Rethinking unions : contradiction, leadership, narratives and the case of UFCW Local 401

Show simple item record

dc.contributor.advisor Haiven, Judy, 1951-
dc.coverage.spatial Alberta
dc.creator Foster, Jason
dc.date.accessioned 2015-10-15T14:06:59Z
dc.date.available 2015-10-15T14:06:59Z
dc.date.issued 2015
dc.identifier.other HD6529 A4 F67 2015
dc.identifier.uri http://library2.smu.ca/xmlui/handle/01/26420
dc.description vi, 291 leaves ; 29 cm.
dc.description Includes abstract and appendices.
dc.description Includes bibliographical references (leaves 282-291).
dc.description.abstract Over the past 20 years, the Alberta-based United Food and Commercial Workers Local 401 have revitalized their union through organizing diverse groups of workers in hard-to-organize occupations, increasing involvement in political and community matters and adopting innovative organizing and representation strategies. They have done so with a stable leadership that exhibits autocratic and populist tendencies. The apparent contradictions of autocratic structures and innovative reforms are difficult to explain using existing explanations of union renewal and concepts of union forms. This in-depth study examines Local 401 in an effort to explain the unexpected patterns. Using a variety of methods, including Critical Narrative Analysis, the study reveals that unions may be more fluid and dynamic than the existing literature acknowledges. The study concludes the business union-social union duality common in industrial relations theory needs to be replaced by a more flexible, more multi-layered conceptualization of union behaviour. Unions exhibit elements of both social and business unionism at the same time because they are organizations created at the intersection between structure and action and are always in flux. The study also highlights a possible third path for union renewal, coined “accidental revitalization”, where local-initiated renewal can occur without planned intention and within a context of stable local leadership. Third, the study explores the role narratives play in resolving apparent contradictions in union behaviour by constructing internal logics and how narratives contribute to the production and re-production of power dynamics within unions. en_CA
dc.description.provenance Submitted by Greg Hilliard (greg.hilliard@smu.ca) on 2015-10-15T14:06:59Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Foster_Jason_PHD_2015.pdf: 747516 bytes, checksum: 17887241dcea97fbf1073a9eb93a7026 (MD5) en
dc.description.provenance Made available in DSpace on 2015-10-15T14:06:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Foster_Jason_PHD_2015.pdf: 747516 bytes, checksum: 17887241dcea97fbf1073a9eb93a7026 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-04-29 en
dc.language.iso en en_CA
dc.publisher Halifax, N.S. : Saint Mary's University
dc.subject.lcc HD6529.A4
dc.subject.lcsh United Food and Commercial Workers Canada. Local 401
dc.subject.lcsh Labor unions -- Alberta
dc.title Rethinking unions : contradiction, leadership, narratives and the case of UFCW Local 401 en_CA
dc.type Text en_CA
thesis.degree.name Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration (Management)
thesis.degree.level Doctoral
thesis.degree.discipline Management
thesis.degree.grantor Saint Mary's University (Halifax, N.S.)
 Find Full text

Files in this item

 
 

This item appears in the following Collection(s)

Show simple item record