Preface
Harry Katz

This is a provocative collection of chapters by a number of the former presidents of the International Labour and Employment Relations Association (ILERA). The essays discuss how the field of industrial relations is evolving and the implications for ILERA. The contributors are all leading scholars so their views carry deserved weight beyond that due from their ILERA administrative service.

It is striking how similar are the views of the former presidents even though they reside in a wide range of countries and their academic sub-fields differ across labour relations, economics, and the law. All the chapters note similar far-reaching changes in the nature of work, many induced by alterations in technology, such as the rise of computer-mediated “platform” work, and pressures from globalization, leading to an increasing importance of labour rights and global supply chains.

The former ILERA presidents urge academics to adjust their research to focus more extensively on those trends while maintaining allegiance to the perspective and values that originally motivated the field of industrial relations. To do that research will necessarily be multidisciplinary and make use of a variety of methodologies. The former presidents recognize that the coverage of collective bargaining and union representation has declined substantially, and continues to decline in nearly all countries. Nonetheless, the field of industrial relations continues to provide important insights into the changing nature of work including how those changers affect workers and the workers’ responses. The continuing relevance of industrial relation springs from the fact that conflict at the workplace and higher levels has not abetted and in fact, there are signs of the spread of new forms of collective representation including affinity groups and wildcat protests.

There is a common trend toward income inequality across developed and developing economies. And while there is room for debate regarding the degree to which union decline has contributed to that inequality, there is wide recognition of contention at workplace and broader social levels regarding the distribution of economic progress and the extent of employee voice in economic decisions. On these issues and so many others, the former ILERA presidents demonstrate that industrial relations has much to say.

Janice Bellace, Professor Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania, USA, ILERA President 2009–2012.

Friedrich Furstenberg, Professor Emeritus, Bonn University, Germany, ILERA President 1983–1986.

Tadashi Hanami, Professor Emeritus, Sophia University, Japan, ILERA President 1998–2000.

Evance Kalula, Professor Emeritus, University of Cape Town, South Africa, ILERA President 2012–2015.

Dong-One Kim, Professor, Korea University, Korea, ILERA President 2015–2018.

Thomas A. Kochan, Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, ILERA President 1992–1995.

Russell Lansbury, Professor Emeritus, University of Sydney, Australia, ILERA President 2006–2009.

John Niland, President Emeritus, University of New South Wales, Australia, ILERA President 1989–1992.

Mia Rönnmar, Professor, Lund University, Sweden, ILERA President 2018–2021.

Tiziano Treu, Professor Emeritus, Catholic University of Milan, Italy, ILERA President 1995–1998.

Manfred Weiss, Professor Emeritus, Goethe University, Germany, ILERA President 2000–2003.

Preface  6
_Harry Katz

01 Introduction 9
   _Mia Rönnmar

02 My Experience with the IIRA (ILERA) 18
   _Friedrich Furstenberg
Personal Background  18
Focus of IIRA Activities  19
Survey of My Contributions  21
Retrospective Orientation Toward the Future  24
Possible Guiding Principles for the Future  32

03 Times of Change and Deep Transformation: IIRA 9th World Congress,
   Sydney 1992 34
   _John Niland
Trade Unions and the Future  38
The Future of Industrial Relations  43
Surviving the Paradigm Shift  46
The World Congress as a Change Agent  51

04 Challenges and Opportunities Facing ILERA and Our Field 64
   _Thomas A. Kochan
Building on ILERA’s Legacy  65
Workers: Who are We?  66
From Labour-market Dualism to Fissurization of Employment  67
The Future of Work  69
Globalization  71
Worker Voice, Social Dialogue, and Bargaining Power  73
Rethinking Management Roles and Norms  74
Toward a New Social Contract  76
Shaping the Future of Work  78

05 Employment for a Sustainable Society: What is to be Done? 81
   _Tiziano Treu
Changing Protective Labour Legislation: Simplifications and Flexibility  85

06 The West and the East in Industrial Relations and Labour Law 127
   _Tadashi Hanami
Universal Wisdom Through Globalization  127
Western Domination in the Industrial Relations and Labour Law Field of Study  128
Recent Changes Taking Place in the Western Hemisphere  128

07 Challenges for Labour Law and Industrial Relations 133
   _Manfred Weiss
Introduction  133
The Deficiencies of International Regulation  134
Impact of Digitalization on Labour Law and Industrial Relations  143
Conclusion  156

08 The International Labour and Employment Relations Association (ILERA)     at 50: The Journey So Far and the Way Ahead 163
   _Russell D. Lansbury
The Formative Development of the IIRA: 1967–1982  163
Consolidation and Maturation of the IIRA: 1983–1999  167
IIRA Becomes ILERA: Reorientation and Revitalization from 2000–2018  171
Labour and Employment Relations in an Era of Globalization  175
A Multi-Level Institutional Perspective on Labour and Employment Relations  179
Conclusion  185

09 ILERA: Building on Tradition and Values in Responding to the Challenges     of the Information Age 194
   _Janice R. Bellace
ILERA as a Sustainable, Growing Association  194
The Challenge of Globalization  206
The Information Age and the Digital Economy  211
Conclusion  216

10 ILERA and the Future of Work: Challenges and Opportunities in the Quest     for Universal Decent Work and Social Solidarity 223
   _Evance Kalula
Introduction  223
Some Reflections  225
Conclusion  230

11 Conclusion: Exploring Strategies for Labour and Employment Relations as     an Academic Field 235
   _Dong-One Kim
Introduction  235
What We have Done: Trend Analyses of LER Research, 1947–2014  236
Dimensions of Academic Disciplines and LER  239
Three Strategies for the Revitalization of Academic Disciplines and Underlying Assumptions  241
The Case of LER: The Analyses of Strategic Options and Relevant Assumptions  245
Conclusion: Do We Really Want to Be Twenty-first Century Luddites?  251

INDEX(Name) 257
INDEX(Subject) 261