Trade unions are experiencing membership erosion. To what extent they will manage to stay relevant will depend on attracting underrepresented groups of people, including and particularly young people. Engaging them can be decisive for trade unions' survival, as they are going to be the main contributors in the future working world. The purpose of this study is to explore the young trade union members' life stories, their motivations and worldviews which inspired them to get engaged. We investigate the experiences of Georgian and German youngsters through semi-structured in-depth interviews. A variety of influences can be identified, such as: their social context, labour experiences and socio-political views. They have strong sense of social justice and willingness to contribute to positive changes. It is evident that trade unions need to reinforce their participation at decisive phases of young peoples' lives, such as first labour experiences and at educational institutions, as well as they need to strengthen support for youth trade union organizations.
Anotace v angličtině
Trade unions are experiencing membership erosion. To what extent they will manage to stay relevant will depend on attracting underrepresented groups of people, including and particularly young people. Engaging them can be decisive for trade unions' survival, as they are going to be the main contributors in the future working world. The purpose of this study is to explore the young trade union members' life stories, their motivations and worldviews which inspired them to get engaged. We investigate the experiences of Georgian and German youngsters through semi-structured in-depth interviews. A variety of influences can be identified, such as: their social context, labour experiences and socio-political views. They have strong sense of social justice and willingness to contribute to positive changes. It is evident that trade unions need to reinforce their participation at decisive phases of young peoples' lives, such as first labour experiences and at educational institutions, as well as they need to strengthen support for youth trade union organizations.
Klíčová slova
Trade unions, Young activists, Life stories, Georgia, Germany
Klíčová slova v angličtině
Trade unions, Young activists, Life stories, Georgia, Germany
Rozsah průvodní práce
96
Jazyk
AN
Anotace
Trade unions are experiencing membership erosion. To what extent they will manage to stay relevant will depend on attracting underrepresented groups of people, including and particularly young people. Engaging them can be decisive for trade unions' survival, as they are going to be the main contributors in the future working world. The purpose of this study is to explore the young trade union members' life stories, their motivations and worldviews which inspired them to get engaged. We investigate the experiences of Georgian and German youngsters through semi-structured in-depth interviews. A variety of influences can be identified, such as: their social context, labour experiences and socio-political views. They have strong sense of social justice and willingness to contribute to positive changes. It is evident that trade unions need to reinforce their participation at decisive phases of young peoples' lives, such as first labour experiences and at educational institutions, as well as they need to strengthen support for youth trade union organizations.
Anotace v angličtině
Trade unions are experiencing membership erosion. To what extent they will manage to stay relevant will depend on attracting underrepresented groups of people, including and particularly young people. Engaging them can be decisive for trade unions' survival, as they are going to be the main contributors in the future working world. The purpose of this study is to explore the young trade union members' life stories, their motivations and worldviews which inspired them to get engaged. We investigate the experiences of Georgian and German youngsters through semi-structured in-depth interviews. A variety of influences can be identified, such as: their social context, labour experiences and socio-political views. They have strong sense of social justice and willingness to contribute to positive changes. It is evident that trade unions need to reinforce their participation at decisive phases of young peoples' lives, such as first labour experiences and at educational institutions, as well as they need to strengthen support for youth trade union organizations.
Klíčová slova
Trade unions, Young activists, Life stories, Georgia, Germany
Klíčová slova v angličtině
Trade unions, Young activists, Life stories, Georgia, Germany
Zásady pro vypracování
Research question:
How does young precarious workers general outlook on society and their own position in it, impact their perception of trade unions and what structural factors are affecting their willingness (or absence of it, for that matter) to join trade unions?
Contextualisation of the research:
According to YOUnion Union for youth project?s country report, young workers in Germany are comparably well-placed because of country?s still strong manufacturing sector, with IG Metall being Germany?s one of the most powerful unions. The study identifies three dominant pathways with which young people are entering the labour market: traditional vocational training, growing higher education pathway and precarious employment. The latter being the newest, emerging and significantly expanding since labour market reforms of 1980s. Even though the report stresses on increasing importance of the last path as ?the emergence of new industries and services without union structures? puts growing segments of German workforce in vulnerable position, (1) it investigates manufacturing sector and IG Metall?s strategies towards young people as a case study and mostly disregards the third emerging pathway as identified by the study.
I am also planning to bring cross-country comparison and explore also the Georgian case. This is country at EU?s eastern neighbourhood. It does not have long history of labour mobilization and trade unions which were in the past continuation of state apparatus and was instrumentalized by them, does not have high trust in society. Since deindustrialization, manufacturing sector is nearly nonexistent in the country and majority of young people find employment in service sector. Although there are independent movements who try to mobilize young people and protect workers? right. It would be interesting to compare EU country to non-EU neighbor who is striving to approximate to EU?s standards and has different welfare system.
