Leadership and Followership in the Context of Trade Unionism

Trade union leadership and followership are complimentary and symbiotic. Pragmatic followership serves to engender effective trade union leadership. Union leaders are expected to work with and stand by their members in order to attain union mandates. Union ethos demands that leaders must place the interest and welfare of workers as their most paramount goal and work assiduously towards satisfying them. Union members must consider the antecedents and pedigree of aspirants and ensure that only unionists with track records of tenaciously and selflessly championing the union's cause should be elected as leaders. Through leadership by example, trust, integrity, and candor, union leaders can bring about positive changes to both workers and their union. Finally, the authors called on union leaders to be alive to their responsibilities and demonstrate ethical and servant forms of leadership in order to cope with the challenges of giving vent to the aspirations of their members.

Rethinking Strategy for Gender Equality in Trade Unions

<p class="p1">The non-strategic role and position of women workers in trade union organization, even in the women-dominated sector, is hardly changed even though the number of women members of trade unions is increasing. Various programs have been carried out to increase the strategic role of women in trade union organizations but so far have not shown significant results. Based on interviews with officers of gender equality programs for trade unions, union leaders and women and men members and literature studies this paper offers an idea of the need for a non-exclusive approach and actively and proportionally involving men in awareness-raising and gender equality programs for trade unions. This idea is based on the fact that in trade unions gender-related program is always left to or only involves women. The strategy in the gender equality awareness and improvement program that only involves women causes the program’s effectiveness to be low because half of the causes of the problem is not involved.</p>

COMBINING SOFT POWER WITH THE GEOPOLITICAL APPROACH - HOW DIFFICULT IS FOR THE EU TO CHANGE ITS ATTITUDE?

After gradually evolving from an economic project to a political one, European Union leaders declare nowadays that it is time to go forward and to build a geopolitical actor on the international stage. This paper does make an account on the current stage of relevant geopolitical actors and how they view EU. In order to address this issue, EU have to focus more on its soft power instruments, like multilateralism and the promotion of democracy, rule of law and human rights, and also climate change, apart from hard power instruments like trade, security and defense, cybersecurity and data privacy.Keywords: democracy, European Union, geopolitics, human rights, multilateralism, rule of law, soft power.

Union Leaders' language during conflict: Does gender matter?

We analyze the language used by two consecutive British Columbia Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) presidents, Susan Lambert and Jim Iker, during two collective bargaining sessions that pitted the BCTF against the British Columbia (BC) government and the British Columbia Public School Employers’ Association (BCPSEA). Our study analyzes how gender language differences if they indeed exist, are manifested during critical moments that require strong leadership. Language is a critical resource for leaders, who use it to define issues, assign motives and inspire action, and portray themselves as people of power and consequence. Both women and men can employ a variety of linguistic strategies and the linguistic decisions that male and female leaders make provide a window onto if and how gender may be manifested by those in power and how they use language to present themselves as effective leaders. In this paper, we explore whether and how gender influences the linguistic choices of a male and female union leader during times of conflict.

From stage to street: The #Endsars protest and the prospects of street theatre

Globally, the issues of extrajudicial killings are on the increase. From racial killings in the West to wanton human rights violations in Africa, the pains are the same. Thus, protests has always been a channel employed by many including activists, labour and union leaders among others, to press home grievances and demands against unfavourable policies and social malaise. This paper draws attention to how youths in Nigeria utilised the physical space to spark a protest, in October 2020. Notable actors, musicians, comedians, activists and the international community in their numbers, moved to the street in defiance of security orders to protest against police brutality and harassment. In view of the outcome of the protest, which was later hijacked by hoodlums, the paper examines a non-violent alternative which can be used to address societal issues. It is in this context that the paper examined the role of theatre as a tool for activism, advocacy and communication with specific reference to street theatre, a type of improvised street drama performance that addresses unfavourable socio-political and cultural issues. The data for the study is obtained mainly from the internet, print media, observations, interviews and literary works. For its methodology, the study utilises the popular theatre approach. The study concludes that street theatre has a major role to play in addressing socio- political issues without resorting to violence.

