The study was published in the academic magazine European Journal of Industrial Relations. It analyses how institutional resources can strengthen trade unions and compares the current situation of Spain and other countries of the European periphery. Miguel Ángel García Calavia (Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology of the Universitat de València) and Mike Rigby (London South Bank University, UK) conducted this research.

As explained in Institutional resources as a source of trade union power in Southern Europe, Greece and Portugal have common union features. Nonetheless, Spanish unions are characterized by having a higher grade of institutional support, enabling them to have access to certain resources.

The power of trade unions has been weakened in the past years due to the worker’s position in the labour market, the economic structural power, as well as union’s affiliation and organization system. As a result, institutional support has become a cornerstone for the stability of the labour union system. According to García Calavia and Rigby, certain regulations such as the unitary representation system or collective agreements strengthen the organization of the Spanish unions. In addition, they provide basic institutional security, which allows unions to develop other sources of power.

The study recognises the limited results of the Spanish trade union system because it has been unable to prevent neither precarious employment nor a notable reduction of the real salary. However, the study implies that unions continue to use intuitional resources because of two reasons.

On the one hand, as institutions are legally formed, an autonomous system of third parties that intervenes in labour conflicts has been consolidated. Worker’s interests are now also represented in the justice system and union’s influence in national corporate institutions has grown stronger, too. Trade unions intend to maintain labour relations systems that will improve their effectiveness in a SME-based economy. Therefore, they consider convenient the consequences of this continuity.

On the other hand, García Calavia and Rigby outline that companies take advantage of their flexibility and structural power, which is provided by a segmented labour market. Spanish subsidiary branches of multinational companies (CMN) have autonomy to manage labour relationships, too.

Methodology

Researchers have compared three Mediterranean economies with common traits: the Spanish, Portuguese and Greek economies. According to them, labour relation systems had a strong state intervention after their respective dictatorships had fallen.  Several regulations that benefited the unions were established. Greece, Portugal and Spain have been urged to change their labour relation systems by international powers since the 2008 economic crisis. They stand out for the predominance of SMEs, a late or incomplete industrialization, their reliance in cyclic economic sectors (tourism) and the important role of informal economy.  

Article:

Miguel Ángel García Calavia, Mike Rigby. «Institutional resources as a source of trade union power in Southern Europe». European Journal of Industrial Relation. 2018, Vol. 24(2) 129–143 | http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0959680117708369