Documents Korkut, Umut 3 results

"This article examines union revitalization in Central and Eastern Europe, focusing on two countries: Hungary and Latvia. Trade unions have not only had to cope with a declining membership base, but have also had to respond to austerity programmes and government cuts in public sector employment. We argue that the inability of unions to provide a strong voice for alternative policies to the current neoliberal orthodoxy has been driven by a declining membership base, but also by weakened social dialogue mechanisms, limited industrial representation and an ageing membership profile, exacerbated by net outward migration in recent years. However, we find that unions in Latvia and Hungary have responded differently to these issues."

"This article argues that democratic decision-making improves trade union strength and success during policy-making. Elitism and lack of democracy, on the other hand, diminish unions' strength. Elitism, in this respect, remains entrenched in trade union structures during internal decision-making. The author's argument is twofold: both the ability of trade union leaders to develop links with the rank-and-file and reduce hierarchy during internal decision-making influence the strength of organizations. Both factors help carry the spontaneous and local demands of union members onto the national agenda. This article assigns a crucial role to unions and interest groups in providing a system of interest representation sensitive to interests that might go unacknowledged in a system whose only devices of representation were political parties and representatives with territorial constituencies. However, this article does not idealize groups but rather questions their ability to represent the interests of their members. The author tests the plausibility of these hypotheses with data from interviews with trade union confederation and federation representatives from Romania and Poland. This article concludes that organizational democracy positively affects union success."