Mary Naughton - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Mary Naughton
Global Labour Journal, 2022
Industrial Relations Journal, 2021
Framing is regarded as the primary mechanism through which unions generate societal power. This a... more Framing is regarded as the primary mechanism through which unions generate societal power. This article examines the relationship between societal power and framing in a significant case study- a nursing strike which successfully challenged austerity wages in Ireland. Through analysis of messages of support for the strike in newspapers and on Twitter, the sources of societal power in the conflict are identified. The findings indicate that the framing strategies unions adopt and public acceptance of these strategies depend on historical and sectoral factors. In the instant case, nurses benefitted from increased societal support for the broader labour movement and recent waves of protest.European Commission Horizon 2020European Research CouncilUpdate citation details incl. set text during checkdate report - RO
Keywords: power resources, healthcare, nurses, industrial relations, anti-austerity mobilisations
This article identifies and examines the features of protest events in Ireland in the aftermath o... more This article identifies and examines the features of protest events in Ireland in the aftermath of the EU-IMF bailout in order to understand why the patterns of protest in Ireland have not mirrored those in the other EU countries that received bail outs. To identify characteristics of Irish protest I used contemporary newspaper articles to compile a database recording objective features of protest events that took place in Ireland between 22 November 2010 and 1 February 2013. Participants from three protest campaigns were then asked to respond to a questionnaire aimed at establishing their motivations for participating in protest. The results of the research show that the largest protest events recorded during the period were in response to the bailout and that the bailout was the most frequently protested issue, challenging the characterization of the Irish as a passive nation dutifully taking its medicine.
Global Labour Journal, 2021
Conference Presentations by Mary Naughton
International Labour Process Conference, 2022
Studies of the relationships between social movements and trade unions often focus on how allying... more Studies of the relationships between social movements and trade unions often focus on how allying with social movements contributes to the revitalisation of trade unions (Tattersall 2005). In labour revitalization studies, the field of investigation in which scholars have developed heuristic concepts such as social movement unionism (Turner and Hurd 2001) to analyse these relationships, there is a widespread tendency to assume that unions are the primary organ through which labour can be revitalized (Levesque and Murray 2010). In contrast, other scholars have emphasised how labour can engage in collective action through groups of self-organized workers completely independently of trade unions (Atzeni 2010; Granberg 2014).
We adopt a third perspective, exploring the crucial area between trade unionism and social movements or workers’self-organisation. We do so by looking at mobilisations occurring in the national healthcare services oft wo countries - Spain and Italy - during the pandemic. Mobilisations analyzed are related to either working conditions and organized by the healthcare personnel or to access to care and organized by users. We draw on observations of mobilisations (both in their daily organizing and in their contentious actions), on unstructured interviews with activists and trade unionists as well as on the analysis of documents produced by the mobilizations and their social media presence.
We show that, while none of the mobilisations analized was primarily organized by unions, nonetheless unions were always involved in some capacity. More specifically, we argue that both workers’ and users’ groups organizing the mobilisations were able to pragmatically use the tools available to unions (for example legal protection) and their expertise while pursuing an agenda born outside of unions as well as building a community external to them.
We contribute first to the literature on the evolving forms of collective action of professionals caught between contradicting trends of professionalization and proletarization (Szabó, 2020). Second, we contribute to the literature on forms of organizing occurring “around the union form” (Atzeni, 2021, p. 2). Finally, we bring insights about struggles occurring in fields of partially socialized social reproduction such as healthcare, in which the working class can organize both as users and as workers.
References
Atzeni, M. (2010) Workplace Conflict: Mobilization and Solidarity in Argentina. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillian.
Atzeni, M. (2021) 'Workers’ organizations and the fetishism of the trade union form', Globalizations, pp. 1-14.
Granberg, M. (2014) 'Manufacturing dissent: Labor conflict, care work, and the politicization of caring'. Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies, 4(1), pp. 139-152.
Lévesque, C., & Murray, G. (2010) 'Understanding union power'. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 16(3), pp. 333-350.
Szabó, I. G. (2020) 'Professionals on the road to contention', Economic and industrial democracy, pp. 1-21.
Tattersall, A. (2005) 'There is power in coalition'. Labour & Industry: a journal of the social and economic relations of work, 16(2), pp. 97-112.
Turner, L., & Hurd, R. (2001) ‘Building social movement unionism’. Rekindling the movement: Labor’s quest for relevance in the twenty-first century, pp. 9-26.
