Documents Heery, Edmund 43 results

"This book presents a broad-ranging survey of contemporary writing about work and employment. It identifies three broad traditions of research and commentary on work - the unitary perspective, the pluralist perspective and the critical perspective - and describes the contemporary output of these traditions; i.e. it surveys current research and argument found within these traditions. The book also surveys debate between these traditions, and the second part of the book presents a detailed account of debate over four current issues. These issues are employee participation, customer culture, equality and diversity and the impact of the global financial crisis. The source material for the book comes from the UK, USA and other countries and the arguments contained within it have international relevance. The book provides an overview of recent work on the employment relationship and the debate and controversy that can be seen in this area of study. Framing Work will be of interest to academics researching and writing about employment and to advanced students in Industrial Relations, Human Resource Management, Organization Studies, and Sociology."

"This book is a study of the relationship between full-time union officials and shop stewards across the whole of British industry (public and private, manufacturing and services) in 1986 and 1987. It is the first major study of union officials for 20 years, and one of the most detailed studies of workplace collective bargaining and union organization following the recession of the early 1980s. In the wake of recession, union decline, industrial restructuring, anti-union legislation, and changes in union policies (towards a "new realism"), Britain is said by some commentators to be entering "a new industrial relations". This book provides a unique body of evidence that throws new light on this claim, and casts serious doubt on its validity. It combines survey, interview, questionnnaire and observation data and this overcomes the well known limitations of both the large-scale surveys and the individual case studies."

"For the past two decades employment in Britain has been marked by a search for greater flexibility in the availability and use of labour. In recent years, however, there has been mounting concern at the costs of this trend and an appreciation that the consequence of a flexible labour market may be an insecure workforce, vulnerable to exploitation. It is also widely claimed that rising worker insecurity imposes costs on the wider economy and society through lower rates of skill formation, reduced consumer confidence and family instability.

This collection of essays uniquely brings together writers from the fields of human resource management, industrial relations, social policy, sociology, economics and politics to explore the validity of these claims. Specific issues considered in the book include:

* labour markets and the growth of insecure work
* trade unions and the representation of insecure workers
* job insecurity and personal well-being
* insecurity and political behaviour.

This original analysis through the outstanding essays, leads to the book's key message: that re-building security at work should be a major concern of policy makers."

"Purpose
This paper presents an account of the UK campaign for the voluntary Living Wage, an example of civil regulation. The purpose of this paper is to identify and characterize the actors involved in the campaign, describe methods used and examine direct and indirect consequences of the campaign.

Design/methodology/approach
A mixed-method design is employed, reflecting the broadly framed purpose of the research. The research used semi-structured interviews with campaigners, union representatives and employers, observation of campaign activities and the creation of a database of Living Wage employers.

Findings
The campaign originated in the community organizing movement, but has involved a broad range of labor market actors, both “new” and “old.” A continuum of campaigning methods has been used, stretching from community mobilization to appeals to employer self-interest and corporate social responsibility. The campaign has recruited 3,000 employers, led to wage increases for thousands of workers and registered indirect effects by shaping the policies of governments, employers and unions.

Originality/value
The research presents a novel account of the UK's distinctive Living Wage campaign, a notable example of the civil regulation of the labor market."

"This article presents an overview of how industrial relations have been shaped by constitutional devolution across the United Kingdom. It shows that the devolved national governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and English regional authorities led by Metro Mayors, have developed distinctive industrial relations policies that have led to variation in labour market regulation. These policies have typically been developed under the rubric of ‘fair work' and have been pursued through a variety of methods. The latter include acting as a ‘good employer', legislation, public procurement, and soft forms of regulation such as good employment charters which have been widely adopted by devolved authorities. The article concludes by reviewing the debate over devolution within industrial relations and notes how political change might foster further experimentation in the future."

This work is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

"The launch of Organising Works 20 years ago was a key event, not just in the history of Australian trade unions but on a global scale. It marked the beginning of what might be termed the ‘organising turn', a shift across the international trade union movement towards the greater prioritisation of union organising. This article reviews the 20-year experience of the turn, reflecting upon three of its core attributes. The first is the origin of much activity at the apex of the official trade union movement and the consequences that flow from this point of origin. The second is the emphasis on diversity, with a particular priority in recent times in trying to organise low-wage migrant workers in precarious employment. The final attribute can be labelled ‘neo-syndicalism'. This term refers to a switch towards the ‘internal' renewal of trade unions and in this regard can be counterposed to attempts at revitalisation that focus on rebuilding relations with government and employers. The article concludes by arguing that organising can and must remain central to union strategy for renewal in Australia and beyond."

"Sociologists of labour have explored the relationship of trade unions to other social movements and the conditions that allow ‘coalitions across the class divide' to be formed. This article examines this question by presenting evidence on the interaction between trade unions and other civil society organizations in the UK; that is, advocacy, identity and single-issue, campaigning organizations. It finds that there is no single, dominant relationship but rather a complex pattern of cooperation, conflict and indifference."

"In Union Voices, the result of a thirteen-year research project, three industrial relations scholars evaluate how labor unions fared in the political and institutional context created by Great Britain's New Labour government, which was in power from 1997 to 2010. Drawing on extensive empirical evidence, Melanie Simms, Jane Holgate, and Edmund Heery present a multilevel analysis of what organizing means in the UK, how it emerged, and what its impact has been.

Although the supportive legislation of the New Labour government led to considerable optimism in the late 1990s about the prospects for renewal, Simms, Holgate, and Heery argue that despite considerable evidence of investment, new practices, and innovation, UK unions have largely failed to see any significant change in their membership and influence. The authors argue that this is because of the wider context within which organizing activity takes place and also reflects the fundamental tensions within these initiatives. Even without evidence of any significant growth in labor influence across UK society more broadly, organizing campaigns have given many of the participants an opportunity to grow and flourish. The book presents their experiences and uses them to show how their personal commitment to organizing and trade unionism can sometimes be undermined by the tensions and tactics used during campaigns."

"This article examines the involvement of civil society organizations (CSOs) in UK industrial relations. Organizations of this type, including advocacy, campaigning, identity and community organizations have attracted increasing attention from employment relations scholars in recent years. The study reported in this article demonstrates that CSOs have become increasingly active in the sphere of work and employment, partly in response to trade union decline but also owing to political opportunities, afforded by the labour market policy of the New Labour government. It is claimed that CSOs operate at multiple levels of the industrial relations system and interact with the state, employers and trade unions. They generate significant effects within UK industrial relations and can rightly be judged significant ‘new actors' on the UK employment scene."