Remaking the labour movement in Italy: the revival of strikes at Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles in 2015–17

ABSTRACT

After the Fiat-Chrysler merger in 2009, CEO Sergio Marchionne imposed a drastic reorganization of labour relations in Italy’s plants, precipitating a profound crisis of the system of industrial relations in the country. But between 2015 and 2017 a significant section of workers at Melfi, Atessa and Termoli plants went on strike against compulsory overtime and labour intensification, establishing links with grassroots unions that successfully organized in logistics. The metalworkers’ union FIOM-CGIL, however, delegitimized the union representatives who resisted Marchionne’s plans. In this article, we trace the context and development of these still little-known strikes. Because of their growing institutionalization, we argue, the confederal unions (CGIL, CISL, UIL) have both failed to mobilize workers and repressed workers’ attempts to resist the deterioration of their conditions. The strikes at FCA and in logistics, however, show that new forms of radical unionism are emerging, pointing to new possibilities for working-class organizing.     

Longitudinal Factor Analysis of Public Expenditure Composition and Human Development in Brazil After the 1988 Constitution

The way public policies are managed in Brazil has changed since the 1988 Federal Constitution. This study aimed to identify how changes in the structure of public expenditure composition at Brazilian federal states influenced local human development in these states. The states’ public expenditures were categorized according to their nature as spending indices whereas human development was measured through a human development index (HD). To verify the relationships between these variables, an accounting-social theoretical model was created and estimated through latent growth modeling (LGM). The LGM measurement period comprised five administration cycles of the Brazilian states (1988–2011). Variables were measured on data of the second year of state government term; their mean initial values and growth rates were recorded. Results show that, influenced by policies of centralized regulation promoted by the federal government, only the social spending growth rates had statistically significant effect on the human development growth rate, although not considered of great magnitude. Among mean initial values, the most significant was that of minimum spending (SIm), which denotes the direct impact of the Fiscal Accountability Law [Lei de Responsabilidade Fiscal, in Portuguese] on human development improvements. The mean initial value of economic spending also showed a positive and significant effect on HD growth rate.     

Are Consumption and Government Expenditures Substitutes or Complements? Morishima Elasticity Estimates from the Fourier Flexible Form

This article provides estimates of Morishima elasticities of substitution between private consumption expenditures (nondurable goods, services, and the stock of durable goods) and government expenditures (federal defense expenditures, federal nondefense expenditures, and state and local expenditures), finding consistent evidence that private consumption and government expenditures are net Morishima substitutes. Elasticities of substitution vary over our sample period, estimated elasticities are generally asymmetric, and short-run elasticity estimates differ from unity. In the long run, substitution elasticities remain asymmetric and vary over time. Our estimates are free of arbitrary functional form assumptions that can bias statistical inferences arising from our optimization model.     

Patents as a Measure of Technology Shocks and the Aggregate U.S. Labor Market

In a market-clearing labor market model, cointegration arises between labor services, real wages, and I(1) technology shocks with two cointegrating vectors in the error correction VAR from the market. Using patent data to measure technology shocks, patents are found to be I(1), they are cointegrated with aggregate measures of labor services and real wages, and there are two cointegrating vectors in the estimated VAR as implied by the model. Parameter instability is observed in estimated cointegrating vectors. The model's assumptions and implications are supported in data prior to the formation of the OPEC cartel but not in other subsamples studied.     

The development of economic notions: Single sequence or separate acquisitions?

The conceptions on shops and factories of a group of 3rd-grade children were assessed by means of the Piagetian clinical method. Factorial analysis showed that children's answers about the two economic institutions yielded two distinct factors. Children were then divided into three groups (one control and two experimental); children in the experimental groups were taught, by means of two different training procedures, how the shopkeeper can earn a profit. A post-test interview, one month later, showed that both experimental groups had progressed in the target notion; however, children did not generalize to the factory what they had learned about shops. According to these results, 3rd-graders' thinking about economics consists of separate part-systems, which will eventually become integrated as children grow older.     

Vertical greening systems, a process tree for green façades and living walls

This study shows that greening the building envelope with vertical greening systems such as climbing plants or living wall systems provides ecological and environmental benefits. Contemporary architecture in fact is increasingly focusing on vertical greening systems as a means to restore the environmental integrity of urban areas, biodiversity and sustainability. Applying green façades, which is an established feature of contemporary urban design, can offer multiple environmental benefits on both new and existing buildings and can be a sustainable approach in terms of energy saving considering materials used, nutrients and water needed and efficient preservation of edifices. To provide a full perspective and a viable case study on vertical greening systems a process tree is developed throughout this research. Elaborating the process tree has proved to be a useful methodology to analyse main parameters as climate and building characteristics, avoid damages and maintenance problems caused by inappropriate design, and compare different elements such as technologies, materials, durability, dimensions, and plant species employed.     

Caregiving in Transition in Southern Europe: Neither Complete Altruists nor Free-riders

In the framework of the SOCCARE Project, focusing on families dealing with a double front of care for children and frail elderly people, similarities can be found in Italy, France and Portugal beyond their different welfare regimes. The comparison of family histories and caregiving strategies, by the methodology of case‐matching, gives an interesting overview of the relationship between the debate on social care and that on the intergenerational contract. The paper aims to understand which are the available combinations of family, informal and institutional resources making a heavy burden of care “acceptable and still normal”: this focuses both typical situations of each country and common features through the countries. The results show how changes in the representations of obligation and duty in the intergenerational pact produce different outcomes and demands in welfare systems. The analysis of shifting boundaries between the public and private spheres in care provides useful policy recommendations, aimed at improving choices and “sustainable” responsibilities of individuals, families and social networks. Sustainable policies seem to be more dependent on family and structural types and resources of networks than on different welfare and services support.     

Structural Instability and the Production-Smoothing Model of Inventories

The production-smoothing model of inventories implies that inventories, labor inputs, sales, and factor input prices are cointegrated if sales and factor prices are I(1) with one cointegrating vector for each state variable held. These propositions are tested in six nondurable-goods industries. All industries provide evidence of cointegration. Fewer quasi-fixed factors are found than previous research often assumed. Estimates of cointegrating vectors provide implausible parameter estimates. Rank stability tests, with fixed or seqentially chosen breakpoints, indicate that the cointegrating matrix has unstable rank. Parameter estimates of cointegrating vectors do not provide much support for the production-smoothing model of inventories.