Le syndicat des travailleurs domestiques de Rio de Janeiro : un observatoire des transformations de l'emploi domestique au Brésil

This study of the major dimensions of actions undertaken by the labor union for household employees in Rio de Janeiro shows how the new “social rights” extended to these personal service workers has led to a new sense of what is “fair” and to an increase in lawsuits with employers. Given its place in labor relations courts, the union's position is ambivalent. Light is shed on the tensions between various categories of persons who visit the union's offices — tensions that tell us much about social relations. Attention is then turned to this small organization's role in labor courts: after cases have been heard, household employees often have a feeling that their rights have been upheld.     

Economic recession and migrant/minority youth in Western Europe and the United States

This paper considers the educational opportunities and employment futures of the children of migrants and minorities in Western Europe and the US beyond the lowest-paid and lowest-valued jobs currently held by their parents. Given that the economic recession has aggravated unemployment in the countries of origin of workers migrating to both Northern Europe and the US, it seems likely that workers will still want to go abroad. On the other hand, these workers in both regions have been concentrated in a highly segmented labor market in which they have little opportunity for professional advancement. A thriving black market for illegal workers also exists both for the US and for Northern Europe. Since this labor market structure shows no signs of fundamental change through natural or policy-directed means, it appears unlikely that migrants' children can expect any significant enhancement of their professional prospects. An alternative educational strategy might involve public commitment to provide effective education, training, and subsidized employment for all young people. Some type of allowance would be guaranteed to all young people engaging in further education and training schemes. Since the state is responsible for free elementary and secondary education, there may be a convincing argument that public responsibility extends to providing free further education and access to employment as well, as part of a forward-looking strategy for overcoming youth unemployment. Obviously, the current conservative climate across industrial nations is more inclined to blame the sloth of the victim who is unemployed. It is a legitimate question, however, as to how far a society can allow itself to widen the gap between rich and poor before it is obligated to change things.     

The employment service and vacancy durations

In the literature, there are few examples of studies analyzing the impact of labor market programs on vacancies. This article presents the results of a study of the impact of personnel increase at Swedish employment offices on vacancy durations. The evaluation method in the study is quasi-experimental. The main results of the study are as follows: (a) The increase of employment office staff members reduced their vacancy durations by approximately 2 days, and the probability that a vacancy is cancelled from the register is 1.17 times higher for the program offices; and (b) this effect is too small for the increase of staff members to represent a socially efficient use of resources and for a positive outcome in a public finance context.     

Reshaping the social contract: emerging relations between the state and informal labor in India

As states grapple with the forces of liberalization and globalization, they are increasingly pulling back on earlier levels of welfare provision and rhetoric. This article examines how the eclipsing role of the state in labor protection has affected state–labor relations. In particular, it analyzes collective action strategies among India’s growing mass of informally employed workers, who do not receive secure wages or benefits from either the state or their employer. In response to the recent changes in state policies, I find that informal workers have had to alter their organizing strategies in ways that are reshaping the social contract between state and labor. Rather than demanding employers for workers’ benefits, they are making direct demands on the state for welfare benefits. To attain state attention, informal workers are using the rhetoric of citizenship rights to offer their unregulated labor and political support in return for state recognition of their work. Such recognition bestows informal workers with a degree of social legitimacy, thereby dignifying their discontent and bolstering their status as claim makers in their society. These findings offer a reformulated model of state–labor relations that focuses attention on the qualitative, rather than quantitative, nature of the nexus; encompasses a dynamic and inter-dependent conceptualization of state and labor; and accommodates the creative and diverse strategies of industrial relations being forged in the contemporary era.

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Devolution of employment and training policy: the case of older workers

The case for the devolution of employment and training programs has traditionally been based on the supply side argument that state and local governments are in the best position to assess the training needs of their disadvantaged workers. We provide a different perspective by focusing on the demand side of the labor market and the link between aiding older workers and fostering economic growth. We illustrate the importance of this focus by examining the labor market in Massachusetts, where the full employment economy of the late 1990s resulted in serious labor supply bottlenecks. Older workers, whose ranks are growing rapidly, provide the largest known labor reserve for meeting these labor supply deficits in the next decade. Tapping this reserve, however, means improving skills, deferring retirement, bringing older persons back into the labor market, and increasing full-time employment. Massachusetts already has the policy tools needed to train older workers to fill emerging job needs, but these policies will need to be substantially upgraded and reoriented. Too little funding, an emphasis on short-term programs, lack of coordination among programs, weak linkages to the private sector, and the limited flexibility of human resources practices in both the private and public sectors have left both government programs and employers ill-prepared to utilize fully the older worker labor reserve.     

