Gender Aspects of Labour Union Representativeness - The Case of the Finnish Paper Industry Conflict of 2005 (original) (raw)
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This thesis consists of four articles and an introductory section. The main research questions in all the articles refer to the changes in the representativeness of the Finnish Paper Workers' Union. Representativeness stands for the entire entity of external, internal, legal and reputational factors that enable the labor union to represent its members and achieve its goals. This concept is based on an extensive reading of quantitative and qualitative industrial relations literature, which includes works based on Marxist labor-capital relations (such as Hyman's industrial relations studies), and more recent union density studies as well as gender- and ethnic diversity-based 'union revitalization' studies. Müller-Jentsch's German studies of industrial relations have been of particular importance as well as Streeck's industrial unionism and technology studies. The concept of representativeness is an attempt to combine the insights of these diverse strands of lit...
Restructuring of Finnish Trade Unions – the Growing Importance of Women
Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies
The membership profile of Finnish trade unions has changed from male-dominated industrial workers to female-dominated service and public sector workers who are more highly educated. The Finnish labour market is strongly divided into female and male occupations and sectors, and these intersectional differences play an important part in the differentiation of developmental paths. The erosion of membership is mainly due to the rapid growth of the independent unemployment fund (YTK) competing with unemployment funds associated with trade unions. YTK has been much more successful in recruiting private sector male workers than women. Men’s decisions not to join the union are related to the shift in the motivation to unionise from social custom to instrumental reasons. Along with the gender majority shift, union identification has changed, and unions need to carry out ‘identity work’ to attain members. The shift in gender proportions has also had consequences for the collective bargaining ...
The Restructuring of Finnish Trade Unions -the Growing Importance of Women 1
Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies, 2021
The membership profile of Finnish trade unions has changed from male-dominated industrial workers to female-dominated service and public sector workers who are more highly educated. The Finnish labour market is strongly divided into female and male occupations and sectors, and these intersectional differences play an important part in the differentiation of developmental paths. The erosion of membership is mainly due to the rapid growth of the independent unemployment fund (YTK) competing with unemployment funds associated with trade unions. YTK has been much more successful in recruiting private sector male workers than women. Men's decisions not to join the union are related to the shift in the motivation to unionise from social custom to instrumental reasons. Along with the gender majority shift, union identification has changed, and unions need to carry out 'identity work' to attain members. The shift in gender proportions has also had consequences for the collective bargaining system.
Workplace union representation and gender in the British workplace
2016
This paper outlines and discusses from a gender perspective critical aspects of union representation in the British workplace. The paper utilises original analysis of data gathered by the 2011 Workplace Employment Relations Study (WERS 2011), and illuminates the gender structure of workplace union representation. The analysis allows us to address questions including: bio-demographic characteristics of male and female union representatives; what they do on behalf of their union; how managers and employees perceive union representatives by gender, and male and female union representatives’ involvement in workplace employment relations processes. To our knowledge, researchers have not used WERS 2011 previously to examine these issues with a gender lens (see Millward et al, 2016).
Finland: Trade unions struggling within a Ghent system
Trade Unions in the European Union, 2023
Since the year 2000, the Finnish trade union movement has witnessed four key trends: a significant fall in membership, the feminization of membership, a decline in strike activity and the growing assertiveness of employers’ organizations in pushing for the decentralization of collective bargaining. The most notable issue here is the fall in union membership. Finnish union membership peaked during the mid-1990s, when unemployment was high and the country was in a deep recession. The main reason for this – comparatively recent – success was the unemployment insurance system associated with unions, the so-called ‘Ghent system’. Simultaneously, the profiles of union members have changed since the 1990s, as many potential union members in core positions have opted to join an independent unemployment insurance fund rather than a union. Paradoxically, because of the universally binding nature of collective agreements, collective bargaining coverage has increased, at the same time as union membership has declined.
LABOR UNIONS IN FINLAND: A BRIEF HISTORIC OVERVIEW
The author examines the evolution of Finland labor unions, which have succeeded in the post-World War Two period in recruiting members from many different sectors. Today Finland has one of the highest union density rates in the world. Its unions provide collective bargaining agreements, workplace and industry consultation, labor dispute resolutions and unemployment payments (Ghent system). Considering the 30 years of success Finnish labor unions have enjoyed in penetrating up to 80 percent of Finnish workers, the recent decrease in membership is alarming and may be a result of the government’s recent unemployment insurance legislation. Finally, understanding the dynamics of the Finnish union success story could benefit labor unions in developing countries as they establish their own organization strategies.
Book Review: Collective Bargaining and Gender Equality (Gendered Economy)
Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 2020
Collective bargaining strategies have been shifting to reflect workers' needs in an ever-changing global economy. Addressing these needs while also aiming to reduce gender inequality has led to creative breakthroughs in bargaining agendas. Using their own original surveys and research, as well as drawing from other scholars, activists, and global union campaigns, Jane Pillinger and Nora Wintour explore many of these new creative strategies in their book Collective Bargaining and Gender Equality. The book is the third published in the Gendered Economy series, edited by Sara Cantillon and Diane Elson. The primary contributions of this work include its illuminating collection of case studies on union strategizing and its holistic analysis of how collective action can be harnessed to improve the lives of women around the world. Pillinger and Wintour begin their book by laying out seven interrelated preconditions necessary for collective bargaining to have gender equal outcomes: (1) strong social dialogue structures, (2) supportive legislation on gender equality, (3) extending the scope of bargaining agreements to cover more women workers, (4) progressive social policy and fiscal framework, (5) government willingness to address structural inequalities and women's unpaid care work, (6) gender responsive internal policies within trade unions, and (7) women's representation in union decision making. This framework is a fantastic and realistic contribution, as it indicates that each precondition is necessary but not sufficient in achieving gender equality through collective bargaining. For instance, women's representation in union decision making is alone not sufficient: as bell hooks (2010: 170) has written, "patriarchy has no gender," so the inclusion of women in leadership spaces does not necessarily mean that women leaders will lobby for gender equality. For this reason, the authors are sure to specify that these preconditions are necessary, but never claim them to be sufficient on their own, or even in their totality. Most of the seven preconditions are explained in great depth. However, the precondition "quality public services and progressive social policy and fiscal frameworks" (20) is somewhat underdeveloped. Based on the discussion, it seems that this verbiage is meant to include provisions like free or subsidized child care, paid parental leave, quality infrastructure, social protection floors, and progressive national tax reforms. However, the authors themselves include several illustrations of unions fighting for these very things. In fact, several pages are devoted to understanding the ways in which collective bargaining has been used globally to achieve improvements in parental leave protections (54-61). Thus, including these social provisions as a precondition to achieving gender equality through collective bargaining seems a bit like a "cart before the horse" type of argument. Perhaps instead of requiring these public provisions and fiscal frameworks as a precondition, the authors might have discussed the symbiotic relationships between these policies, collective bargaining efforts, and gender equality. On the other end of the spectrum, the third precondition is expanded upon quite extensively. The authors devote chapter 4 to expanding the scope of collective bargaining strategies to cover 959727R RPXXX10.