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Copyright of Industrial Relations / Relations Industrielles is the property of Universite Laval, Department of Industrial Relations and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

International framework agreements (IFAs) represent a new generation of transnational agreements between multinational companies and global trade union federations. This paper analyzes the impact of such an agreement on a successful union organizing campaign in Colombia in 2012. We argue that management strategies towards corporate social responsibility and social dialogue influence the impact of IFAs on worker rights. However, this relationship is mediated by the capacity of managers and worker representatives at multiple levels to mobilize their capabilities. The results highlight the importance of institutionalized dialogue between managers and worker representatives, of the dissemination of capabilities across multilevel coordination structures and, most importantly, of their complementarities at various levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how the international competition to attract and retain foreign direct investment shapes the governance of business and employment systems. Through an examination of global production networks and the changing role of the state in economic governance, it highlights the sub-national regional space as an important level of institutional adaptation. Specifically, it explores how regions organise themselves to compete for inward investment, and the potential role of industrial relations actors within this. It argues that both research into multinational companies, and of the governance of employment systems more generally, need to incorporate an analysis of regional competition for productive investment more fully into their analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on social regulation of multinational companies (MNCs) and labor regulation. Topics include collective bargaining, regional economic prosperity strategies, and bilateral labor relations frameworks. Information is provided on global value chains (GVCs) and private regulation of disaggregated states.

How do unions contend with change in the face of strong external pressures associated with globalization? Comparative workplace ethnographies point to the persistent diversity of local actor responses. This article advances the concept of referential unionisms to understand the adaptive processes at play. Focusing on the interactions between collective identities, repertoires of action, power resources, and representative and strategic capacity, it examines how two workplace unions in the manufacturing sector in France and in Canada cope with management strategies to meet their multinational company performance objectives through the restructuring of social and productive relations in their sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study identifies three types of workplace union strategy in the development of cross-border relations within North American and European multinational companies: defensive isolation, risk reduction and proactive solidarity. Qualitative case studies of MNCs with operations in Canada and Mexico indicate that the nature and intensity of participation in cross-border trade union alliances are shaped by the union dynamic at the local, national and international levels. A combination of greater workplace union power resources, notably discursive capacity, and of strong supportive approach of the national union, notably dedicated resources and space for bottom-up initiatives, contributes to proactive solidarity strategies towards international union networks. The absence of these factors is associated with risk reduction and defensive isolation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do the restructuring of production networks, the decentralization of collective bargaining, and the rearticulation of work sites one to another across borders prompt local unions to engage in cross-border solidarities? Drawing on three cases in Mexico and three cases in Canada, this study identifies three patterns of local union involvement in cross-border alliances: defensive isolationism, risk aversion, and proactive solidarity. Four factors are associated with greater union involvement in cross-border alliances: local union power resources, especially discursive capacity or narrative framing; the orientation of the national or industry union; the thickness of and resources provided by international regulation; and the articulation between these different levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How are unions responding to change? Are they renewing? Drawing on the CRIMT International Colloquium on Union Renewal, this introductory paper presents the overarching themes in this special thematic issue of Labor Studies Journal. After a synoptic overview of the range of cases and methodological issues highlighted by the papers, three sets of issues are presented: the need to enhance basic union efficiency or instrumentality, the importance of union governance and internal organization, and the need to rethink union resources. The development of collective identities, the mobilization of external expertise and networks, and the development of union leadership are identified as key resources in the union renewal process and as important subjects for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization alters the balance of power between unions and employers. In decentralized bargaining regimes, local unions are therefore compelled to reexamine the resources that they can mobilize in their power relationships. This article offers a framework to conceptualize the power resources available to local unions. This strategic triangle for local union renewal includes three types of power resources: proactivity or agenda; internal solidarity or democracy; and external solidarity, both with other unions and with the community and other social groups. It is argued that in a global economy, union renewal or revitalization strategies require local unions to develop and mobilize these interdependent power resources in order to achieve positive bargaining and political outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the results of a national survey of labor organizations in Canada, this paper focuses on the changing environment and strategic orientations of unions. It looks at the strategic dilemma facing Canadian unions on the basis of a reading of their organizational and bargaining priorities and their relative success in achieving them. Key results include the necessity of a strategic mix between traditional and new types of objectives as well as the importance of policy and the democratic dialogue that underpins that policy in achieving union objectives and pursuing union renewal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented which discusses topics within the issue including industrial relations, and teh challenges faced by most national union movements in the industrialized economies.

In linking the discontinuities in the development of industrial relations theory in Canada with succeeding historical phases in the evolution of Canadian industrial relations, this article argues that an understanding of industrial relations theory must be historically grounded. It identifies four phases of theoretical development and suggests that the hold of systems theory on the discipline should be understood as the product of a specific historical period which is now giving way to the emergence of new approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on change in union structures and the challenges posed by current socio-economic transformations for the emergence of appropriate representative structures. From the decade of the 1970s with the double oil shock through the recession and continuing economic adjustments of the 1980s, unions have represented a diminishing proportion of the labour force in a number of the industrialized Western economies. A range of environmental changes have affected union organizations and their relations with their members.