Global Labour Journal, 2022
Industrial Relations Journal, 2021
Framing is regarded as the primary mechanism through which unions generate societal power. This a... more Framing is regarded as the primary mechanism through which unions generate societal power. This article examines the relationship between societal power and framing in a significant case study- a nursing strike which successfully challenged austerity wages in Ireland. Through analysis of messages of support for the strike in newspapers and on Twitter, the sources of societal power in the conflict are identified. The findings indicate that the framing strategies unions adopt and public acceptance of these strategies depend on historical and sectoral factors. In the instant case, nurses benefitted from increased societal support for the broader labour movement and recent waves of protest.European Commission Horizon 2020European Research CouncilUpdate citation details incl. set text during checkdate report - RO
Keywords: power resources, healthcare, nurses, industrial relations, anti-austerity mobilisations
This article identifies and examines the features of protest events in Ireland in the aftermath o... more This article identifies and examines the features of protest events in Ireland in the aftermath of the EU-IMF bailout in order to understand why the patterns of protest in Ireland have not mirrored those in the other EU countries that received bail outs. To identify characteristics of Irish protest I used contemporary newspaper articles to compile a database recording objective features of protest events that took place in Ireland between 22 November 2010 and 1 February 2013. Participants from three protest campaigns were then asked to respond to a questionnaire aimed at establishing their motivations for participating in protest. The results of the research show that the largest protest events recorded during the period were in response to the bailout and that the bailout was the most frequently protested issue, challenging the characterization of the Irish as a passive nation dutifully taking its medicine.
Global Labour Journal, 2021
International Labour Process Conference, 2022
Studies of the relationships between social movements and trade unions often focus on how allying... more Studies of the relationships between social movements and trade unions often focus on how allying with social movements contributes to the revitalisation of trade unions (Tattersall 2005). In labour revitalization studies, the field of investigation in which scholars have developed heuristic concepts such as social movement unionism (Turner and Hurd 2001) to analyse these relationships, there is a widespread tendency to assume that unions are the primary organ through which labour can be revitalized (Levesque and Murray 2010). In contrast, other scholars have emphasised how labour can engage in collective action through groups of self-organized workers completely independently of trade unions (Atzeni 2010; Granberg 2014).
We adopt a third perspective, exploring the crucial area between trade unionism and social movements or workers’self-organisation. We do so by looking at mobilisations occurring in the national healthcare services oft wo countries - Spain and Italy - during the pandemic. Mobilisations analyzed are related to either working conditions and organized by the healthcare personnel or to access to care and organized by users. We draw on observations of mobilisations (both in their daily organizing and in their contentious actions), on unstructured interviews with activists and trade unionists as well as on the analysis of documents produced by the mobilizations and their social media presence.
We show that, while none of the mobilisations analized was primarily organized by unions, nonetheless unions were always involved in some capacity. More specifically, we argue that both workers’ and users’ groups organizing the mobilisations were able to pragmatically use the tools available to unions (for example legal protection) and their expertise while pursuing an agenda born outside of unions as well as building a community external to them.
We contribute first to the literature on the evolving forms of collective action of professionals caught between contradicting trends of professionalization and proletarization (Szabó, 2020). Second, we contribute to the literature on forms of organizing occurring “around the union form” (Atzeni, 2021, p. 2). Finally, we bring insights about struggles occurring in fields of partially socialized social reproduction such as healthcare, in which the working class can organize both as users and as workers.
References
Atzeni, M. (2010) Workplace Conflict: Mobilization and Solidarity in Argentina. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillian.
Atzeni, M. (2021) 'Workers’ organizations and the fetishism of the trade union form', Globalizations, pp. 1-14.
Granberg, M. (2014) 'Manufacturing dissent: Labor conflict, care work, and the politicization of caring'. Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies, 4(1), pp. 139-152.
Lévesque, C., & Murray, G. (2010) 'Understanding union power'. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 16(3), pp. 333-350.
Szabó, I. G. (2020) 'Professionals on the road to contention', Economic and industrial democracy, pp. 1-21.
Tattersall, A. (2005) 'There is power in coalition'. Labour & Industry: a journal of the social and economic relations of work, 16(2), pp. 97-112.
Turner, L., & Hurd, R. (2001) ‘Building social movement unionism’. Rekindling the movement: Labor’s quest for relevance in the twenty-first century, pp. 9-26.