Programme full

Wednesday 15 April 2015 16:00 - 17:30
PAPER SESSION 3
As a starting point for discussion, this paper investigates the organising drive at the Pelephone telecommunications
company in Israel in 2012. This drive was considered exceptional due to the employer's intensive efforts to prevent
the organising and the National Labour Court ruling which determined what an employer is permitted to do during a
unionisation attempt. Using this as a case study, the paper then explores the varieties of discourses and strategies
used to delegitimise organised labour, and concludes that what initially appears to be a corporatist revival may in fact
reflects capital's efforts to do away with the last vestiges of the corporatist regime.
Multiscalar Political Alignment, Tactics and Strategy in International Solidarity Campaigns: An Analysis of
European Dockworker Struggles during the Economic Crisis
Fox-Hodess, C.R.
(University of California, Berkeley)
Labor scholars and activists have called for greater international coordination among labor unions to respond to the
assault on organized labor by global neoliberal capitalism. However, as my research this year with European
dockworkers shows, even in sectors and regions where labor is well-organized internationally, solidarity does not
always deliver a victory. Through European solidarity in the past year, English dockworkers achieved a partial victory;
Portuguese dockworkers achieved a full victory; and Greek dockworkers have thus far not succeeded in achieving
their goals, though it now appears the tide may be turning toward a partial victory. How do we account for this
variation despite strong international participation by the same actors in all three cases during the same period (2009-
2014)? I argue that the provision of international solidarity and the successful resolution of dock labor disputes through
international solidarity in Europe is contingent upon an alignment of dock union politics and interests at the local,
national and European levels. Struggles for hegemony among different political factions within dock labor unions at
the local level, as well as struggles to democratize bureaucratic national unions, then, can be critical preconditions for
effective international solidarity. Additionally, local unions can face trade-offs for a viable organizing strategy at the
local and national level and a viable organizing strategy at the international level because strategies and tactics that
may appeal to local union members and citizens may not be appealing to international activists and vice versa.
Workplace Power and Resistance in a Time of Individual Employment Rights
Rose, E., Busby, N.
(University of Strathclyde)
With the dramatic decline of trade unions, most British workers rely on individual employment rights to protect basic
standards in the employment relationship. These rights prescribe a range of employee entitlements and employer
obligations. In this way, they can be viewed as offering protections for employees in the inherently unequal
employment relationship. But what happens when conflict occurs and employees try to enforce these individual
employment rights?
This presentation examines notions of power and resistance amongst employees as they seek to exert the legal
protections offered by employment law. It will demonstrate how, despite these protections, a range of structural
inequalities persist in the employer / employee relationship in times of conflict. Discussion focuses on employees'
access to knowledge of their legal rights and their engagement with the employment tribunal system.
Empirical data from a study of more than 120 clients of Citizens Advice Bureaux across England, Scotland and
Northern Ireland is presented. The study is longitudinal in that it charts the experiences of workers who face problems
in their job roles from their earliest efforts to seek guidance and support through to the resolution or their taking no
further action in relation to the dispute. A range of qualitative data collection techniques are utilised.
The Birth of a Trans-European Labour Movement
Jakopovic, M.
(University of Cambridge)
The initial part of my paper establishes the rationale for a trans-European labour movement, based on the conditions
brought about by global changes in the dominant mode of production, exchange, distribution and social reproduction,
and the main specific socio-economic circumstances in the European Union.
In the second section, the main theories on the phenomenon of social solidarity are briefly discussed, as they pertain
to the European labour movement. I shall focus on identifying the obstacles and opportunities for the development of
solidaristic consciousness through unified action, as well as through the development of a moral community.
The third section provides a critical account of the development of cross-border trade union activities and the main
existing cross-border union strategies. This shall include a critique of the distance between trade union internationals
BSA Annual Conference 2015 140
Glasgow Caledonian University