Documents Wallace, Joseph 2 results

"Trade unions have experienced significant turbulence over the past three decades. In the UK and Ireland, a key change has been a substantial increase in the individual rights-based employment legislation, raising important questions about its impact on trade unions. Based on a survey and interviews with union officials in Ireland, we examine whether individual employment law acts to undermine or enhance the role of trade unions and whether trade union officials use employment law to achieve change in the workplace and to mobilise workers. We find that while unions believe in the superiority of collective bargaining to pursue individual rights, and consider the law as having an individualising effect, they also recognise its benefits in the current environment. Given the legal restrictions on collective action in individual disputes, union officials believe that employment law can be used to support and protect vulnerable groups of workers. The increasing resort to individual employment rights in Ireland is contrasted with an alternative system in Sweden which has a strong collectivist ethos. We conclude that the dilemmas faced by unions regarding the pursuit of rights are symptoms of Ireland's weak statutory framework."

"This paper examines the experiences of Qantas and Aer Lingus. The two companies have a shared history as national, 'legacy' (full-service) carriers and strategically important, 'benevolent' employers. More recently, both airlines have been forced to change in the face of competition from low cost carriers (LCCs) and external threats to their existence. In this paper, we examine how the two airlines have reacted to these pressures. We look at the role played by institutional frameworks and competitive circumstances in determining industrial relations strategies. The entry of LCCs and changes (or potential changes) to ownership structures through privatization and takeover bids have led to downward pressure on pay and conditions at both airlines. Accordingly, a key issue considered is whether a collectivist model of employment relations can survive in the face of low cost competition. "