Democracy and Government in European Trade Unions by Anthony Carew
Routledge; 1st edition (December 30, 2022), 250 pp.
Reviewed by Samuel Borgos
In Union Democracy Review 225, we reviewed Walter Galenson’s seminal work on Union Democracy in the European labor movement (Trade Union Democracy in Western Europe, Hassell Street Press (September 9, 2021))[1]. Galenson provided a thorough examination of the prospects of union democracy on the continent, focusing particularly on internal governance and its effectiveness (or lack thereof) on the shopfloor for rank and file workers. In his historical survey, Democracy and Government in European Trade Unions, author and labor studies PhD Anthony Carew covers similar ground, discussing from a “worms eye perspective” (to paraphrase Tom Lewandowski) what the European worker experiences vis a vis their union and how they interact with the union’s overseeing its own machinations. Likewise, Carew sheds light on what each country’s respective version of internal union governance is and what its effect on bargaining, union officialdom, and conferences is.
The strong focus of Carew’s study is on the unions themselves and their self-governing faculties. Carew makes very little reference to the body of labor law of the various countries he describes nor their specific legal statutes about union democracy. This is no slight against the author; the cause of union democracy even in most democratic countries with a labor movement (in other words, that can act without fear of government repression) is typically a matter of internal union conversation. Michael Goldberg, in his article, Union Democracy, American Democracy, and Global Democracy: An Overview and Assessment, states “The fact is that with the exception of perhaps a half dozen countries…promoting union democracy is not even a blip on the radar screens of most policy makers around the world, and that includes most of the countries of Western Europe, where internal union affairs are barely regulated at all”.
A strong determining factor in the vibrancy of union democracy in the European unions described by Carew is how many unions represent one “shop”. In France and Italy, for instance, workers may be employed by the same company but belong to different trade unions. Ironically this greater range of choice tends to result in more ideologically homogeneous labor organizations (more radical workers join unions affiliated with the Communist Party, more conservative workers join unions affiliated with Christian Democratic Parties, etc.) and, thus, less institutional supports safeguarding democracy. Having joined a union with a particular political affiliation, members are expected to conform and not rock the boat. In this way, membership in a union that shares the shopfloor with other unions is like being a member of a traditional European parliament, taking your marching orders from the leader of your party and not demonstrating much independence from your compatriots. The result is typically more internal discipline, at the expense of internal union democracy. Sayeth Carew:
“One feature that is immediately evident in studying the constitutions of some European unions is the absence of a meticulous, legalistic approach to internal union affairs such as is encountered in many British unions. In European unions, the rule book is often a very slight document with whole areas of union government left untouched or treated in the most cursory way. In such cases there is little question of members having clearly defined rights and obligations that can be backed up by reference to the rules. Equally, there are few strict limitations placed on the freedom of action of officers.”
In other European countries, where workers from the same employer are all represented by one union, there is typically more room for union democracy and more mechanisms for enforcing those rights. For instance, officer elections in the British unions examined by Carew are much more “vigorously” contested than in French or Italian unions, due to the wider range of rank-and-file opinion under one proverbial roof. Contra such contestation with equivalent situations in Italy, where “…there is never an open contest for office and electioneering is not practiced.”
Carew’s historical survey, Democracy and Government in European Trade Unions offers a global perspective on the endeavors of the “lone union reformer”, provides much needed insight into the struggle for union democracy in European unions, and a helpful addition to the scholarly discussion about the continent’s labor movement.