Gregor Gall - The Future of Union Organizing: Building for Tomorrow

The Future of Union Organising

Also edited by Gregor Gall

UNION ORGANISING: Campaigning for Trade Union Recognition (Routledge, 2003)

UNION RECOGNITION: Organising and Bargaining Outcomes (Routledge, 2006)

UNION REVITALISATION IN ADVANCED ECONOMIES Assessing the Contribution of Union Organising (Palgrave, 2009)

Also written by Gregor Gall

THE MEANING OF MILITANCY? Postal Workers and Industrial Relations (Ashgate, 2003)

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF SCOTLAND: Red Scotland? Radical Scotland? (University of Wales Press, 2005)

SEX WORKER UNION ORGANIZING: An International Study (Palgrave, 2006)

LABOUR UNIONISM IN THE FINANCIAL SERVICES SECTOR: Struggling for Rights and Representation (Ashgate, 2008)

Building for Tomorrow

Edited by

Gregor Gall

University of Hertfordshire

Selection and editorial matter Gregor Gall 2009
Individual chapters contributors 2009

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.

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First published 2009 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN

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ISBN-13: 9780230222427 hardback
ISBN-10: 0230222420 hardback

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

International Labour Process Conference (2007 : Dublin, Ireland)

The future of union organising : building for tomorrow / edited by Gregor Gall.

p. cm.

Papers presented at a special stream at the 2007 International

Labour Process Conference in Dublin.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 9780230222427 (alk. paper)

1. Labor unions Congresses. 2. Labor unions Organizing Congresses. 3. Labor unions Case studies Congresses. 4. Labor unions Organizing Case studies Congresses. I. Gall, Gregor. II. Title.

HD6483.I634 2009
331.87dc22 2009013667
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09

Printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne

To Bob Crow, general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers probably one of the finest union leaders of his generation in Britain today

Kieran Allen is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Sociology in University College Dublin. He is the author of Fianna Fail and Irish Labour: 1926 to the Present (Pluto Press, 1997), The Celtic Tiger: the Myth of Social Partnership (Manchester University Press, 2000) and The Corporate Takeover of Ireland (Irish Academic Press, 2007). His current research is on economic globalisation.

Francisco Arqueros-Fernndez is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Anthropology, National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Previous published work includes Low Wages, Migrant Labour and Politics in the Irish Mushroom Industry in the Irish Journal of Anthropology (2006).

Dale Belman is a Professor of Labor Relations and Human Resources, School of Labor and Industrial Relations, Michigan State University. He has carried out extensive research on wage issues and the construction and transport sectors. He is co-editor of a number of books, such as How New Is the New Employment Contract?: Evidence from North American Pay Practices (Upjohn Institute, 2002) and Trucking in the Age of Information (Ashgate, 2005), and co-author of a number of books, such as Sailors of the Concrete Sea: A Portrait of Truck Drivers Work and Lives (MSU Press, 2004).

Donna Buttigieg is an Associate Professor in the Department of Management and the School of Business and Economics at Monash University. She is the Director for the School of Business and Economics (Gippsland) and is the Acting Director of the Family and Small Business Research Unit. Her research interests include union participation and exit behaviour, community unionism, vulnerable workers (including women and older workers), bullying and strategic HRM. She has recent publications in the Journal of Applied Psychology, British Journal of Industrial Relations and Work, Employment and Society. Earlier publications include the Journal of Management Studies, Human Relations, Relations Industrielles and Journal of Industrial Relations. She has also recently co-edited a book on community unionism.

Dr Iona Byford is a Senior Lecturer in the Human Resources and Marketing Department at Portsmouth University Business School. She has recently completed her PhD thesis entitled: A comparative study of trade union renewal strategies: partnership, organising and social unionism. This is her first publication. Her next publication (forthcoming) is a chapter on the Canadian Auto Workers union and Social Unionism in Canada in an edited volume on Community Unionism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). Her current research interests include union renewal and union democracy.

Dr Sandra Cockfield is a lecturer in the Department of Management at Monash University and a member of the Australian Centre for Research on Employment and Work (ACREW). She has published in the Journal of Industrial Relations, Labour History and the Labor Studies Journal. She also has a recent co-edited book on community unionism. Her current research focuses on the possibilities and limitations of information and communication technologies in relation to union renewal strategies, including in the hospitality and higher education sectors, and on community and social movement unionism.

Dr Sheila Cohen is a Visiting Lecturer in Industrial Relations and a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Employment Studies, University of Hertfordshire. She is the author of Ramparts of Resistance: Why Workers Lost Their Power and How to Get It Back (Pluto Press, 2006) as well as numerous articles and pamphlets on trade unionism, working-class activism and the nature of work.