investigate learning within a local trade union board at a workplace. An ethnographic study of an inexperienced trade union board has been carried out during three years. A sociocultural perspective is used to analyse the trade union board’s work, the learning processes that are generated and how the board members’ participation and pracitice are changed. From a pragmatist perspective the local trade union board’s attempts to deal with everyday challenges are interpreted as solving problems. It is shown that the board’s different ways of defining the situation are of significant importance. Three qualitative different phases of the local trade union board practice have been identified: the revolution, the renewal and the retreat. The investigation shows the importance of access to and use of the sociocultural knowledge and resources outside the local trade union. The board’s members’ definitions of the situation are influenced by the trade union experience and knowledge that they appropriate in participating in other trade union practices. The study also shows the importance of how the trade union work is distributed as it generates different learning processes according to how duties are divided. Solving problems together with trade union members at the workplace and together with other trade union practices shape learning processes in other communities of the trade union movement. The results of the study indicate that the demands on learning put on the local trade union boards are too overpowering. The local trade union boards cannot be expected to, on their own, develop the knowledge and the power that are needed to tackle the everyday challenges at the workplace. Local trade union learning is a matter to the trade union movement as a whole. Power, knowledge and learning are interdependent.

O direito fundamental à liberdade sindical, consagrado no ordenamento jurídico brasileiro não apenas na Constituição Federal, mas também nos mais importantes Pactos Internacionais de Direiros Humanos ratificados pelo Brasil, possui, a despeito de sua conceituação aberta e aparentemente imprecisa, um conteúdo histórico-institucional que pode ser objetivamente delineado e que, por tal razão, condiciona a atuação dos órgãos estatais e dos atores particulares nas situações concretas de aplicabilidade. Demonstrar-se-á, nesse sentido, que o conteúdo institucional da liberdade sindical foi talhado não só pelo contexto fático presente no momento histórico de seu surgimento, como também pelas vicissitudes ocorridas ao longo de seu desenvolvimento espaço-temporal, de modo a ensejar como consectário lógico, dentre os diversos aspectos individuais e coletivos a ele inerentes, a tutela dos trabalhadores e de suas entidades representativas contra as condutas antissindicais e antirrepresentativas praticadas pelos empregadores, pelo Estado e pelos próprios sindicatos. Para além disso, a tese buscará elencar, de modo objetivo, (i) os sujeitos titulares da proteção contra os atos antissindicais e antirrepresentativos subjacente ao conteúdo histórico-institucional do princípio da liberdade sindical, (ii) as circunstâncias sob as quais estes últimos encontram-se amparados, (iii) os parâmetros objetivos a serem observados pelo legislador ordinário, bem como pelo Poder Judiciário e pelo Poder Executivo quando da concretização, da aplicação e da regulamentação dos dispositivos do ordenamento jurídicos a consagrarem o direito fundamental à liberdade sindical e (iv) os mecanismos de tutela de que dispõem dos trabalhadores e de suas entidades em face daquelas práticas.Ao cabo de tal análise, ter-se-á o delineamento objetivo da tutela emanada do princípio da liberdade sindical consagrado no ordenamento jurídico pátrio em relação aos atos antissindicais e antirrepresentativos passíveis de serem praticados contra os trabalhadores e suas entidades e das diretrizes a vincularem os agentes públicos na implementação prática de tal tutela.
The freedom of trade unions association, as an human right recognized by the Brazilian law not only in the text of the Federal Constitution, but also in the most important International Human Rights Conventions signed by Brazil, own, despite its open and apparently imprecise definition, an historic content that can be defined in objective lines and which terms links the public authorities and the private actors to its lines in the concrete situations. The study intend to demonstrate, on that sense, that the institutional content owned by the freedom of trade unions association was defined not only in the historical moment when these right has arrived, but also in the situations occurred during its development as an institutional right. The evolution faced by the freedom of trade unions association lead us to understand the protection of the workers and its collective bodies from the acts against the labor organization (as known as unfair labor practices) promoted by the employers, by the public authorities or by the trade unions itself as a matter inherent to these institutional right. Moreover, the study will try to describe objectively (i) the subjects of the protection against those unfair labor practices, (ii) the circumstances under which these subjects are protected, (iii) the objective terms to be followed by the authorities of the Legislative, Judiciary and Executive in the task of giving practical sense to the freedom of trade unions association as an instrument of protection against the unfair labor practices and (iv) the protection mechanisms which the law offers to the workers and its bodies in order to protect them from those unfair practices.After all, it will be possible to describe the objective terms of the protection that the freedom of trade nunions association recognized by the Brazilian law as an autonomous institution give to workers and its organizations against those unfair labor practices.

