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These two books deal, respectively, with the division of the American labor movement in 2005 and the dramatic strike of graduate teaching assistants at New York University in the same year. They are also representative of a larger class of writing on ''union revitalization' that deals with the condition of the labor movement and its prospects for renewal. In this review article, the author uses the two books to reflect on the dominant themes of this broader literature. These include an emphasis on the deep hostility of neoliberalism to organized labor, the failure of the existing labor movement, and the need for a neosyndicalist strategy to achieve revitalization. Keywords: labor movement; neoliberalism; public sociology, strike; trade union; union revitalization

Over the past 20 years, human resource (HR) management has emerged as a major field of social science inquiry dealing with the employment relationship. In this review article, the author considers the nature of this significant field, arguing that it is marked by contention rather than a coherent program of work informed by shared theory and assumptions. Contention in HR management can be seen in divisions over the subject matter of the HR field, forms of explanation, normative positions, and understandings of the public role of HR scholars. Keywords: human resource management; industrial relations; personnel management; strategic human resource management

I Making Light Work i is an engaging and extremely valuable contribution to the burgeoning literature on job quality. Spencer charts a middle course between these rival traditions, arguing against the first that good work can contribute to human flourishing while arguing against the latter that much contemporary work fails dismally to contribute to this end. William Morris's ideas on how work might be rehumanized in a post-capitalist future, meanwhile, is the source for Spencer's advocacy for "light work" that occupies less time and is intrinsically more rewarding. [Extracted from the article]

The abstract contributes to the literature by identifying a new form of voluntarism, the employer-led voluntarism of Employer Forums in the United Kingdom. Forums carry out private voluntary regulation to raise labour and social standards within their member firms through introducing codes of conducts and implementing norms through assessments, benchmarking, and certification. The article compares this new form with the traditional approach where unions and employer associations regulate jointly through collective bargaining. While the scope, scale, and impact of new and traditional voluntarism diverge, both are underpinned by the regulation of Employment Relations by non-state actors. Voluntarism is not in secular decline, but instead continues through the emergence of new employer-led forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dr Ritson published an article in this journal on Employer Associations (EAs) in the UK. He set out a case study of a sub-UK EA within the Engineering Employers' Federation before criticising an article we published on countervailing power in the Human Resources Management Journal. Dr Ritson argues that we misunderstand the structures and roles of EAs, and that as a result our argument on countervailing power was misguided. We do not accept this critique, as he misread our empirical findings and misunderstood our arguments within the first period we examine, from the 1960s to 1979. Dr Ritson also criticized our arguments within our second period, from 1979 to 2016. But he does not have sufficient data to either substantiate his critique or develop an alternative argument. Such gaps prompt the question: what happened to sub-UK employer organisation after 1984? We argue that sub-UK EAs of the type analysed by Dr Ritson were marginalised by the decline of collective industrial relations. But a partial rejuvenation took place after 1999 as employers organised to countervail the power of devolved parliaments and assemblies, although revival was narrowly focussed and very different to the previous pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role of the devolved governments of Scotland and Wales in promoting the voluntary Living Wage. It shows that active promotion of the Living Wage standard has emerged in both countries from a broader commitment to an economic policy of 'inclusive growth'. Employment law is not a devolved matter, and the article identifies a broad range of economic incentives and soft forms of regulation that have been used by the devolved governments to promote the Living Wage in the absence of hard power to legislate. Non‐legislative forms of state intervention are often regarded sceptically, but the article shows that the attempts of devolved governments to spread the Living Wage have been impactful, particularly in Scotland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines employers' organisations in the United Kingdom, drawing upon 70 interviews and a new dataset encompassing 447 employers' organisations. The article's contribution is to develop a new typology of employers' organisations capturing their organisational change in the wake of the decline of collective bargaining. It does this by drawing on a conceptualisation of employers' organisations as intermediary organisations before identifying four organisational types: lobbying, service, negotiating and standard-setting employers' organisations. The article also identifies and discusses factors that underlie this pattern of differentiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) practices are increasingly being viewed as an improved way of resolving workplace conflict. Much of the empirical literature focuses on the spread of ADR amongst US organizations with little evidence of such approaches having crossed the Atlantic. This article presents new survey evidence that examines the extent to which ADR has been adopted as a strategy to resolve different forms of conflict by Welsh firms in the UK. The factors that impact upon the diffusion of ADR are also analysed. The article finds that in contrast to earlier research, ADR is widespread amongst Welsh firms, irrespective of how broadly ADR is defined. The presence of institutional actors such as specialist HR managers and recognized trade unions are found to be positively associated with more private forms of ADR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the collective, member-based employers' associations in the UK that regulate the employment relationship by participating in collective bargaining. The main empirical contribution is to provide, for the first time, a longitudinal dataset of employers' associations in the UK. We use archival data from the UK Government's Certification Office to build a new dataset, identifying a decline of 81% in the number of employers' associations between 1976 and 2013–2014. We also find that political agency and reducing levels of collective bargaining undermined employers' associations by reducing employers' incentives to associate, although changes within the UK's system of employment relations enabled other types of collective employer organisation to survive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of