REB-Unions
Rebuilding trade union power in the age of austerity: a review of three sectors
In a particularly difficult context for industrial relations – as a result of austerity policies, notably in peripheral countries of the Eurozone – trade unions are facing challenges of consolidation and renewal due to a crisis of representativeness, aggregation of interests and effectiveness that has also affected them.
This project has a two major aims: i) to provide a critical appraisal of the historical heritage of trade unionism in Portugal; ii) to analyse trade union chances of affirmation in the metal work, transport and telecommunications sectors, which have also been subject to changes and restructuring. We intend to study the role of trade unions in these three sectors, taking into account six analytical criteria: conflict/bargaining; national/ international; representativeness; qualification (skills); public/private; innovation. These six criteria combine trade union concerns with sector specificities. While some criteria seem to be closer to trade union concerns (like conflict/negotiation, representativeness, national/ international), others are closer to the specificities of each sector (namely, workforce skills, public/private or innovation). Thus, the project seeks a detailed understanding of how trade unions in these three sectors have been adapting to the changing economic circumstances, which are also politically regulated.
In this research, we recognise the centrality of labour in society and its importance in building the socalled European social model. On the one hand, welfare state and the entire legislative structure crystallised labour law and capital/labour commitments as facilitators of stability in salaries, working time, and workers' conditions in general. On the other, the trade union movement helped bring working class living standards closer those of the middle class. Today, however, under the advance of market “laws” and the hegemony of financial economy, both the welfare state and trade unions are in crisis. The recent trends justify, in our view, the need to rethink the roles of trade unions and their different modes of social intervention.
The central hypothesis of our research is that the democratic progress achieved by trade unions represents a crucial added value to address the crisis of vitality that trade unionism is facing and can also have a key role in a response by finding new solutions for society in a postcrisis context.
Our 1st specific hypothesis is that, in times of economic crisis, trade unions assume a triple condition, with different degrees of visibility: they are still “class” actors (as they continue to organise demonstrations/struggles in different national and international contexts); they are “society” actors (in the sense that they embrace strategies for negotiation and social dialogue around broad economic, social and cultural themes, both in public and private spheres); and they are also “economic” actors, operating in labour markets that have become increasingly complex, competitive and internationalised, influencing them in multiple ways Alphaaccording to criteria such as qualifications of the workforce or processes of entrepreneurial innovation.
Our 2nd specific hypothesis is that the conceptions of trade unions as “class”, “society” and “economic” actors are not exclusively associated with a single socioprofessional sector. In fact, it is possible to find negotiation in sectors where conflict is the rule; it is possible to identify strikes in sectors where social peace is expected; and it is possible to find sectors with a significant presence of nontradable goods where deeper international competition would be expected, etc.
These hypotheses will be tested empirically through the use of a particular set of methodologies (especially of qualitative nature) distributed through various tasks and case studies: analysis of documents and databases; focus groups; life stories; direct observation; semistructured and indepth interviews.
Beyond their research experience on the labour market, social inequalities and trade union issues, the project's research team project benefits from the support of several relevant institutions: the Institute of Employment and Vocational Training (with whom we have developed a partnership for this project), the Ministry of Economy and Employment, and the National Institute of Statistics. Furthermore, team members benefit from the support of highlycredited national and international consultants (both from trade unions and academic fields) and with a solid knowledge of the socioprofessional sectors under review. As such, the research team has access to important international institutions in the world of work such as the International Labour Organization or the European Trade Union Institute as well as international academic networks such as the Industrial Relations in the European Community, ESA Research Network Work, Employment and Industrial Relations (RN 17) and the Global Labour University.
Project REB-Unions, ref. PTDC/IVC-SOC/3533/2014 - POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016808, is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the COMPETE 2020 - Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), and by Portuguese funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia.
Total funding: 103.286,00 Eur
FEDER funding: 87.793,10 Eur
National funds: 15.492,90 Eur
Total eligible cost: 94.095,31 Eur
1 Book; Articles in peer-reviewed journals; comunications in scientific events