The New Structure of Labor Relations

by Katz, Harry C.; Lee, Wonduck; Lee, Joohee

• ISBN13: 9780801441844
• ISBN10: 0801441846
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-03-01
• Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr

Summary

Tripartism-the national-level interaction among representatives of labor, management, and government-occurs infrequently in the United States. Based on the U.S. experience, then, such interactions might seem irrelevant to economic performance and policymaking. The essays in this volume reveal the falsity of that assumption. Contributors from eight industrialized countries (Australia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, and the United States) examine the changing nature of labor-management relations, with a particular focus on the role of tripartism and the decentralization of collective bargaining. Although nonexistent in the United States and on the decline in Japan and Australia, tripartism flourishes in Germany, Ireland, and the Netherlands, expanding beyond traditional corporatist partners to include women's organizations, senior citizens, and other representatives of "civic society." The vibrancy of the coordinating mechanisms that help shape employment conditions and labor policy contradicts the traditional belief that an overpowering unilateral decentralizing shift is underway in labor-management interactions. The contributors show that these mechanisms are in fact increasing in the face of intensified pressures, promoting greater flexibility in work organization and working time.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Changing Nature of Labor, Management, and Government Interactions	1	(9)
Harry C. Katz
1 The Irish Experiment In Social Partnership	10	(27)
Paul Teague and James Donaghey
2 The Netherlands: Resilience in Structure, Revolution in Substance	37	(22)
Hans Slomp
3 Collective Bargaining and Social Pacts in Italy	59	(25)
Ida Regalia and Marino Regini
4 The Changing Nature of Collective Bargaining in Germany: Coordinated Decentralization	84	(35)
Gerhard Bosch
5 The Rise and Fall of Interunion Wage Coordination and Tripartite Dialogue in Japan	119	(24)
Akira Suzuki
6 Will the Model of Uncoordinated Decentralization Persist? Changes in Korean Industrial Relations After the Financial Crisis	143	(23)
Wonduck Lee and Joohee Lee
7 The Changing Structure of Collective Bargaining in Australia	166	(26)
Marian Baird and Russell D. Lansbury
8 United States: The Spread of Coordination and Decentralization without National-Level Tripartism	192	(21)
Harry C. Katz
Summary: Reconstructing Decentralized Collective Bargaining and Other Trends in Labor-Management-Government Interactions	213	(12)
Wonduck Lee, Joohee Lee, and Harry C. Katz
Notes	225	(10)
References	235	(22)
Contributors	257	(2)
Index	259