Swords of Justice in an Age of Retrenchment?: The Role of Trade Unions in Welfare Provision

Alison Johnston; Andreas Kornelakis; Costanza Rodriguez d'Acri

doi:10.1177/1024258912439148

Swords of Justice in an Age of Retrenchment? The Role of Trade Unions in Welfare Provision

Alison Johnston, Andreas Kornelakis, Costanza Rodriguez d'Acri

Human Resource Management

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11 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

The recent financial crisis has once again highlighted the precarious situation of trade unions: austerity measures have targeted unions’ traditional institutional ally, the welfare state, as well as their last organizational stronghold, the public sector. The purpose of this article is to examine how trade unions have responded to reductions in welfare provision, due either to reform or to state inaction, and how state retrenchment can provide a silver lining for unions via the enhancement of unions’ bargaining responsibilities. We argue that, apart from retrenchment and privatization, there is a third road to welfare reform which involves unions’ ‘collectivization’ of social risks through the take-up of marginalized policies in bargaining agreements. Presenting evidence from a most-likely (the Netherlands) and least-likely (Greece) case, we identify instances where unions have acted as pivotal political substitutes to the state in the realm of welfare provision.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	213-224
Journal	TRANSFER
Volume	18
Issue number	2
Early online date	11 Apr 2012
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/1024258912439148
Publication status	Published - May 2012

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Swords of Justice in an Age of Retrenchment? The Role of Trade Unions in Welfare Provision AAMAccepted author manuscript, 258 KB

Cite this

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abstract = "The recent financial crisis has once again highlighted the precarious situation of trade unions: austerity measures have targeted unions{\textquoteright} traditional institutional ally, the welfare state, as well as their last organizational stronghold, the public sector. The purpose of this article is to examine how trade unions have responded to reductions in welfare provision, due either to reform or to state inaction, and how state retrenchment can provide a silver lining for unions via the enhancement of unions{\textquoteright} bargaining responsibilities. We argue that, apart from retrenchment and privatization, there is a third road to welfare reform which involves unions{\textquoteright} {\textquoteleft}collectivization{\textquoteright} of social risks through the take-up of marginalized policies in bargaining agreements. Presenting evidence from a most-likely (the Netherlands) and least-likely (Greece) case, we identify instances where unions have acted as pivotal political substitutes to the state in the realm of welfare provision. ",

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Swords of Justice in an Age of Retrenchment? The Role of Trade Unions in Welfare Provision

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