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As of 1982, federal credit unions were allowed to add select employee groups and thus create institutions with multiple-group common bonds. We examine the efficiency of single bond and multiple bond federal-chartered credit unions by using data envelopment analysis (DEA), a non-parametric, linear programming methodology. Results indicate that multiple bond credit unions have better pure technical efficiency than single bond credit unions. However, single bond credit unions appear to be more scale efficient than the multiple bond credit unions. Our results also indicate that members of multiple bond credit unions may derive greater wealth gains than members of single bond credit unions.

This article examines the role the Australian Trade Union Training Authority (TUTA) played in international education through the provision of trade union courses and exchanges. We consider how an investigation of trade union networks contributes to a richer understanding of international education linkages.

This paper is based on research conducted for an Australian Research Council (ARC)-funded project: Trade union training: reshaping the Australian industrial landscape (ARC LP180100500). This research involved a critical analysis of 60 semi-structured oral history interviews and textual archives, including the official records held by the National Archives of Australia and papers held by the Noel Butlin Archives, the Australian Council of Trade Unions and in private collections.

TUTA was established primarily as a national union training organisation, but from its inception, it also acted as a hub for the development of regional and international labour networks. The nature of TUTA’s work placed it at the intersection of international trade union and educational domains. Although there were some points of contact with formal international programs (e.g. Japan–Australia and Kellogg Foundations, the Colombo Plan and US Department of Labour exchanges schemes), the specific contribution of TUTA is overlooked in the educational exchange literature. The role of TUTA is revealed through institutional connections and individual experiences.

Further research is required to gain a deeper understanding of the impact of TUTA from the perspective of former participants in international TUTA course and current and former trade unionists in the Asia–Pacific.

This article builds new knowledge by examining the connections forged in the Asia–Pacific region at the intersection of trade union and educational networks, an area often overlooked in the literature on educational exchange.

The paper uses key themes from Fox’s writing to reflect on the wave of public sector industrial action that developed in the UK since the early 2020s: specifically the relevance of (1) radical pluralism, (2) historical context, (3) understanding the effects of high inflation and (4) (a breakdown of) trust relations.

The paper draws primarily on evidence from broad public debate but is informed by discussions held with senior union leaders both for a research project and in delivering development training.

Radical pluralism is used as a lens through which to understand declining trust in institutions of pluralist collective industrial relations in the UK public sector, arguing that current developments need to be understood in historical context. An analysis of the industrial action in the early 2020s highlights the ways that a period of high inflation can stress institutions of collective employment regulation, rendering visible the limits of conventional, pluralist industrial relations.

The paper could be extended by more detailed empirical data collection, both in the UK and other national institutional contexts.

Unions need to more consistently focus on issues of power. A stronger focus on power might identify the limitations of pluralist institutions of collective regulation and embed a commitment to building union influence to challenge those existing structures in favour of mechanisms to build workers' power more broadly.

Understanding these disputes as, at least in part, being about the limits to and undermining of trust in collective institutions that regulate work and employment allows us to better understand the forces at play and potential outcomes of these disputes.

The paper makes three key contributions: first, applying Fox’s work in a practical way to contemporary UK industrial relations; second, extending his analyses to public sector industrial relations and third, arguing that power needs to be more centrally located within union objectives in order to reshape industrial relations to radical pluralist ends.

Research among credit unions in Western Australia is reported in which directors and managers of credit unions expressed their attitudes with regard to the corporate objectives of their organisation, and future directions of development for the credit union movement are suggested.

The role of labor unions in relation to corporate social responsibility (CSR) remains both ambiguous and crucial for union members and business leaders. Given the complex relationship between labor unions and corporations, this study aims to address whether labor unions keep corporations honest (by monitoring CSR activities) or potentially render CSR initiatives less necessary.

Using data from the MSCI Kinder, Lydenberg, Domini Database for firms in the Russell 1000 Index, this study examines the link between labor unions and CSR in U.S. companies over a six year period. Generalized least squares models were used to test the hypotheses for 3,937 firm-year observations.

