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Trade unions and decent work

In: The Elgar Companion to Decent Work and the Sustainable Development Goals

Author

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  • Greg Patmore

Abstract

The chapter examines the role that trade unions play in ensuring decent work. Trade unions can help workers achieve decent work by advocating for example a living wage and a safe workplace. The chapter explores trade union methods and their role in improving workers’ lives. The traditional framework for trade union methods has focussed on mutual insurance, collective bargaining and legal enactment or more broadly political action. Mutual insurance schemes, such as sickness benefits, provided a means of controlling labour supply and persists particularly in the form of financial assistance during industrial disputes. Collective bargaining relates to unions negotiating with employers to determine wages and conditions. Finally, political action relates to union lobbying governments directly to improve the conditions of work and strengthen their role in industrial relations. These methods supplement each other. Industrial action such as strikes can be feature of both collective bargaining and political action.

Suggested Citation

  • Greg Patmore, 2025. "Trade unions and decent work," Chapters, in: Madelaine Moore & Christoph Scherrer & Marcel van der Linden (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Decent Work and the Sustainable Development Goals, chapter 33, pages 413-424, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:21934_33
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    File URL: https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035300907.00043
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