Christian Lévesque

Understanding union power: resources and capabilities for renewing union capacity

Power is at the core of current debates over the future of trade unionism. This article provides a framework to assess the power resources and strategic capabilities central to union capacity building. We identify four key power resources: internal solidarity; network embeddedness; narrative resources that frame understandings and union actions; and infrastructural resources (material, human, processes, policies and programmes). Resources alone are not enough; unions must also be capable of using them. We identify four strategic capabilities: intermediating between contending interests to foster collaborative action and to activate networks; framing; articulating actions over time and space; and learning. Much experimentation and research on the interactions between these resources and capabilities in particular contexts is required to advance our understanding of the renewal of union power. Le pouvoir est au cœur des débats actuels sur l’avenir du syndicalisme. Le présent article fournit un cadre d’évaluation des ressources de pouvoir et des aptitudes stratégiques pour le renforcement des capacités d’action syndicales. Les auteurs identifient quatre ressources fondamentales de pouvoir: la solidarité interne, l’ancrage dans des réseaux, les ressources discursives qui encadrent les approches et les actions des syndicats et les ressources d’infrastructure (matériel, ressources humaines, processus, politiques et programmes). Les ressources seules ne suffisent pas. Les syndicats doivent également être capables de les utiliser. Les auteurs identifient quatre aptitudes stratégiques: la médiation entre des intérêts en jeu afin de favoriser une action commune et d’activer les réseaux, l’encadrement, l’articulation d’actions dans le temps et dans l’espace, et l’apprentissage. Une expérimentation et une recherche accrues sur les interactions entre ces ressources et ces capacités dans des contextes particuliers sont nécessaires pour approfondir notre compréhension du renouveau du pouvoir syndical. Bei den derzeitigen Debatten über die Zukunft der Gewerkschaftsbewegung spielt die Frage der Macht eine zentrale Rolle. Dieser Beitrag liefert einen Rahmen, um die Machtressourcen und strategischen Einsatzmöglichkeiten zu bewerten, die für den Kapazitätsaufbau der Gewerkschaften von entscheidender Bedeutung sind. Wir zeigen vier wichtige Machtressourcen auf: interne Solidarität; Vernetztheit; narrative Ressourcen, die Begriffen und gewerkschaftlichem Handeln einen Rahmen verleihen; und Infrastrukturressourcen (materielle und Humanressourcen, Prozesse, Strategien und Programme). Aber Ressourcen allein reichen nicht aus. Die Gewerkschaften müssen auch in der Lage sein, sie zu nutzen. Wir zeigen vier strategische Einsatzmöglichkeiten auf: Vermittlung zwischen entgegengesetzten Interessen, um gemeinsames Handeln zu stärken und Netzwerke zu aktivieren; Framing; zeitliche und räumliche Verknüpfung von Handlungen; und Lernen. Um besser zu verstehen, wie sich eine Erneuerung der gewerkschaftlichen Macht erreichen lässt, sind viele Experimente und Untersuchungen zu den Wechselbeziehungen zwischen diesen Ressourcen und Einsatzmöglichkeiten in spezifischen Kontexten notwendig.

Local versus Global Activating Local Union Power in the Global Economy

Globalization alters the balance of power between unions and em ployers. In decentralized bargaining regimes, local unions are there fore compelled to reexamine the resources that they can mobilize in their power relationships. This article offers a framework to conceptualize the power resources available to local unions. This strategic triangle for local union renewal includes three types of power resources: proactivity or agenda; internal solidarity or de mocracy ; and external solidarity, both with other unions and with the community and other social groups. It is argued that in a glo bal economy, union renewal or revitalization strategies require lo cal unions to develop and mobilize these interdependent power resources in order to achieve positive bargaining and political out comes.

Union Disaffection and Social Identity Democracy as a Source of Union Revitalization

This article examines union members’evaluation of the relevance of unions and their identification with a traditional collective value frame for union action. It seeks to take account of the impact of increasing labor market heterogeneity, declining instrumentality, and the behavior of unions and employers. Using Canadian data gathered from individual union members and their local union leaders, the study finds that new labor market identities are notlinked to weaker belief in the relevance of unions but are associated with weaker identification with the traditional value frame. Although declining instrumentality and hostile employer behavior are associated with greater identification with traditional value frames, greater union democracy is associated with less membership disaffection on both the relevance of unions and their collective modes of action. Union democracy is therefore found to be a key tool to address membership disaffection and to generate collective identities for a renewed union project.