The findings show that unionized companies generally pay less attention to CSR compared to nonunionized ones. The presence of labor unions and positive union-management relations both show a significant negative impact on CSR ratings, where positive union-management relations negatively affect CSR ratings more than just the presence of labor unions. Further, when considering the environmental, social and governance aspects of CSR separately, the results are more complex, suggesting that the relationship between labor unions and CSR varies depending on specific ESG dimensions.

CSR, a well-researched area, rarely addresses the companies' relationships with labor unions. Studies in South Korea and the UK have touched on the impact of labor unions on CSR, but in the USA it remains unexplored. This study extends this line of work by examining U.S. companies.

As the overall level of union membership and density has fallen in Britain throughout the 1980s (and into the 1990s), researchers have begun to pay more attention to the non‐union employment sector. For instance, considerable use has been made of the second national Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (1984) to investigate the determinants of non‐union status. The major limitation of such work, however, is that it treats the non‐union sector as essentially homogeneous in nature. Such an approach sits rather awkwardly with the following facts and findings:

“Managerial unionism” commented one writer recently “consititutes an emergent industrial relations phenomenon of major significance”. Long established in the public sector the movement of junior and middle managers into trade unions is indeed becoming increasingly evident throughout private industry. Rising job insecurity, dissatisfaction with salary levels and a decline in the individual treatment of managers by employers are some of the factors encouraging this development. New unions have been created and existing ones adapted to meet the demand. There are now more than a dozen unions catering exclusively for managerial and executive grades, as well as the more general white‐collar unions which recruit managers, notably Clive Jenkins' Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs.

Examines union and non‐union consultation and representation arrangements at South West Water, UK.

Constitutes a briefing that is prepared by an independent writer who adds his own impartial comments.

Demonstrates that perceptions of trade union membership change over time and between people. Shows that South West Water has generally diluted trade union influence in recent years. Argues, however, that adopting a strategy of substituting unions at the workplace by individualizing the employment relationship and derecognizing the union may not always produce positive industrial‐relations outcomes.

Highlights that new European Union directives which seek to make sure employees are informed and consulted in employment matters, may mean that a mechanism for communication between management and employees at the workplace may not be enough, and that the right to be heard and have a say over important workplace issues, and at times an acknowledgement of differing interests, may be essential for achieving greater employee satisfaction and commitment.

Contains plenty to interest employer and trade union representatives involved in the ongoing debate over trade union influence.

This study was conducted to learn about the involvement of US academic librarians in local as well as national faculty union activities; their reasons for joining unions; and the benefits they have gained because of their memberships in their unions. It was concluded that librarians who were members of unions generally earned higher salaries than those who were not. Since librarians had on several occasions worked closely with the teaching faculty on various union activities, several close bonds and relationships among them had occurred. Moreover, librarians viewed union membership as a vehicle to become more involved in decision‐making processes at their institutions.

At the start of the 1990s trade unions were reeling from a decade of Thatcherism, in which their density amongst employees had been whittled down to 35% by 1990. Several explanations for the decline have vied for attention: the changing composition of industry and of the economy generally, with more part‐time work, fewer large‐scale establishments, the collapse of manufacturing industries and so on; the changing legal environment; the distinctly uncongenial macroeconomic environment, which with lowish inflation and mass unemployment was a discouragement to membership (see for example Disney, 1990; Green, 1991). Such explanations have varying implications for unions' future prospects. For example, if the changed level environment were the key factor, one would predict a further decline of union membership in the 1990s, unless there were a change of government and a wholesale repeal of Thatcherite trade union laws (which is not to be expected). A distinction has been drawn in the literature between the structural factors that determine the social context in which individual employees make their decisions with regard to union membership, and the varying preferences that individuals may have in favour of or against unions. Attempts have been made to show that despite years of attacks from Thatcherism, it is not so much the attitudes and commitment of workers to unions that has changed, as the opportunities that they face. Thus it is said that for many the reason that they left unions is because unions simply were not available at the new workplaces (Gallie, 1989).