eCommons

DigitalCollections@ILR
ILR School
 

Trade Union Democracy in Metal Industry

Other Titles

Abstract

In metal trade unions, there are two party system based upon the competition of the shop-floor militants’ organizations. These shop-floor militants’ organizations are divided by ideological difference or perception on direction of union movement. In metal industry, union democracy is not representative democracy that confines to elect only the union leaders, but delegation democracy which include the recalling delegates and final approval of the negotiation result by the rank and file. In the aspect of members' participation, the tendency toward 'instrumental collectivism' is strengthening. While members participate in the activities of union, it is limited on instrumental participation around the workplace issues for collective bargaining in enterprise level. The rank and file’s participation based upon blue-color workers' community or ideological commitment is weakening. Both the union officers and the rank and file regard lack of members’ participation as the most important problem for union vitality. While the union members of political class orientation tend to participate actively in the union activities, the members of economic interest orientation show the most low participation level. Many union members normatively agree to participate in the activities of the federation of enterprise unions beyond the enterprise level. However, they don't participate in the activities of metal union federation and didn’t support voting for the transition from enterprise union to industrial. These facts seem to agree with the thesis of 'instrumental collectivism'. Because the traditional practice of activities of enterprise union and employee consciousness of union members are strong, it seems that some institutional changes from the top should be ahead of transition to industrial union system.

Journal / Series

Volume & Issue

Description

Korean title: 금속산업의 노동조합 민주주의: 민주노총 금속산업연맹 산하의 노조들을 중심으로 Paper not available in English.

Sponsorship

Date Issued

2005-09-01

Publisher

Keywords

trade union democracy; metal workers; South Korean labor movement

Location

Effective Date

Expiration Date

Sector

Employer

Union

Union Local

NAICS

Number of Workers

Committee Chair

Committee Co-Chair

Committee Member

Degree Discipline

Degree Name

Degree Level

Related Version

Related DOI

Related To

Related Part

Based on Related Item

Has Other Format(s)

Part of Related Item

Related To

Related Publication(s)

Link(s) to Related Publication(s)

References

Link(s) to Reference(s)

Previously Published As

Government Document

ISBN

ISMN

ISSN

Other Identifiers

Rights

Rights URI

Types

article

Accessibility Feature

Accessibility Hazard

Accessibility Summary

Link(s) to Catalog Record