The guests who stayed--the debate on 'foreigners policy' in the German Federal Republic

The recruitment of "guest workers" between 1956 and 1973 by West German employers has given rise to new ethnic minorities. The Federal Republic of Germany (GFR) claims that it is not a country of immigration--a controversy that reflects the basic dilemma over policies towards foreign residents, who now comprise about 7% of the total population. The shift from temporary labor migration to long-term settlement has been accompanied by structural changes in the foreign resident population. The logic of the migratory process is inescapable: virtually all migrations, whether organized or spontaneous, start with movements of young adult workers. When recruitment stated in the late 1950s state migration policies were concerned only with short-term fulfillment of capital's labor requirements. The state established a system of institutionalized discrimination, through which temporary guest workers could be recruited, controlled, and sent away, as the interests of capital dictated. This policy was impracticable because many firms found that rotation led to problems of labor fluctuation and high training costs. The trend toward restrictive policies on migration continued in the early 1980s; rising unemployment and urban problems led to widespread hostility towards foreigners. 3 key issues need resolving quickly: 1) the granting of security of residence status, so that migrant families have a clear basis for planning their own future, 2) the extending of political rights to foreign residents, and 3) the issue of citizenship. Like other West European countries, the GFR has become a multiethnic society through the postwar labor migrations. The early reform of legal structures to give migrants more rights is a precondition for social peace, and for achieving the benefits which multiculturalism can offer to all members of society.     

The retention of public child welfare workers: The roles of professional organizational culture and coping strategies

The purpose of the current study was to investigate how professional organizational culture and coping strategies (control coping and avoidance coping) related to workers' intentions to remain employed in child welfare. With a sample of 234 frontline workers employed in Department of Human Services-Division of Family and Children Services (DHS-DFCS) offices in a state in the Southeastern region of the U.S., the current study tested a model in which coping strategies mediate the relationship between professional organizational culture and workers' intentions to remain employed in child welfare. Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed model. Results revealed that professional organizational culture and control coping were significantly and positively related to workers' intentions to remain employed in child welfare. In addition, control coping mediated the relationship between professional organizational culture and worker retention. On the other hand, a significant relationship between avoidance coping and workers' intentions to remain employed in child welfare was not found. Implications of the findings for practice and recommendations for future research are discussed.     

Finding Hope in the Life of Young Part-timers

The objective of this article is to link the structural factor (employment structure) and subjective factor (notion of labor) concerned with the generation process of young part-timers (freeters) by considering their life histories in terms of hope. Based on the ongoing research conducted over a period of 5 years on three male freeters, the following facts have come to light. Freeters are located on the lower strata of full-time and part-time jobs. They cannot envision a future career path in either employment style. Due to current labor ethics, they cannot form a subgroup that acknowledges their employment style and present-time orientation. Under pressure from labor ethics, which insist that they do “decent” work, they cannot help but hope to escape from this double-bind. To put it briefly, present Japanese society needs flexible workers, on the one hand, but cannot permit them to be flexible on the other. This kind of structural tension drives the young workers to hope. But hope does not dissolve the structural tension. On the contrary, it works to prolong this structural tension itself.     

Building Factories Without Bosses: The Movement of Worker-Managed Factories in Argentina

In the 1990s and 2000s, Argentina suffered one of the quickest and most extreme processes of neoliberal state reforms in the world, leading to the closure of numerous factories. To resist the increased unemployment produced by neoliberalism, workers started to organize in a movement aimed at defending their only source of income: their labor. In this article, I analyze the main characteristics of the movement of worker-managed factories in Argentina by exploring how factories were occupied, what motivated the workers' decision to create co-operatives, what made the factories economically viable, how they were legitimated by the community, which legal reforms workers achieved to support their struggle, and how they manage their factories.     

