Unions in the 21st century : prospects for renewal / Anil Verma and Thomas A. Kochan --;The future of trade unions / Richard Human --;Extended networks : a vision for the next generation unions / Thomas A. Kochan [and others] --;Prospects for union growth in the United States in the early 21st century / Bruce E. Kaufman --;Employment relations in New Zealand : the role of the state vis-à-vis the labour movement / Pat Walsh, Raymond Harbridge and David Wilkinson --;Crafting a statutory union recognition procedure that works for the UK / Stephen Wood and Sian Moore --;Conservative legislation and trade union change / Graeme Lockwood --;Union-based pension funds and social investment : a new role for unions in the economy / Isla Carmichael --;Workers' knowledge : untapped resource in the labour movement / David W. Livingstone and Reuben Roth --;Unions and procedural justice : an alternative to the 'common rule' / David Marsden --;Changing patterns of unionisation : the North American experience, 1984-1998 / Chris Riddell and W. Craig Riddell --;Trade union survival and women workers in Australia / Glenda Strachan and John Burgess --;The ICFTU and trade unions in the developing countries : solidarity for dependence? / Rebecca Gumbrell-McCormick --;Partnership and the politics of trade union policy formation in the UK : the case of manufacturing, science and finance union / Martínez Lucio Miguel and Mark Stuart --;'Partnership' : a serious strategy for UK trade unions? / Michael Terry --;Negating or affirming the organising model? The case of the Congress of South African Trade Unions / Geoffrey Wood --;From Playstations to workstations : young workers and the experience-good model of union membership / Rafael Gomez, Morley Gunderson and Noah M. Meltz --;Non-governmental organisations and trade unions --;the case of India / C.S. Venkata Ratnam and Anil Verma.
Unions are in decline or stagnation in most parts of the world. Although they have been synonymous with industrialization for more than a hundred years, some observers feel that unions are outmoded institutions whose role has been pre-empted in the 21st century by labour laws, better human resource management and an increasingly educated and mobile workforce. The essays in this book acknowledge these trends but suggest that it may be pre-mature to conclude that the need for collective voice in the workplace and in society has waned completely. On the contrary, empirical evidence points to a persistent need for fairness and voice in the workplace. Unions can build on this foundation by taking advantage of information technology, new national and global networks, and by reaching out to segments of the workforce that have not been targeted by the labour movement in the past.