Structure and Identity

Abstract

What is the impact of union structure on the strategic capacity of national union movements to respond to economic re‐structuring? Focuses on the experience of five countries (Canada, France, Japan, the UK and the US) and their common problems as regards, first, the movement of employment into the service sector, second, transformations in the organization of production within and beyond the firm, and third, transformations in and the multiplication of collective identities in the labour market. Structure does appear to condition union strategies, albeit in a highly variable and contingent manner. Although most unions are currently involved in some kind of structural review, the success of these adjustments remains fairly equivocal. Structure can, however, facilitate or hamper the development of strategies at appropriate levels or foster the emergence of other forms of representation because it does not furnish appropriate representational responses. In the conclusion, reviews several new structural models but no single model is likely to prove dominant.

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