The New Structure of Labor Relations: Tripartism and Decentralization - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801441846 ISBN 13: 9780801441844

Publisher: Cornell University Press, 2004

Synopsis

Tripartism―the national-level interaction among representatives of labor, management, and government―occurs infrequently in the United States. Based on the U.S. experience, then, such interactions might seem irrelevant to economic performance and policymaking. The essays in this volume reveal the falsity of that assumption.

Contributors from eight industrialized countries (Australia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, and the United States) examine the changing nature of labor-management relations, with a particular focus on the role of tripartism and the decentralization of collective bargaining. Although nonexistent in the United States and on the decline in Japan and Australia, tripartism flourishes in Germany, Ireland, and the Netherlands, expanding beyond traditional corporatist partners to include women's organizations, senior citizens, and other representatives of "civic society." The vibrancy of the coordinating mechanisms that help shape employment conditions and labor policy contradicts the traditional belief that an overpowering unilateral decentralizing shift is underway in labor-management interactions. The contributors show that these mechanisms are in fact increasing in the face of intensified pressures, promoting greater flexibility in work organization and working time.

About this title

About the Author

Harry C. Katz is Dean of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, where he is Jack Sheinkman Professor of Collective Bargaining. He is the author of several books and the editor of Telecommunications: Restructuring Work and Employment Relations Worldwide, also from Cornell. Wonduck Lee is President of the Korea Labor Institute. Joohee Lee is a Research Fellow at the Korea Labor Institute.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0801441846
• ISBN 13: 9780801441844
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 277
• Editor: Katz Harry C., Lee Wonduck, Lee Joohee