Economic and Industrial Democracy

In many European countries since the 1980s there has been a considerable decline in union density. Using the European Social Survey, this article examines whether declining union density reflects declining worker demand for the protective and enabling functions traditionally provided by union membership. Results indicate that a substantial majority of respondents believe that employees need the protection of strong unions. Irrespective of the respondent's occupational level, the extent of job autonomy, gender, age or political orientation, positive attitudes towards unions are consistently in the majority. The results show not only the persistence of a strong belief in the necessity for trade unions but a strengthening of this conviction among employees since the early 1980s.

This article addresses the dynamics of changing gender relations. Drawing on the theoretical framework of gender relations and research on women in male-dominated organizations, the article analyses the experiences of women officers in the Swedish Armed Forces. The article focuses on experiences of including as well as excluding practices and the processes of negotiating gender boundaries. The article contributes to the field by highlighting the importance of changing perceptions of gender, showing that the officers' perceptions of gender change with time, age and rank. This change is fundamental for understanding the way the women attempt to negotiate more equal gender relations.

This article deals with part-time work and involuntary part-time work in four private service sectors in Finland from the employee's perspective and examining the employers' reasons for using part-time work. According to statistical analyses, women, young people and low-skilled workers have a greater probability of working as part-timers. Temporary and on-call workers also have a higher probability of working as part-timers than permanent workers do. The sector and the size of the firm also influence part-time working. As for involuntary part-time working women, the middle-aged and those with low education have a higher probability of working as involuntary part-timers. Not surprisingly, a larger share of involuntary part-timers would like to work more hours and also search for a new job. They have fewer other sources of income than all the part-timers. The involuntariness of part-time work is also related to the subsistence this kind of work can provide. Employers see reasons of cost and profitability and the peaks in the need for labour as important reasons for using part-time work, which may also prevent the workers' wishes concerning working hours and the part-time work that firms can offer from coinciding.

During the last decade, several initiatives have been undertaken by the British government in an attempt to reduce the number of incapacity benefit claimants. The principal objective is to encourage long-term economically inactive people to enter into paid employment. Particular support is delivered to disabled people, who generally face more difficulties in obtaining a job. In this context, the service sector could play an important role, especially in occupations where there are relatively few barriers to entry. Call centre businesses, because of the nature of occupations offered, represent a potentially significant source of employment that requires specific policies and initiatives. Furthermore, call centres are located in the same areas where incapacity benefit claimants are concentrated.

The landscape and practice of employee representation in China's foreign-funded enterprises (FFEs) have been undergoing significant changes in recent years. However, the workplace functions of newly established enterprise unions in FFEs and their potential to promote workplace democracy are largely unexamined. This article explores these issues through a case study of a worker-elected trade union at a Taiwanese-invested enterprise in South China. The study is based on a transnational-national-local analytical framework.