Sociology of Labor Markets & Trade Unions: A Student Guide
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160 cards
Question: How did trade unions aim to influence aggregate employment after World War II?
Answer: By supporting Keynesian aggregate demand management and government programs to create or preserve jobs, targeting groups like immigrants, women, disab
Question: What micro-level protections do unions seek to shield workers from short-term market fluctuations?
Answer: Various forms of employment protection based in law or collective agreement to make income more predictable.
Question: What conflict can arise from collective organization and employment protection?
Answer: Conflict between protected employed workers and job-seekers willing to undercut conditions, which can lead to ruinous competition.
Question: How do unions intervene in the organization of work to influence labor demand in internal labor markets?
Answer: They press for job designs that can be filled by applicants one level lower in the hierarchy to preserve promotion chains.
Question: What must unions representing workers with transportable skills ensure in occupational labor markets?
Answer: That job descriptions match those skills and that the division of labor remains similar across workplaces based on training and the type of labor supp
Question: What was a consequence of Anglo-American craft unionism for technological and organizational change?
Answer: Collective agreements required skilled jobs to be done in ways matching existing skills, creating obstacles to technological and organizational progre
Question: Why were conflicts over managerial prerogative particularly acrimonious in countries like Britain?
Answer: Because occupational skills were narrow and fragmented, work was monitored by specific tasks, and tasks were allocated to distinct 'job territories' d
Question: How does monitoring by broad functions or qualifications affect rigidity of job demand identification?
Answer: It makes job demand identification less inflexible, since monitoring is by broad functions or procedures and work is allocated by qualification rather
Question: How did trade unions contribute to transforming employment contracts post-World War II?
Answer: They helped shift from spot market contracts to ongoing employment relationships, institutionalizing a binary distinction between dependent employment
Question: What did standardization of employment contracts by unions aim to achieve?
Answer: Protect workers from uncertainty, simplify collective regulation, decouple worker fortunes from employers, suspend competition among workers, and enab