O SINDICALISMO DE TRABALHADORES RURAIS COMO OBJETO DE DISPUTA E COMO AGENTE DE CONSTRUÇÃO DE CENTRAIS SINDICAIS NO BRASIL (2003-2017)

<p>Durante os governos do Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), o número de centrais sindicais cresceu no Brasil e uma acirrada competição por representatividade se estabeleceu entre elas. Este artigo tem como objetivo analisar como essa concorrência se manifestou no movimento sindical por meio do estudo de caso do sindicalismo de trabalhadores rurais, enfatizando as mudanças ocorridas na Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores Rurais Agricultores e Agricultoras Familiares (Contag), a principal entidade sindical desse segmento. A investigação foi realizada por meio de entrevistas com dirigentes e assessores sindicais, análise de documentos e imprensa sindical e observação de eventos de entidades selecionadas. Concluímos que a criação de novas centrais sindicais e a possibilidade de obter o seu reconhecimento legal nos anos 2000 estimularam alianças e rupturas no sindicalismo de trabalhadores rurais, as quais levaram à formação de novas entidades rurais e retroalimentaram o processo de criação de centrais.</p><p><strong>RURAL WORKERS’ UNIONISM AS AN OBJECT OF DISPUTE AND AS AN AGENT FOR THE CREATION OF UNION FEDERATIONS IN BRAZIL (2003-2017)</strong><br /><br />During the Worker’s Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores – PT) governments the number of union federations grew in Brazil, establishing a fierce competition<br />for representation between them. This article analyzes how this competition manifested in the labor movement by the case study of rural workers’<br />unionism, emphasizing the changes that occurred in the Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores Rurais Agricultores e Agricultoras Familiares (Contag), the main union entity in this segment. The study comprised interviews with union leaders and advisors, analysis of documents and union press and observation of events from selected entities. We conclude that the creation of new federations and the possibility of obtaining their legal recognition in the 2000s promoted alliances and ruptures in rural workers’ unionism, leading to the formation of<br />new rural entities and fed back into the process of creating union federations.</p><p>Keywords: Union Federations. Rural Unionism. Rural Workers. Rural Social Movements. PT Governments.</p><p><strong>LE SYNDICALISME DES TRAVAILLEURS RURAUX </strong><strong>COMME OBJET DE DISPUTE ET COMME </strong><strong>AGENT DE CONSTRUCTION DES CENTRALES </strong><strong>SYNDICALES AU BRÉSIL (2003-2017)</strong></p><p><strong></strong>Sous les gouvernements du Parti des travailleurs (Partido dos Trabalhadores – PT), le nombre de centrales syndicales a augmenté au Brésil et une<br />concurrence féroce pour la représentation s’est établie entre elles. Cet article analyse comment cette concurrence s’est manifestée dans le mouvement<br />syndical à travers une étude de cas du syndicalisme des travailleurs ruraux, en soulignant les changements survenus au sein de la Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores Rurais Agricultores e Agricultoras Familiares (Contag), la principale entité syndicale de ce segment. La recherche a été menée par le biais d’entretiens avec des dirigeants et des conseillers syndicaux, d’une analyse de documents et de la presse syndicale et de l’observation des événements des entités sélectionnées. On conclut que la création de nouvelles centrales syndicales et la possibilité d’obtenir leur reconnaissance légale dans les années 2000 ont stimulé les alliances et les ruptures dans le syndicalisme des travailleurs ruraux, ce qui a conduit à la formation de nouvelles entités rurales et a alimenté « en retour » le processus de création de centrales.</p><p>Mots-clés: Centrales Syndicales. Syndicalisme Rural. Travailleurs Ruraux. Mouvements Sociaux. Ruraux. Gouvernement du PT.</p>

I Call Center in Marocco: uno studio sulle condizioni di lavoro nel settore

This article examines the main factors behind bad working conditions in the Call Centers of Morocco. The research is based on fieldwork including 15 semi-structured interviews and in the analysis of government records, labour legislation, academic studies, statistics and other reports from international organizations. The interviews were carried out in Arabic and French in 2018 in Casablanca, Rabat, Fès, Meknès and they involved workers, former workers, trade union leaders and employers from the Call Center sector. Thanks to the interviews we are able to assess in detail the issues faced by workers and, consequently, to explore them. The article highlights the fact that the bad working conditions are caused by a combination of multiple factors, such as the effects of neoliberal reforms, the economic dependence on Europe but also the inefficiency of the labour inspections. The first part discusses the broad factors including the telecommunications’ sector reforms, international agreements, legal and tax reforms that exacerbate directly or indirectly the working conditions. The second part aims to investigate the centers organization and other micro-factors that affect the possibility of claiming rights and speaking out against unfair practices.

Women in the teaching union command: gender and power relations

The present text is a brief synthesis of the doctoral research, still in progress. The general objective of the research is to analyze the trajectories of female teaching union leaders who occupy or have occupied positions of female presidents in the basic education teaching unions, highlighting the relations of gender and power and the construction of identities. Consistent with the object of this study, the historical-dialectical materialist method was chosen with the choice of a qualitative approach of the case study type by consulting different sources of information: review of the relevant literature; semi-structured interviews with the leaders of the teaching unions. To analyze the data collected, we opted for content analysis. The preliminary results of the research inform that, in Brazil, women are still minorities in the presidential seats in the teaching unions.