XVIII ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 13-19, 2014)

July 13 - 19, 2014

188

Trade Unions and Participation

RC10 Participation, Organizational Democracy and Self-Management (host committee)

Language: English

This session will explore the impact of the crisis on trade unions and recent developments in the field of worker participation. Contributions analysing the theme at local, national, European and global level are welcome. With regard to the local and national level of analysis we are particularly interested by the impacts of austerity policies and their tendency to undermine trade union and employee rights. In particular, we invite the contributors to address the following questions: •How and to what extent does the crisis impact on the scope of worker participation? •Is institutionalised worker participation undergoing deregulation processes? •Does the crisis contribute to greater divergences between countries with regard to the exercise of participation rights? Furthermore, the session intends to analyse the possibilities of trade unions and worker participation to address the processes of trans-nationalisation of economic activities and in particular restructuring processes at transnational level. As the most developed supranational rights of information and consultation are enabled by EU directives, the session should address their effectiveness vis-à-vis restructuring processes in times of crisis. In this context, we would also like to look what types of transnational strategies trade unions pursue in order to address the consequences of the crisis. Finally, the session also intends to look at new experiences of trade union and employee involvement at global level. Thus, in this session we welcome contributions dealing with the role and the concrete impact of transnational company agreements on industrial relations and worker participation at local level.