Logistics labor: Insights from the sociologies of globalization,the economy,and work

This article identifies the origins of the rise of the logistics industry to highlight the powerful structural position that this endows on the industry and its workers. I begin by analyzing an often‐neglected aspect of globalization by describing the logistics, or goods movement industry, and identifying the role that the “logistics revolution” plays within the contemporary capitalist system. Then, synthesizing insights from global, economic, and labor sociology, I argue that the structural “brokerage” position of logistics workers in the global economy offers them key advantages on which labor and political movements might capitalize in struggles for economic justice and worker rights. I examine empirical research regarding labor organizing within logistics to determine if workers leverage this powerful position into concrete gains. Finally, I argue that more attention needs to be paid to how logistics workers recognize, articulate, and utilize their potentially powerful position in globalization flows. Future research should endeavor to understand how this can be achieved among wide groups of logistics workers to achieve the most success in labor and political movements.     

The Impact of Extending Working Lives on Youth Employment in Great Britain

ABSTRACT

The article investigates the association between youth and older workers’ employment participation in the United Kingdom using yearly data provided by the Labor Force Survey. Presenting a short state of the art, the paper shows that, with few exceptions, empirical analyses usually assume that increasing the labor market participation of the older workers does not affect negatively youth employment. Nevertheless, testing several variables and three different statistical models, the empirical part of the article nuances this evidence. The association between youth employment participation and older workers’ employment participation tends to be significantly after controlling for public policy outcomes.     

Equity market response to union decertification petitions and elections

The effect of union decertification elections on the valuation of corporations is examined using a standard event study methodology. Cumulative abnormal daily common stock returns for 203 NYSE and AMEX listed firms are estimated for the day on which a petition for a decertification election is filed and for the day on which the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) certifies the decertification election outcome. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that successful union decertifications increase firm valuation and unsuccessful ones reduce firm valuation. The primary carrier of valuation information is the date the NLRB confirms the decertification election results. The petition file date yields little, if any, information about the firm’s capitalization. The authors thank the directors of the regional NLRB offices and the editor of this journal for their assistance. The usual caveats concerning errors and omissions apply. Correspondence should be directed to William L. Huth.     

Adolescent fathers involved with child protection: social workers speak

This study examined adolescent paternity through structured interviews with their social workers. It adds to the literature by exploring if there were young men involved with the child protection services (CPS) system who are fathers, identifying their unique needs, and beginning discussions on working with these young men. CPS social workers from six area offices and one juvenile detention facility completed surveys for each father on their caseload. A 3.5% rate of adolescent paternity was observed across these offices. Information about the nature of the young men's involvement with CPS, their involvement with their children, and their unique needs as fathers are provided. This paper also identifies some practice and policy implications for adolescent fathers and CPS charged with their care.     

WORK AND THE DIVISION OF LABOR

The paper is an attempt to conceptualize the division of labor in terms of work. This perspective leads to a necessary distinction between work and workers, and its implications. Among the main considerations discussed are actor, accountability, division of rights versus division of labor, work patterns and interactional styles, rapidly changing organizations and industries in relation to their divisions of labor, and reciprocal macro and micro impacts. Some research implications are also discussed.     

The desire for impact

This paper explores the meaning and implications of the desire by workers for impact. We find that this impact motive can make a firm in a competitive labor market face an upward-sloping supply curve of labor, lead workers with the same characteristics but at different firms to earn different wages, may alleviate the hold-up problem in firm-specific investment, can make it profitable for an employer to give workers autonomy in effort or task choice, and can propagate shocks to unemployment.     

The Rhetoric of the State: Dependency and Control in a Malaysian–Indonesian Borderland Key Words:

This article examines dependency on cross-border labor and marriage along the international frontier in the Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo) and some local efforts to restrict outsiders. The international border in this remote region of Borneo is highly permeable, and border-crossing activities, including seasonal migrant wage labor and cross-border marriage, are crucial both to the local political economy and to the reproduction of the Kelabit family and farm. This article explores the unique position of the Kelabit as they attempt to appropriate aspects of state power or use the rhetoric of state power in their efforts to maintain a status quo with regard to neighboring, and closely related, migrant workers from across the border.     

The State Connection in China's Rural‐Urban Migration1

This study explores the role of China's rural local state‐owned and urban state‐owned units in its rural‐urban migration process. Most studies on Chinese migration have focused on migrants moving from rural to urban areas through informal mechanisms outside of the state's control. They therefore treat the Chinese state as an obstructionist force and dismiss its facilitative role in the migration process. By documenting rural local states' “labor export” strategies and urban state units' employment of millions of peasants, this article provides a corrective to the existing literature. It highlights and explains the state connection in China's rural‐urban migration.

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