Documents Jefferys, Steve 20 results

"This article reviews research into how European trade unions have responded to workplace racism against minority and migrant workers in the more difficult economic and political situation following the 2008 recession. Its main focus is on research carried out in Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Italy and the UK in 2003–2005, 2008–2009 and 2013. Union pressure for equal treatment had already weakened somewhat before the crisis. Subsequently, unemployment levels for ethnic minority and migrant workers rose much faster than for ‘national majority' workers, and levels of tension in the workplace have often increased. The article distinguishes four main union responses: denial of racism and protection of the interests of national majority workers; the demand that minorities assimilate without special provisions; recognition of the need for minorities to have some special services and support; and the adoption of positive measures to promote equal treatment."

"Over the last decade trade union responses to racism and discrimination against ethnic minority and migrant workers have often reflected two competing discourses, one promoting anti-discrimination legislation and the other, xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment. The Racial Equality Directive was adopted in 2000 to enter into force in 2003. Yet 11 September 2001 unleashed a tide of anti-Muslim prejudice and 10 years later, in the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis, a study by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights found that the Directive had had little impact on underlying levels of racism. In this article initial criticisms of the Directive are revisited. The impact of rising numbers of migrants and of slightly higher public intolerance of the ‘racialized outsider' are considered. The article argues that racism is playing a growing role in justifying unequal treatment in employment. Its presence makes the solidarity needed to ensure proper social regulation of the increasingly ‘open' European economy more difficult to achieve."

"The paper compares trends and case studies of individual and collective employment conflicts in France and the UK. Its focus is on the extent to which conciliation, mediation and mediation are used within the two different industrial relations systems. In both, third-party intervention is associated with the legitimacy conveyed by the involvement of both employers and trade unions, or by the presence of an impartial judge. The research finds extensive use of alternative dispute resolution is taking place in both countries, with dispute resolution taking place commonly in the justice system in France, while in the UK there is extensive use made of the arms-length independent government agency, Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service. However, the research concludes that the most effective third-party interventions take place when they are combined with mobilisation, rather than merely being the sole form of dispute resolution."

"Trade unionism in western Europe is facing the growing challenge of the relocation of work to other parts of the world. This article focuses on the major banking trade unions in France and the UK. It discusses the unions' responses to globalisation in a sector where information technology has exposed firms to intense competitive pressures and has encouraged not just relocation but also business mergers and concentration combined with widespread outsourcing. The authors find that there is often a tension between the day-to-day defence of the workers and broader trade union aspirations to develop alternatives to the arbitrariness of an economic system where labour power is reduced to a commodity to be bought and sold. The article concludes that the dual purposes of union activity, the defence and improvement of workers' immediate working conditions, and the projection of alternative people-friendly forms of social and economic organisation, are being made more difficult by globalisation. "

"Trade unions are committed to anti-racism. However, with the growth of job insecurityin the increasingly inegalitarian but global economies that are sucking in newgenerations of international migrants, racism and xenophobia have re-emerged asmajor threats to European social cohesion. This article examines the problemsunions have in fighting racism within the workplace. It documents different ways inwhich these problems present themselves, and suggests that they offer trade unionstwo structural-ideological challenges: the need to defend broader, societal tradeunion objectives, alongside bread and butter ones; and the need to strengthen thelegitimacy of trade union activists acting within ‘representative democratic' ratherthan ‘delegate democratic' traditions."