Pérez Ahumada, Pablo. 2022. “Class Politics, Collective Labor Rights, and Worker-Management Conflict in Comparative Perspective.” European Journal of Industrial Relations, Ahead-of-print version, 5 Nov, pp. 1-23. DOI: 10.1177/09596801221133453
Abstract
This article studies how perceptions of worker-management conflict are shaped by individual-level and macro-level variables. Drawing upon data from 33 countries from the 2015 International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), it uses multilevel models to examine how individual perceptions of worker-management conflict are affected by social class, union membership status, and the country-level protection of collective labor rights. The evidence supports the hypothesis that workers and union members perceive more conflict than employers and non-union members. The results also show that, as hypothesized, perceived workplace conflict is lower in countries with stronger protection of workers’ collective rights. Finally, contrary to an initial hypothesis, cross-level interactions suggest that in countries where collective rights are more strongly protected, union members perceive more worker-management conflict than non-union members. Contributions to the literature on class and power resources as well as to the recent debate on the “neoliberal convergence” of industrial relations (IR) systems are discussed.
Biographies
Pablo Pérez Ahumada is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Chile and Adjunct Researcher at the Centre for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (COES, Chile) He is also Director of the Observatory of Labor Strikes (OHL – COES/UAH). His research focuses on social class, industrial relations, labor movements, and politics in Latin America.
