Employer and worker collective action : a comparative study of Germany, South Africa, and the United States / Andrew G. Lawrence.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lawrence, Andrew G., 1966- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Working class--Germany--History.

Working class.

Working class--South Africa--History.

Working class--United States--History.

Labor unions.

History.

United States.

Labor unions--Germany--History.

Germany.

Labor unions--South Africa--History.

Labor unions--United States--History.

South Africa.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xv, 356 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Summary:

"This book compares sources of worker and employer power in Germany, South Africa, and the United States in order to identify the sources of comparative U.S. decline in union power and to more precisely analyze the nature of labor-movement power. It finds that this power is not confined to allied parties, union confederations, or strikes, but rather consists of the capacity to autonomously translate power from one context to the next. By combining their product, labor market, and labor law advantages through their dominant employers' associations, leading firms are able to impose constraints on labor's free collective bargaining regionally and nationally, defeating employer interests that are more amenable to labor in the process. Through an examination of these patterns of interest organization, the book shows, however, that initial employer advantages prove to be contingent and unstable and that employers are forced to cede to more far-reaching demands of increasingly organized workers"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Part I. Power in Theory and Context: 1. Contending theories of labor power; 2. Contextualizing workers' power

Part II. Employer Strategy and Collective Action: 3. Varieties of firm strategy: monopolization, cartelization, and concentration; 4. Varieties of employer associations: origins, development, and divergence

Part III. Workers: Outlaws, in the Law and by the Law: 5. Failed incorporation and union response; 6. Varieties of juridification

Part IV. From Postwar "Golden Quarter-Century" to Post-Cold War Interlude: 7. The "Golden Quarter-Century": revival, containment, or decline?; 8. Union and employer relations after the "Golden Quarter-Century"

Part V. Collective Action before and in the Global Economic Crisis: 9. From tripartism to global economic crisis; 10. Conclusion: doing the work of crisis without crisis?

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 351-352) and index.

ISBN:

9781107071759

1107071755

9781107417755

1107417759

OCLC:

873723583

Online:

Cover image