Publications

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An untapped resource for trade unions

Policy recommendations • A critical mass of trade union members, i.e. beyond union activists, are willing to perform less-demanding tasks in support of their union; this is an internal union resource that is currently underutilised. As union tasks differ in terms of effort and time, they should be tested beforehand to estimate which kinds appeal to... Find out more

Martin Myant, Branko Bembič, Adam Sumichrast, ...

Are multinational companies good for trade unions?

Multinational companies dominate much of the economies of the new EU member states of central and eastern Europe. They usually claim to respect trade unions at home and many have signed global agreements with international union organisations. It could be hoped that they would play a positive role, bringing better employment relations practices... Find out more

Mark Friis Hau

Strengthening union democracy through connective and collective action logics

Key points Social media such as Facebook forces unions to increase communication with members and makes rank-and-file dissent highly visible. Challenges can arise as a result of different emphases on collective and connective logics between online networks and established unions. Union success on social media requires a careful balancing act... Find out more

Uglješa Grušić

Remote working and European private international law

Policy implications The risk created by expanding the labour pool to workers based in other countries can, if necessary, be dealt with by EU legislative action, for example, through substantive EU employment law. Furthermore, the risk created by expanding the labour pool to workers based in non-EU countries can be dealt with by the overriding... Find out more

Collective bargaining and self-employed workers

Policy considerations EU competition law imposes limits on the scope of collective labour law, as it precludes self-employed workers from collective bargaining . There is a rising number of self-employed workers whose livelihood are characterised by increasing precariousness and whose working conditions could be improved by ensuring that collective... Find out more

Latest news

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May 23, 2023

Collective bargaining news highlights - April 2023

Denmark: new collective agreement for private sector approved A new collective bargaining agreement was approved by trade union members, securing employment conditions for around 600,000 private... Find out more

January 27, 2022

How can trade unions use artificial intelligence to build power?

It is hardly news that most applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace increase employer power. As technology that is overwhelmingly applied by employers rather than employees in... Find out more

November 10, 2021

Arise, power, strategy and union resurgence

There have been thousands of research papers and books from both scholars and practitioners on the questions of union decline, union organising, and efforts to revitalise the union movement, yet we... Find out more

January 13, 2021

An underutilised resource: the revitalising promise of new trade union members

Trade union membership prospects has declined in 24 out of 32 European countries in 2010–2017, compared to the first decade of the twenty-first century. Yet, even though union membership is declining... Find out more