countervailing power has been used to suggest that the power of unions explains the origins and development of employers' organisations (EOs). However, unions have declined since the 1970s, but EOs continue to play an important role in employment relations. If pressure from unions is not sufficient to explain continuing employer organisation, what does account for it? This article pursues this question by examining the evolution and activity of UK EOs between the 1960s and 2016. Our countervailing power argument goes beyond a sole focus on unions to include changing pressures and demands on EOs caused by the state such as individual rights legislation and campaigns by civil society organisations. The changing force exerted by these societal pressures helps to explain the shift of EOs' focus from collective bargaining, nowadays only pursued by a minority of EOs, to lobbying, provision of services, legal support, and training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employer organisations and the literature examining them have transformed since their inception in the 19th century. We systematically review this literature and the evolving role of employer organisations by focusing on the most cited publications of this body of academic work. This article provides a synopsis of our current understanding of employer organisations, identifies gaps in our knowledge, and develops the following argument. Employer organisations adapted to changing socio‐economic contexts by evolving within and across three roles—as industrial relations actor, political actor, and service provider. Historically, employer organisations were predominantly understood as an industrial relations actor with collective bargaining as their defining activity. However, employer organisations also influenced the political process through lobbying and participating in corporatist arrangements, although more recently their provision of member services has grown in scope and importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A neglected element of Rethinking Industrial Relations is its critique of postmodernism. This article argues that this is regrettable on three grounds. First, core claims that characterized the postmodern account of employment relations at the time that Kelly was writing continue to be made today; particularly with regard to the characteristics of ‘new’ social movements and their capacity to replace labour as the main dynamic force advancing employee interests. Second, Kelly’s critique of postmodernism remains relevant and his observations with regard to the multiple forms and modes of action of new social movements continue to have force. Third, Kelly suggested that rather than replacing labour, new social movements were natural allies of trade unions. His argument here anticipated much later work on union–community coalitions and the final purpose of the article is to update Kelly’s ‘fusion thesis’ by identifying the ways in which labour and new social movements work together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses evidence from a survey of accredited Living Wage Employers to examine the extent to which trade unions have supported, campaigned for and been involved in the introduction of the voluntary or 'real' Living Wage in the UK. It reports that while unions tended to view the adoption of the Living Wage favourably and to support its introduction they typically were not heavily involved either in the initial decision to adopt the standard or in its implementation. This pattern of findings, it is suggested, is consistent with the union response to corporate social responsibility initiatives and provides only limited support for the commonly argued position that 'economic justice' movements provide fertile ground for the development of union‐community coalitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Petroleum Driver Passport is an example of the reregulation of the labour market, the development of employment rules that apply across multiple employers in a given industry, occupation or region. The scheme requires drivers of road tankers to possess a Passport, indicating their safety competence, if they are to collect and transport fuel in the UK's downstream oil-distribution industry. This article presents a case study of the Passport scheme, which identifies the factors that contributed to the scheme's development, assesses its impact and draws lessons for other possible initiatives to reregulate the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a broad overview of the pluralist tradition in UK industrial relations scholarship, identifying its defining characteristics and mapping its evolution in recent decades. It deals in turn with the following: the appreciation of the relative interests of workers and employers that lies at the heart of the pluralist frame of reference, the research agenda that flows from this understanding, pluralist conceptions of context and agency within industrial relations, the standards that pluralists habitually use when assessing the employment relationship, the targets and modes of critique that pluralists direct against intellectual opponents, and the prescriptions that pluralists offer for industrial relations reform. Throughout the article there is a focus on change within the pluralist tradition and the manner in which it has adapted to the hegemony of neoliberalism in the realms of both ideas and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to highlight the role of ideas in shaping the form, dynamics and products of the employment relationship. This article differentiates between various types of ideas, emphasizes the various types of agency that are involved in the creation, maintenance and defence of ideas and identifies a number of mechanisms that help to understand how actors promote ideas, how ideas gain broader prominence and how ideas change. Finally, we discuss the importance of context and resources in shaping ideational processes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the involvement of civil society organizations (CSOs) in UK industrial relations. Organizations of this type, including advocacy, campaigning, identity and community organizations have attracted increasing attention from employment relations scholars in recent years. The study reported in this article demonstrates that CSOs have become increasingly active in the sphere of work and employment, partly in response to trade union decline but also owing to political opportunities, afforded by the labour market policy of the New Labour government. It is claimed that CSOs operate at multiple levels of the industrial relations system and interact with the state, employers and trade unions. They generate significant effects within UK industrial relations and can rightly be judged significant 'new actors' on the UK employment scene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper seeks to focus on civil society organizations (CSOs) and their capacity to exercise power in the employment relationship. In particular, the paper is concerned with identifying the sources of power, how it is exercised and whether CSOs can exert pressure on other employment actors despite their apparent lack of resources possessed by more