How Do Unions Renew? Paths to Union Renewal

How are unions responding to change? Are they renewing? Drawing on the CRIMT International Colloquium on Union Renewal, this introductory paper presents the overarching themes in this special thematic issue of Labor Studies Journal. After a synoptic overview of the range of cases and methodological issues highlighted by the papers, three sets of issues are presented: the need to enhance basic union efficiency or instrumentality, the importance of union governance and internal organization, and the need to rethink union resources. The development of collective identities, the mobilization of external expertise and networks, and the development of union leadership are identified as key resources in the union renewal process and as important subjects for further research.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN THE MULTINATIONAL COMPANY: A TEST OF SYSTEM, SOCIETAL, AND DOMINANCE EFFECTS

Does the use of HRM practices by multinational companies (MNCs) reflect their national origins or are practices similar regardless of context? To the extent that practices are similar, is there any evidence of global best standards? The authors use the system, societal, and dominance framework to address these questions through analysis of 1,100 MNC subsidiaries in Canada, Ireland, Spain, and the United Kingdom. They argue that this framework offers a richer account than alternatives such as varieties of capitalism. The study moves beyond previous research by differentiating between system effects at the global level and dominance effects arising from the diffusion of practices from a dominant economy. It shows that both effects are present, as are some differences at the societal level. Results suggest that MNCs configure their HRM practices in response to all three forces rather than to some uniform global best practices or to their national institutional contexts.

Trade Union Cross-Border Alliances Within MNCs: Disentangling Union Dynamics at the Local, National and International Levels

This study identifies three types of workplace union strategy in the development of cross-border relations within North American and European multinational companies: defensive isolation, risk reduction and proactive solidarity. Qualitative case studies of MNCs with operations in Canada and Mexico indicate that the nature and intensity of participation in cross-border trade union alliances are shaped by the union dynamic at the local, national and international levels. A combination of greater workplace union power resources, notably discursive capacity, and of strong supportive approach of the national union, notably dedicated resources and space for bottom-up initiatives, contributes to proactive solidarity strategies towards international union networks. The absence of these factors is associated with risk reduction and defensive isolation strategies.

Referential unionisms and globalization: A comparative study of workplace union dynamics

How do unions contend with change in the face of strong external pressures associated with globalization? Comparative workplace ethnographies point to the persistent diversity of local actor responses. This article advances the concept of referential unionisms to understand the adaptive processes at play. Focusing on the interactions between collective identities, repertoires of action, power resources, and representative and strategic capacity, it examines how two workplace unions in the manufacturing sector in France and in Canada cope with management strategies to meet their multinational company performance objectives through the restructuring of social and productive relations in their sites.

Discretion in employment relations policy among foreign-controlled multinationals in Canada

This article assesses the extent to which the foreign-controlled subsidiaries of multinational firms have the discretion to establish their employment relations policies. Drawing on a survey of the activities of foreign-controlled multinational companies in Canada, it considers three lines of analysis: the parent company’s country of origin, the subsidiary’s specific organizational capabilities and its position in global value chains. While our results confirm that US-controlled subsidiaries have lower discretion than those from continental Europe and Asia, they also highlight the need to go beyond country-of-origin analysis. Organizational capabilities and the subsidiary’s role in global value chains are also important predictors of subsidiary discretion on employment relations policy.

Local Union Strategies in Cross-Border Alliances From Defensive Isolation to Proactive Solidarity

Do the restructuring of production networks, the decentralization of collective bargaining, and the rearticulation of work sites one to another across borders prompt local unions to engage in cross-border solidarities? Drawing on three cases in Mexico and three cases in Canada, this study identifies three patterns of local union involvement in cross-border alliances: defensive isolationism, risk aversion, and proactive solidarity. Four factors are associated with greater union involvement in cross-border alliances: local union power resources, especially discursive capacity or narrative framing; the orientation of the national or industry union; the thickness of and resources provided by international regulation; and the articulation between these different levels.

Workplace Representatives: Strategic Actors of Union Renewal?

Workplace representatives (shop stewards) provide insight into union transformations. This article explores the renewed research interest in terms of the representativeness of unionism and of workplace representatives, the complexity of the sites of representation and employer strategies, the search for new references and the centrality of workplace representatives in union renewal strategies.