No
This article reports on the union recognition dispute that took place at the MacDonald's food-processing plant in Moscow. It examines this dispute in the context of McDonald's employment practices worldwide, the interventions made by international and local unions, and Russian government bodies. Despite these interventions it became impossible to either organise the workforce or establish a collective agreement. The case illustrates the difficulties facing both local unions and global union federations when confronted by intransigent multinational companies, especially in low-skilled sectors in transitional economies.

This paper examines trade union networking and community-oriented activity through the recent development of learning strategies in relation to migrant workers. The paper locates the discussion on learning in relation to union attempts to develop a broader urban and community-based view of the union as an organisation. It assesses the innovative ways trade unions deploy their learning strategies given the challenges associated with a liberal market economy, in particular, in relation to poor levels of co-ordination amongst key social organisations and low levels of state commitment to the area of training. The paper draws on five empirical case studies of such innovative union approaches and concludes that many of these learning initiatives represent a significant intervention by unions in local urban and community-based contexts. However, it also notes that these appear to be disconnected from stable and consistent forms of local community-based organisation and, in part, remain enveloped in a marketised project-based approach which is piecemeal and in many aspects financially dependent on the state.

No
This article examines the labour relations practices of multinational corporations (MNCs) in the German and Spanish quick-food service sectors. The demand for greater profitability and lower costs is leading to a greater standardization of work methods across a widening range of food service operators, resulting in the gradual elimination of more expensive, skilled and experienced workers, and an increasingly non-union approach in employee relations practices. The outcome involves increasing standardization, union exclusion, low trust, low skills, and low pay. These sectoral characteristics appear to outweigh both country-of-origin and host-country effects. The findings therefore confirm continuing variation within national industrial relations systems and the importance of sectoral characteristics and organizational contingencies in understanding MNC cross-border behaviour.

No
This paper is based on a study of the employment practices of one Italian-owned multinational corporation (MNC) and one US-owned MNC in the Italian quick-food service sector and examines such issues as work organization, unionization, employee representation and pay and conditions. The paper focuses on the concept of ‘dominance’ and the related convergence and divergence theses. The findings suggest that dominance can not only be interpreted as a mode of employment or production emanating from one country, but could also be associated with one dominant MNC in one sector. Consequently, it is argued that while the effect of host and home country influences may be significant factors in cross-border employment relations practices, more attention needs to be paid to organizational contingencies and the sectoral characteristics within which firms operate.

The purpose of the study is to explore past and current professional nursing organisations by means of historical inquiry and to explain the factors that influenced the development of such organisations, as well as the contribution that these organisations made to the professional development of South African nursing in the period between 1914 and 2014. The researcher conducted a literature review and collected data from archival primary and secondary sources. A priori codes provided structure and historical context, yet allowed flexibility. Philosophically critical realism guided the research and enabled the researcher to explain and critique the social world in which South African nursing organisations historically functioned and exerted their professional influence. The findings revealed that in the past one hundred years political, economic and cultural factors present in the social world influenced the nature of South Africa’s professional nursing organisations. Determined to create a female professional image, status and educational exclusivity, South African nursing leaders of the 20th century opted to establish the South African Trained Nurses’ Association (SATNA), a professional nursing association. Influential associations such as SATNA and the South African Nursing Association (SANA) guided the profession to develop a nursing culture based on philosophical and ethical principles of practice. The result was a recognised, respected and trained nursing corps. Over time, however, a social class system, religion, political ideology and nurses’ economic needs reshaped South Africa’s nursing associations and consequently the profession. By the end of the 20th century, South African nursing leaders accepted that nurses needed their socio-economic welfare to be prioritised and therefore the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA), a professional organisation with a trade unionist stance, was established. The result was a trained, politicised, fragmented nursing corps struggling to find its collective professional voice. The greatest legacy bestowed on South African nursing by its first influential organisations is the professional associations evident today. Over time, the South African Nursing Association’s discussion groups that had been established in the 1950s to discuss nursing-related topics evolved into the specialist groups and associations that were present in 2014.
Health Studies
D. Litt et Phil.