Journal of Industrial Relations

Under capitalism, workers have two sources of power: associational and structural. A vast body of social science research shows that workers’ power—often measured by union density—is associated with lower levels of income inequality. Drawing on a country-level, panel dataset for much of the post-World War II era (1960–2013), the author introduces a model of distributive outcomes that centers on the dual sources of workers’ associational and structural power. By differentiating the sources of workers’ power, the author examines the extent to which they bear on distributive outcomes across countries in the Global North. Using two-way fixed effects regression models, the author presents strong evidence that while workers’ associational and structural power are both statistically associated with lower levels of income inequality, it is workers’ structural—and not associational—power that drives egalitarian outcomes. Notably, counterfactual simulations demonstrate that, on average, structural power of the working class explains a gap up to approximately 4% in levels of income inequality over the past five decades across postindustrial countries.

Trade unions are potentially important actors in shaping digitalisation to benefit workers. Research suggests that supportive national labour market institutions can help unions to influence digital change. This article considers the reach of national institutions, or ‘country effect’, and its relationship with union strength at the workplace. It applies a multi-level analysis to explore union influence over digital technology in the food and drink processing sector in Norway and the UK, two countries with starkly contrasting institutions. Drawing on interviews with officers and shop stewards in two unions, it compares a sample of workplaces with relatively strong and weak union organisation. The findings indicate union strength at the workplace has a more significant impact on unions' role in digitalisation in Norway, where there are strong institutional supports, than in the UK where these are lacking. The article contributes to analysing the relationship between ‘country-effect’ and union power in the shaping of digitalisation.

Africa-born migrants in Australia, particularly those who are racialised Black, face significant challenges in securing employment that aligns with their qualifications and experience, leading to higher rates of unemployment and underemployment compared to other population groups. This study explores the employment-seeking experiences of Black Africa-born migrants in South Australia, focusing on how coloniality – understood as the enduring power dynamics established during colonialism – shapes recruitment and selection processes. Drawing on focus group data from 32 participants, we examine how coloniality manifests through the devaluation of qualifications, racialized assumptions, and systemic barriers in the labour market. We argue that these processes reinforce a coloniality of employment selection, where Black Africa-born migrants are marginalised and relegated to lower-status roles. This research bridges macro-theorizing on coloniality with the micro-level experiences of job seekers, highlighting the need for coloniality-cognizant approaches to address these inequities in employment practices. The study contributes to a growing body of work that seeks to expose and challenge the ongoing reproduction of colonial power structures in contemporary labour markets.

Addressing work-related suicide requires new perspectives and methods such as the industrial relations of the union–university partnership basic to this study. Nineteenth-century business priorities on sustaining profitability and ameliorating dehumanising industrialisation hid work-related suicide. Workers compensation systems contracted out determining work-related harm to medical science, which attributed suicidality to individual pathology. When researchers began uncovering statistical associations between work stress, bullying, work strain, mental health and suicidality, it fell to the courts to address links between work-related harm and suicide. Though this approach provided a greater understanding of suicidality, it did not impact the normative medical priority of individual pathology. This article follows the stories of 10 finance sector workers. The prime cause of suicidality for each rested in the processes created by their employers’ framing toxic corporate governance and culture. Unjust management was justified by the rubric of corporate profitability, workers’ psychological distress was silenced, and the threat of suicidality was ignored. Suicidality prevention demands models of work health and safety which transcend the violations justified by the state's incorporation of neoliberal ideology and include ethical perspectives that address unjust power relations, enable a commitment to enhancing worker solidarity, and facilitate openness to respecting the spectre of death.