Globalization and the Logic of Participation: Unions and the Politics of Coalition Building

Abstract

Global liberalization is driving a 'logic of participation', for firms and unions alike. Economic pressures drive managers to innovate across a range of possibilities, from outsourcing and union busting to work reorganization and labor-management partnership. Those same pressures, reflected largely through the strategic choices of employers, also force unions to innovate -from concession bargaining and cooperation to coalition building and international solidarity. Because employers are increasingly tempted by strategies that seek to weaken or marginalize unions, sustained participation for unions arguably requires a new period of activist mobilization.This article explores one significant component of renewed labor mobilization: union coalition building. Based on a case study of coalition efforts in the United States between the United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club from 1999-2004, concepts and causal linkages are suggested for broader analysis. Research findings presented here indicate the following causal processes at work: union strategies, defining moments and spillover combine to drive coalition building processes that include events, campaigns and institution building -ranging from local to national and global levels. Beyond this US-based case, a framework for cross-national comparative analysis is also suggested.

The Power Resources Approach: Developments and Challenges

“…Coalitional power means having networks with other social actors at one's disposal and being able to activate these for mobilisations and campaigns (Frege, Heery and Turner, 2004: 137ff. ;Tattersall, 2005;Turner, 2006;Lévesque and Murray, 2010: 344). Essentially, this type of power involves pursing common goals and entering into mutual commitments.…”

Intrafirm Competition in Multinational Corporations: Towards a Political Framework

“…box 1, or Kristensen and Zeitlin, 2005) or local business partners (Forsgren, 1990). Moreover, subsidiary managers and the local workforce might form a kind of a 'homefront coalition' game to defend the interest of the subsidiary as a whole (Turner, 2006). Finally subsidiary managers can also try to form a coalition with headquarters in intra-firm competition, by lobbying at headquarters, strictly avoiding conflicts with headquarters and by meticulously fulfilling all requests set out by the headquarters.…”

Organising campaigns as ‘revitaliser’ for trade unions? The example of the Lidl campaign

“…To what extent campaigning and other revitalisation strategies are transferable to the German culture of industrial relations characterised by cooperative relations to the management (Hall and Soskice, 2001) has been discussed elsewhere. Research on the practice of revitalisation strategies in the German context is growing (Annesley, 2006; Behrens et al , 2003; Croucher et al , 2007; Frege, 2000; Greven, 2003; Turner, 2006). The implementation of these strategies is examined in particular by taking the German trade union ver.di as an example (Annesley, 2006), or in general, by taking Germany as a spatial unit of analysis (Croucher et al , 2007; Greven, 2003).…”