Documents Martens, Albert 4 results

"This article argues that, despite relatively good integration policies and stable, high and crosssectoral national trade union membership, irregular immigration and irregular work in Belgium threaten workers' solidarity and trade union strength. The diffusion of ‘twilight' workers in many companies and sectors has obliged the trade unions to call for regularisation to restore the workers' front and re-establish workers' cohesion. Although the trade unions have supported a number of actions in support of people without documents (such as hunger strikes in churches) it is not easy to convince unionised workers to accept the new ‘comrades' and to fight racism in the workplace. Moreover, there are other difficulties, including the discussion among policy-makers of an EU ‘Blue Card' for temporary migration for work. Thelatter in particular represents a new challenge for the Belgian trade unions, who traditionally have supported family reunification and long-term residence of migrants."

"Measurement of workers' militancy has proved empirically to be a difficult task in Belgium. There are diverse traditional indicators and parameters but the interpretations of their extent and national effects are arguable. This article uses the expenditure of the `strike fund' in order to elaborate a measure of workers' militancy in Belgium. The strike fund data provided valuable information on the cross-sectoral level of workers' militancy and, thereby, confirmed some evidence with regard to the evolution of workers' combativeness. The case of Belgium is interesting. Since the 1980s, the numbers of strike days have fallen while the level of union membership has remained one of the highest in Europe. Is the decline of strikes in Belgium an irreversible process? Analysis of the national sector-based data on the strike funds suggests caution in predicting the withering away of strikes. Likewise, new forms of `proletarianization' are developing as the manifestation of a newly emergent industrial conflict."