Conclusion: Trade Unions and Democratization in Africa

Kraus, Jon

doi:10.1057/9780230610033_9

Cited by 8 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Although this study cannot distinguish between the roles of market and political mechanisms, I suspect that political mechanisms are particularly important for reducing income inequality in LDCs. Case-based studies often point to the highly political role of worker organizations in LDCs (e.g., Agarwala 2013; Kraus 2007; Wood 2000). This is particularly relevant in countries with large informal economies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unexpectedly, models report that labor rights are not statistically significant in explaining income inequality in Africa. Case studies of African countries highlight the importance of worker organizations in political life (Buhlungu 2010; Kraus 2007; Wood 2000). While labor relations may be fundamentally different in Africa, I suspect the lack of significance is due to the low sample size—African nations comprise only 4 percent of the sample.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The example of Ghana is not isolated: numerous case studies based in LDCs find that collective worker organizations actively aim to influence political parties and policy development (e.g., in Latin America [Anner 2011; Cook 2007; Huber and Stephens 2012; Wood 2000], Africa [Buhlungu 2010; Kraus 2007; Raftopoulos and Phimister 1997], and Asia [Agarwala 2013; Heller 1999]). Although these sorts of movements may not always look like traditional unions (i.e., workers in the formal sector with collective bargaining agreements), they still organize to influence the distribution of economic resources—and they often face similar repression as unions.…”

Section: Income Inequality In Comparative Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

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Collective Labor Rights and Income Inequality

Kerrissey

2015

Am Sociol Rev

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This article examines the relationship between income inequality and collective labor rights, conceptualized as workers' legal and practical ability to engage in collective activity. Although worker organization is central to explaining income inequality in industrialized democracies, worldwide comparative studies have neglected the role of class-based actors. I argue that the repression of labor rights reduces the capacity of worker organizations to effectively challenge income inequality through market and political processes in capitalist societies. Labor rights, however, are unlikely to have uniform effects across regions. This study uses unbalanced panel data for 100 developed and less developed countries from 1985 through 2002. Randomand fixed-effects models find that strong labor rights are tightly linked to lower inequality across a large range of countries, including in the Global South. Interactions between regions and labor rights suggest that the broader context in which class-based actors are embedded shapes worker organizations' ability to reduce inequality. During the period of this study, labor rights were particularly important for mitigating inequality in the West but less so in Eastern Europe.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Income Inequality In Comparative Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

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Collective Labor Rights and Income Inequality

Kerrissey

2015

Am Sociol Rev

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“…Others have argued that the absence of a strong labor movement has curtailed meaningful political change following the 2019 uprising in Lebanon (Khater 2022). These studies contribute to comparative work on the role of labor in processes of democratization, especially in Latin America (Collier 1999) and Africa (Kraus 2007; LeBas 2011).…”

Section: Themes In the Study Of Labor And Employment In The Menamentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction to a Special Issue on Labor in the Middle East and North Africa: Precarity, Inequality, and Migration

Bishara

2023

ILR Review

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Despite its political and strategic importance, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been largely absent from cross-regional comparative treatments of industrial and labor relations. This special issue builds on a rich, multidisciplinary, and methodologically diverse body of research on labor and employment in the MENA, bringing together a collection of cutting-edge work in this field. The goal is to bring the study of the MENA into conversation with international and comparative scholarship on industrial and labor relations and to encourage more systematic inclusion of the MENA in comparative work. Drawing on research on Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Israel, and the Gulf states, contributors to this special issue advance comparative scholarship on migration, labor market outcomes, worker agency, and the relationship between unions and precarious workers. This introductory essay situates these contributions in the context of three bodies of research in the study of labor in the MENA: resistance and contentious activism, labor market challenges, and migration.

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“…A crucial factor in this dynamic is the country’s response to neoliberalizing pressures (Kraus 2007; see also Beinin and Hamalawy 2007; Bishara 2014; Langohr 2014), which contradict the nationalist imperative to close borders and protect key population groups, creating tension between what we are calling the neoliberal imperative to include and exploit, and the (ethno)nationalist imperative to exclude and suppress.…”

Section: Organized Labor the Ethnonational State And Industrial Relat...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Conflicting Imperatives? Ethnonationalism and Neoliberalism in Industrial Relations

Preminger¹,

Bondy²

2022

ILR Review

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Based on a case study of non-citizen Palestinian workers in the Israeli construction sector, this article explores the dynamic relationship between the exclusionary imperative of ethnonationalism and the inclusionary imperative of neoliberalism. The authors argue that these imperatives together constitute a heuristically useful framework that can help to explain the choices of social actors and the constraints on these choices, as well as the apparently contradictory developments that affect industrial relations institutions and the employment relationship more broadly. While neoliberalism generally weakens organized labor, the study shows how the dynamic between these two imperatives can open space for the inclusion of disenfranchised ethnonational groups within collective labor relations—a first step to political empowerment. The study thus re-asserts the importance of organized labor as a powerful actor able to engender progressive change, even for the “ethnonational other” under rigidly ethnonationalistic regimes.

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Conclusion: Trade Unions and Democratization in Africa

Cited by 8 publications

References 27 publications

Collective Labor Rights and Income Inequality

Collective Labor Rights and Income Inequality

Introduction to a Special Issue on Labor in the Middle East and North Africa: Precarity, Inequality, and Migration

Conflicting Imperatives? Ethnonationalism and Neoliberalism in Industrial Relations

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