Strategic Unionism and Partnership

How can trade unions make sense of social partnership? What are the implications of partnership for union renewal? This book takes an international perspective to explore these issues based on an ongoing dialogue between researchers and union practitioners in eight countries. The book develops the metaphors 'boxing' and 'dancing' to denote contrasting strategic choices to the employment relationship, yet argues that neither approach alone can offer an exclusive trajectory for union development. The authors conclude by identifying lessons for union renewal.

• employment
• employment relations
• innovation
• unions

'As all trade union activists will know - sometimes you have to dance and sometimes you have to box. In this new book about employment based partnerships, the authors have provided us with a valuable and revealing insight into the motivations and practices that lie behind some of the most interesting employment based partnerships that have been developed in recent years.' - Dave Prentis, General Secretary, UNISON

'The authors have considerable experience in the area of union strategy and industrial relations in researcher/practitioner partnerships. The insights that they draw from such experience, backed by recent case examples, are a major strength of the book and make it a valuable resource for practitioners in the labour market and students of industrial relations and human resource management.' - Wanja Lundby-Wedin, President, Swedish Trade Union Confederation

'an excellent edited collection' - Mark Stuart, Industrial Relations Journal

'All country chapters are well written and based upon a rich set of case studies.' - Kurt Vandaele, European Review of Labour and Research

MIRELLA BAGLIONI Professor of Industrial Relations, University of Parma, Italy STEVEN DEUTSCH Professor Emeritus, Labor Education and Research Center, University of Oregon, USA ERLING FORSMAN Chief Editor, TCO-tidningen, Sweden KARL KOCH Emeritus Professor of Modern Languages, London South Bank University, UK MARTIN KUHLMANN University of Gottingen, Sweden ALDO MARCHETTI Senior Researcher, Pietro Seveso Foundation, Italy TOMMY NILSSON Associate Professor in Sociology, Stockholm University, Sweden KEVIN O'KELLY University of Limerick, Ireland WIM SPRENGER Independent Researcher, The Netherlands AURORA TRIF PhD Student, London South Bank University, UK MAARTEN VAN KLAVEREN STZ Consultancy & Research, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

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