10 interviews with lower tier service workers are planned (5+5). In Berlin I plan to reach interview partners through Ver.di ? United service union?s Berlin section concerned with youth and in Tbilisi through my contacts in independent trade unions concerned with young service workers: Solidarity Network, and youth branch of Georgian Confederation of Trade Unions. Furlong and Cartmel accentuate on certain danger of biographical interpretations, which may run the risk of underplaying the significance of structure and of taking young people?s interpretations at face value.? (3) In my approach I will also need to keep balance and see how the structures are interpreted and reproduced in young people?s narratives.
(1) Hajo Holst, Madeleine Holzschuh, and Steffen Niehoff, ?YOUnion Country Report - Germany? (ADAPT ? Association for International and Comparative Studies in Labour Law and Industrial Relations, September 2014).
(2) See in addition: Fiorito, Jack, Daniel G. Gallagher, Zachary A. Russell, and Katina W. Thompson. ?Precarious Work, Young Workers, and Union-Related Attitudes: Distrust of Employers, Workplace Collective Efficacy, and Union Efficacy.? Labor Studies Journal, (July 2019).
(3) Andy Furlong and Fred Cartmel, ?The Risk Society,? in Young People and Social Change: New Perspectives, 2. ed, Sociology and Social Change (Buckingham: Open Univerity Press, 2007): 7.
Zásady pro vypracování
Research question:
How does young precarious workers general outlook on society and their own position in it, impact their perception of trade unions and what structural factors are affecting their willingness (or absence of it, for that matter) to join trade unions?
Contextualisation of the research:
According to YOUnion Union for youth project?s country report, young workers in Germany are comparably well-placed because of country?s still strong manufacturing sector, with IG Metall being Germany?s one of the most powerful unions. The study identifies three dominant pathways with which young people are entering the labour market: traditional vocational training, growing higher education pathway and precarious employment. The latter being the newest, emerging and significantly expanding since labour market reforms of 1980s. Even though the report stresses on increasing importance of the last path as ?the emergence of new industries and services without union structures? puts growing segments of German workforce in vulnerable position, (1) it investigates manufacturing sector and IG Metall?s strategies towards young people as a case study and mostly disregards the third emerging pathway as identified by the study.
I am also planning to bring cross-country comparison and explore also the Georgian case. This is country at EU?s eastern neighbourhood. It does not have long history of labour mobilization and trade unions which were in the past continuation of state apparatus and was instrumentalized by them, does not have high trust in society. Since deindustrialization, manufacturing sector is nearly nonexistent in the country and majority of young people find employment in service sector. Although there are independent movements who try to mobilize young people and protect workers? right. It would be interesting to compare EU country to non-EU neighbor who is striving to approximate to EU?s standards and has different welfare system.
10 interviews with lower tier service workers are planned (5+5). In Berlin I plan to reach interview partners through Ver.di ? United service union?s Berlin section concerned with youth and in Tbilisi through my contacts in independent trade unions concerned with young service workers: Solidarity Network, and youth branch of Georgian Confederation of Trade Unions. Furlong and Cartmel accentuate on certain danger of biographical interpretations, which may run the risk of underplaying the significance of structure and of taking young people?s interpretations at face value.? (3) In my approach I will also need to keep balance and see how the structures are interpreted and reproduced in young people?s narratives.
(1) Hajo Holst, Madeleine Holzschuh, and Steffen Niehoff, ?YOUnion Country Report - Germany? (ADAPT ? Association for International and Comparative Studies in Labour Law and Industrial Relations, September 2014).
(2) See in addition: Fiorito, Jack, Daniel G. Gallagher, Zachary A. Russell, and Katina W. Thompson. ?Precarious Work, Young Workers, and Union-Related Attitudes: Distrust of Employers, Workplace Collective Efficacy, and Union Efficacy.? Labor Studies Journal, (July 2019).
(3) Andy Furlong and Fred Cartmel, ?The Risk Society,? in Young People and Social Change: New Perspectives, 2. ed, Sociology and Social Change (Buckingham: Open Univerity Press, 2007): 7.
Seznam doporučené literatury
Individualization and Young people:
Furlong, Andy, and Fred Cartmel. The risk society In Young People and Social Change: New Perspectives, 2. ed., Sociology and Social Change. Buckingham: Open Univerity Press, 2007.
Beck, Ulrich. Individualization, Institutionalization and Standardization: Life Situations and Biographical Patterns. In Risk Society Towards a New Modernity, edited by Mike Featherstone, translated by Mark Ritter, 128?35. London: SAGE Publications, 1992.
