Works Councils

Works Councils

Author: Joel Rogers

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2009-05-15

Total Pages: 436

ISBN-13: 0226723798

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

As the influence of labor unions declines in many industrialized nations, particularly the United States, the influence of workers has decreased. Because of the need for greater involvement of workers in changing production systems, as well as frustration with existing structures of workplace regulation, the search has begun for new ways of providing a voice for workers outside the traditional collective bargaining relationship. Works councils—institutionalized bodies for representative communication between an employer and employees in a single workplace—are rare in the Anglo-American world, but are well-established in other industrialized countries. The contributors to this volume survey the history, structure, and functions of works councils in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, Sweden, Italy, Poland, Canada, and the United States. Special attention is paid to the relations between works councils and unions and collective bargaining, works councils and management, and the role and interest of governments in works councils. On the basis of extensive comparative data from other Western countries, the book demonstrates powerfully that well-designed works councils may be more effective than labor unions at solving management-labor problems.


Joint Industrial Councils in British History

Joint Industrial Councils in British History

Author: James W. Stitt

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2006-03-30

Total Pages: 227

ISBN-13: 0313081980

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Joint Industrial Councils: Inception, Adoption, and Utilization, 1917-1939 is a study of how a WWI proposal for permanent improvement in labor-management relations came about, why the target industries ignored it, and how it found a purpose in the second-tier industries for which it was not originally intended. The press, social reformers, academics, and various business interests touted JICs as the beginning of worker control of industry, while skilled trade unions saw them as a plot to harm workers' interests. Their eventual modest use was directed to needs within individual industrial enterprises and not to more global missions, such as the remaking of British industry in general. But successful JICs undertook serious issues that management and unions needed to address, such as wage rates, retirement plans for workers, and safety-related concerns. Moreover, the level of labor-management understanding in JIC industries improved to the point that these industries suffered no strikes in the inter-war period; the conditions of employment for the workers improved; and productivity increased.