Contemporary employer victimisation of lay union representatives in Britain: Issues, dynamics and extent

Gall, Gregor

doi:10.1177/0309816819852752

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Second, hostile employer behaviour often coerces workers into refraining from exercising any preference they have for joining and supporting a union (for a summary of the situations in Australia, Britain and the US, see Gall and Dundon, 2013). Employer behaviour may range from unfair labour practices, such as threatened and actual dismissals, to social ostracism for spurning management's unitarist workplace culture (see, for example, Gall, 2004Gall, , 2010Gall, , 2021Logan, 2006Logan, , 2013Moody, 2013). Third, such union recognition procedures are often predicated upon what has been referred to as a 'tyranny of majoritarianism', whereby collective labour rights are denied until more than 50% of a given bargaining unit expresses support, typically via a vote.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public support for a union default: Predicting factors and implications for public policy

Harcourt

Gall

Wilson

et al. 2020

Economic and Industrial Democracy

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Drawing on survey findings, in this article the authors examine levels of public support in New Zealand for a union default. The key findings are that support is high (59%), that support is principally predicted by a belief in the default’s effectiveness for improving employees’ lives, and that this belief mediates a number of other predictors, such as union membership, non-union by choice, political party, household income, gender and age. There are strong grounds for believing this would translate into actual support for a union default and a consequent rise in union membership. These findings are contextualised with regard to Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States, where the authors draw out the implications for public policy and how a union default could be operationalised in the countries under study.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public support for a union default: Predicting factors and implications for public policy

Harcourt

Gall

Wilson

et al. 2020

Economic and Industrial Democracy

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show abstract

“…Indirect costs are those that relate to second-order consequences that arise from a switch, particularly management retribution for having joined the union. Discriminatory treatment, harassment, and even dismissal of union members can generate indirect costs that dwarf any benefits of membership (Gall, 2021; Godard, 2003), spurring workers to stay with the non-union default.…”

Section: Default Influencementioning

confidence: 99%

The potential of a union default to influence the preferences and choices of non-union workers in unionised workplaces

Harcourt

Gall

Wilson

et al. 2021

Economic and Industrial Democracy

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This article questions the perception of non-union workers as rather rigid and out-of-reach non-unionists by using research conducted in New Zealand. It explores whether, under new institutional architecture, non-unionists would continue to exhibit the same preferences and exercise the same choices as before. This was done by testing their responses to a union default scenario. The significance of this study concerns how this particular group of workers, contra non-union workers in non-union workplaces, would react to a union default where a union is already available to them. By contrast, non-union workers in non-union workplaces not only at present have effectively no choice for gaining union representation but are also bereft of any experience of it in their workplace. The results suggest 44% of these employees would join as a result of a union default with union density consequently rising in New Zealand from 17–18% to 26–27%.

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“…These findings point to the long‐term influence of place in explaining dynamics of political economy. Gall emphasized that the early twenty‐first century has been accompanied by the significant deployment of anti‐trade union tactics by the employer. In an article for Capital & Class , he details employers’ victimization of union activists through suspensions and sackings between 1998 and 2018, finding that both were used.…”

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confidence: 99%

Review of periodical literature for 2021

Gibbs

2022

The Economic History Review

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The impact of economic shocks was an important topic of current debate during 2021 as Britain experienced the COVID-19 lockdown as well as the beginning of rising inflation and energy price increases. These themes were also present in the literature published that year, which addressed the impact of shifts in which terms of trade and policy responses to currency and other economic pressures were dominant features. The context of the renegotiation of Britain's economic relations with other nations and an increasingly diverse society were other common areas of study, incorporating both the influence of European integration on business and consumer taste as well as the impacts of decolonization and Commonwealth immigration.An analysis of long-term patterns of inflation was developed by Forbes et al., who found that a 'trendy' (p. 23) rather than more prescriptive approach was beneficial to understanding the complex factors which have shaped the value of sterling over time. They concluded that given the nature of Britain's comparatively open economy and dependency on imports and monetary flows, international prices and exchange rates have been the dominant factor that explain Britain's inflation dynamics in recent decades. Bahmani-Oskooee and Karamelikli's research on bilateral trading relationships between Britain and eurozone economies found that exchange rate fluctuations had divergent effects on the trade balance. Nevertheless, sterling depreciation was broadly negative for the UK's position. In a paper published in the Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Bahmani-Oskooee et al. concluded that between 1996 and 2018, short-run exchange rate effects in terms of dollar-pound volatility had an observable impact on trade across a large range of industries. These statistical studies were complemented by archival research on shifts in monetary policy. Butkiewicz and Ohlmacher's Economic History Review paper used new evidence from the Nixon White House tapes to better understand responses to the currency crisis that led to the end of the Bretton Woods system. It found British requests for support against the impact of dollar devaluation on sterling impacted discussions and shaped Nixon's choice to impose wageprice controls as part of a distraction from the realities of a devaluation through shifts in the dollar exchange rate. Aliber's paper on the summit Nixon hosted at Camp David in August 1971 indicates that Nixon had hoped to alter exchange rates to favour American exports, but in fact, devaluation only led to an influx of foreign purchases of US securities, contributing to the United States subsequently becoming the world's largest debtor.

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Contemporary employer victimisation of lay union representatives in Britain: Issues, dynamics and extent

Cited by 4 publications

References 39 publications

Public support for a union default: Predicting factors and implications for public policy

Public support for a union default: Predicting factors and implications for public policy

The potential of a union default to influence the preferences and choices of non-union workers in unionised workplaces

Review of periodical literature for 2021

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