British Journal of Industrial Relations最新文献

This research investigates how and why the digitalization of work can disrupt age-based earnings stratification in an occupation. Analysing a service archive dataset from a major online legal service platform in China, the study finds that, contrary to the traditional patterns of income inequality, younger lawyers earn more than older lawyers in the digital legal field. Further analyses of the platform's service records and interviews with lawyers working on this platform suggest that the platform's work content and work distribution mechanism make mature lawyers’ human, social and symbolic capital less useful. Meanwhile, the preferences of platform clients place added value on younger lawyers’ digital habitus and turn it into a new form of cultural capital, manifested in their proficiency and effectiveness in digital communication. By examining habitus and capital in the emerging digital legal field, this research deepens the understanding of the impact of digital technologies on knowledge-intensive occupations.

This article unveils the establishment or rejection of strike funds as a tangible organisational tool towards union renewal. Despite strike funds being a necessary and recurring instrument in the organisation of strikes, they have seldom been theorised as a distinct (infrastructural) power resource fundamental to understanding unions’ readiness and preparation for industrial conflict. Institutionalised strike funds, supported by union dues, provide economic support to strikers, reinforce their collective identity, legitimise a more confrontational position towards collective bargaining and may garner support from the broader community. Additionally, strike funds may serve as tools to attract members and shape narratives that can influence corporate positions and public opinion during labour disputes. Through a comparative analysis of 10 confederal unions in Spain, we illustrate the different strategic views that unions may hold with respect to them. Crucially, we find that the presence or absence of strike funds reflects the specific political position a union adopts concerning industrial conflict and how they may possibly articulate them with other power resources. Hence, the institutionalisation of strike funds involves a complex union renewal process, which is also influenced by a comparative learning process between unions. Finally, we also explain the flourishing of different strike funds during the last decades that derive from a spillover effect between counterpower and radical unions.

Research on the consequences of works councils has been dominated by economic aspects. Our study provides evidence that works councils have non-financial consequences for society that go beyond the boundaries of the workplace. Using panel data from a large sample of workers in Germany, we show that works councils have an influence on workers’ party preferences. Works council presence is negatively associated with preferences for extreme right-wing parties and positively associated with preferences for the Social Democratic Party and The Left. These results hold in panel data estimations including a large set of controls and accounting for unobserved individual-specific factors. Our findings fit the notion that workplace democracy increases workers’ solidarity and their awareness of social and political issues. However, the influence of works council representation on party preferences is gender-specific. Asymmetric gender norms within society may entail a lower responsiveness of women's party preferences to workplace democracy.

We compare union officer occupational turnaway in Canada, Italy and the United States. We identify three forces that, in addition to industrial relations institutional settings, shape union officers’ individual decisions on turnaway: push, pull and values. We analysed 101 semi-structured interviews with ex-union officers. To shed light on the diversity of their turnaway, we propose a typology composed of six types, each of which is based on one force or the interplay of two or three. Our findings suggest occupational values misfit is central. Former officers experienced a gap between their values and the union's external mission and/or internal functioning, or even developed a root occupational values difference. In addition, contextual characteristics seem to shape turnaway, including industrial relations institutions and societal values. Implications for trade union organizational policies are discussed.