established representative structures. Design/methodology/approach – Findings are based on 139 completed postal questionnaires and 47 interviews, primarily face-to-face, across 34 different CSOs. Findings – Adopting a resource dependence framework suggests that CSOs have the capacity to exercise power and influence key employment actors. However, the power of CSOs is undermined by the absence of an internal organizational presence, making it difficult to mobilize workers. Research limitations/implications – The research highlights the role of an often-ignored employment actor. To provide further insights further research is needed to garner the views of other employment participants. Originality/value – In employee relations discussions of workplace power have typically focused on the power of the state, employers and trade unions. This paper adopts a novel angle by exploring the role of CSOs and their ability to exercise power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Employment Relations Act 1999 seemingly presented UK unions with an opportunity to reverse their long-term decline in membership. This article examines union responses to this change and uses original survey evidence to investigate union organizing campaigns. It explores the targeting, resourcing, objectives, methods and employer responses to union organizing activity in the UK between 1998 and 2004. The evidence indicates a complex pattern, in which experimentation with new methods and organizing to increase the diversity of union membership are balanced by conservatism in the selection of targets and the allocation of only modest resources to the task of union renewal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the concept of civil regulation has begun to feature in the business and management literature, it has yet to be applied to the management of people at work. Data from a study of how civil society organisations try to influence directly the policies and practices of employers are used to examine how civil regulation operates in the field of HRM. An approach to conceptualising regulatory systems is used as a framework for demonstrating the main characteristics of civil regulation. The development of civil regulation attests to the complex regulatory environment governing HRM, highlighting the continued importance of institutions in an original and distinctive manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on research evidence from the United Kingdom, the main features of non-union worker representation through civil society organisations (CSOs) are elaborated. The interventions of CSOs are marked by an emphasis on using indirect methods of worker representation beyond the boundaries of the workplace, such as awareness raising measures and political lobbying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Studies of workplace equality have often questioned the effectiveness of employers' efforts to tackle employment disadvantage. This article is concerned with the role that civil society organisations (CSOs) play in promoting equality at work. The main aims of this article are to: examine the role played by CSOs in promoting equality and challenging disadvantage at work through engaging with employers; characterise the ways in which they operate as mediating agents; and to reflect on the implications of CSO interventions for understanding how the process of mediating workplace equality operates. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses interview data from a study of the work and employment-related activities of CSOs operating in the UK, and was undertaken during 2007 and 2008. In-depth interviews were conducted with key respondents from a carefully selected sample of CSOs. Findings – It is found that there is a marked emphasis that many CSOs place on tackling equality issues by engaging positively with employers. Originality/value – The paper examines the role played by CSOs in tackling inequality and disadvantage in work and employment by engaging with employers, characterising how they operate as mediating agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The system of worker representation in many countries today is comprised of multiple institutions: trade unions, statutory works councils, employer-sponsored participation and civil society organizations that speak on behalf of particular groups in the workforce or on particular issues. The purpose of this article is to propose an evaluation framework that can be applied to all of the institutions of representation within this multiform system. Application of the framework, using secondary evidence from the United Kingdom, suggests that trade unions are the most effective institution of worker representation but that they can operate successfully in conjunction with other forms. A multiform system of worker representation can advance the interests of people at work, provided a revitalized trade union movement lies at its heart. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents original research on employer responses to trade union organising campaigns in the United Kingdom. The evidence indicates that there is no single response, with employers in some cases seeking to block and in others support union activity. These different patterns are strongly path dependent and reflect the prior degree of exposure to trade unionism of workplaces targeted for organising. Another finding is that employer responses co-vary with union approaches to organising, such that when the employer adopts adversarial tactics so does the union. The militancy of both parties, it seems, is mutually reinforcing. Finally, the evidence points to substantial influence of employer responses over the outcomes of organising. When employers are supportive then campaigns tend to be more successful, measured on a range of criteria. When the employer is hostile unions find it difficult to make progress and encounter particular difficulties in securing recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been a trend for trade unions to attempt to represent contingent workers, including agency staff, workers on fixed-term contracts and the self-employed. This article seeks to explain and characterize this development in the UK. The main conclusions are that contingent workers require an “upscaling” of union representation, beyond the workplace, and that methods other than collective bargaining are more important for advancing the interests of this group. These methods include attempts to regulate labour markets unilaterally, provide union services and make use of employment law. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Representation Gap was one of the finest achievements of Brian Towers's academic life. In this important book he described the extent of the representation gap in Britain and the United States and examined attempts to close the gap through public policy, the revitalisation of trade unions and the development of new institutions of worker representation. On the sad occasion of Brian's death, this article returns to the main themes of the book and examines how academic analysis and developments in the real world of industrial relations have progressed since its publication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]