Bauman, Zygmunt. The Individualized Society. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2001.
Rasborg, Klaus. From Class Society to the Individualized Society A Critical Reassessment of Individualization and Class. Irish Journal of Sociology 25, no. 3 (December 2017): 229?49. doi:10.1177/0791603517706668.
Youth labour market transitions, employment patterns and precarity:
Beck, Ulrich. Destandartization of Labour. In Risk Society Towards a New Modernity, edited by Mike Featherstone, translated by Mark Ritter, 139?150. London: SAGE Publications, 1992.
Furlong, Andy, and Fred Cartmel. Social Change and Labour Market Transitions. In Young People and Social Change: New Perspectives, 2. ed., . Sociology and Social Change. Buckingham: Open Univerity Press, 2007.
Mayer-Ahuja, Nicole. Labor, Insecurity, Informality. In Capitalism and Labor Towards Critical Perspectives, edited by Klaus Dörre, et al. 257-268. Frankfurt: Campus Verlag, 2018.
Jürgens, Kerstin. Work and Reproduction. In Capitalism and Labor Towards Critical Perspectives, edited by Klaus Dörre, et al. 241-256. Frankfurt: Campus Verlag, 2018.
Brady, David and Thomas Biegert. The Rise of Precarious Employment in Germany. SOEPpapers, June 2017.
Klein, Naomi. No Jobs. In No logo. New York: Picador, 2002.
Trade union landscape in Germany and their existing strategies towards young people:
Holst, Hajo, Madeleine Holzschuh, and Steffen Niehoff. YOUnion Country Report - Germany. ADAPT Association for International and Comparative Studies in Labour Law and Industrial Relations, September 2014.
Dribbusch, Heiner and Peter Birke. Trade Unions in Germany. Challenges in a Time of Transition. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, April 2019.
Methodology Literature:
Wengraf, Tom. Qualitative Research Interviewing: Biographic Narrative and Semi-Structured Methods. London ; Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE, 2001.
Bertaux, Daniel. Biography and Society: The Life History Approach in the Social Sciences. Beverly Hills, Calif: Sage Publications, 1981.
Seznam doporučené literatury
Individualization and Young people:
Furlong, Andy, and Fred Cartmel. The risk society In Young People and Social Change: New Perspectives, 2. ed., Sociology and Social Change. Buckingham: Open Univerity Press, 2007.
Beck, Ulrich. Individualization, Institutionalization and Standardization: Life Situations and Biographical Patterns. In Risk Society Towards a New Modernity, edited by Mike Featherstone, translated by Mark Ritter, 128?35. London: SAGE Publications, 1992.
Bauman, Zygmunt. The Individualized Society. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2001.
Rasborg, Klaus. From Class Society to the Individualized Society A Critical Reassessment of Individualization and Class. Irish Journal of Sociology 25, no. 3 (December 2017): 229?49. doi:10.1177/0791603517706668.
Youth labour market transitions, employment patterns and precarity:
Beck, Ulrich. Destandartization of Labour. In Risk Society Towards a New Modernity, edited by Mike Featherstone, translated by Mark Ritter, 139?150. London: SAGE Publications, 1992.
Furlong, Andy, and Fred Cartmel. Social Change and Labour Market Transitions. In Young People and Social Change: New Perspectives, 2. ed., . Sociology and Social Change. Buckingham: Open Univerity Press, 2007.
Mayer-Ahuja, Nicole. Labor, Insecurity, Informality. In Capitalism and Labor Towards Critical Perspectives, edited by Klaus Dörre, et al. 257-268. Frankfurt: Campus Verlag, 2018.
Jürgens, Kerstin. Work and Reproduction. In Capitalism and Labor Towards Critical Perspectives, edited by Klaus Dörre, et al. 241-256. Frankfurt: Campus Verlag, 2018.
Brady, David and Thomas Biegert. The Rise of Precarious Employment in Germany. SOEPpapers, June 2017.
Klein, Naomi. No Jobs. In No logo. New York: Picador, 2002.
Trade union landscape in Germany and their existing strategies towards young people:
Holst, Hajo, Madeleine Holzschuh, and Steffen Niehoff. YOUnion Country Report - Germany. ADAPT Association for International and Comparative Studies in Labour Law and Industrial Relations, September 2014.
Dribbusch, Heiner and Peter Birke. Trade Unions in Germany. Challenges in a Time of Transition. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, April 2019.
Methodology Literature:
Wengraf, Tom. Qualitative Research Interviewing: Biographic Narrative and Semi-Structured Methods. London ; Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE, 2001.
Bertaux, Daniel. Biography and Society: The Life History Approach in the Social Sciences. Beverly Hills, Calif: Sage Publications, 1981.