Statutory Regulation and Employment Relations: The Impact of Statutory Trade Union Recognition, by Sian Moore , Sonia McKay and Sarah Veale . Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2013, 280 pp., ISBN: 978 113 7023 797, £65.00, hardback.
| Published date | 01 June 2014 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12064 |
| Date | 01 June 2014 |
intensified many times over for undocumented workers. However, most importantly,
the ‘ever-present potential for a raid that hangs over workers’ heads’ (p. 11) forms the
main barrier for undocumented workers to access their rights and start a claims-
making procedure. Important is not only the strength of formal protections and the
political will of labour standards enforcement agencies but also the ability of these
agencies to cooperate and collaborate with trusted community brokers that advocate
for the workers, organize them, increase their legal consciousness and guide them into
the claims-making process. Gleeson discusses the practices of labour standards
enforcement agencies, local governments, civil society groups and Mexican consulates
as crucial actors for making worker rights real for undocumented workers. Especially
interesting is the chapter on how Mexican consulates mediate the sphere of worker
rights enforcement, using their diplomatic influence and stable infrastructure, but
without violating their ‘non-interventionist’ policy. Gleeson shows how a wide variety
of actors, ranging from formal bureaucratic offices to unions, faith-based organiza-
tions and worker centres, are crucial in bridging the gap between legal protections and
actual claims made and that the avenues taken in the enforcement of immigrant worker
rights vary depending on the established institutional structures in San Jose and
Houston.
When reading the book, one question that emerges is which local context provides a
more viable terrain for claims making, something Gleeson herself also points out in the
concluding chapter. Except for some administrative data, there is, however, no hard
evidence of the effectiveness of one system over the other. Here some more insights into
the workers’ perspectives on the claims-making process would have been helpful.
Although Gleeson’s aim is to understand the process of rights enforcement by taking
account of the broad set of actors necessary for claims to materialize, the workers’
perspective remains absent. Except for a short description, based on 50 interviews with
Latino immigrant restaurant workers, of why undocumented workers are reluctant to
enter the formal claims-making procedures, Gleeson does not use this input in the
remainder of her book. For a more complete understanding of immigrant worker rights
enforcement, insights into how and why workers enter or avoid the formal claims-making
process would have been valuable. Still, Conflicting Commitments provides a very
nuanced and insightful analysis of the institutional dynamics and political fields in which
a wide variety of actors in San Jose and Houston operate to make rights real for
undocumented workers. It is very well documented and clearly written. Although
embedded within socio-legal studies, this book will be a valuable and worthwhile read for
people interested in the politics of worker rights, law enforcement or immigration issues.
LISA BERNTSEN
University of Jyväskylä
Statutory Regulation and Employment Relations: The Impact of Statutory Trade Union
Recognition, by Sian Moore, Sonia McKay and Sarah Veale. Palgrave
Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2013, 280 pp., ISBN: 978 113 7023 797, £65.00,
hardback.
Recent research has suggested that there may be convergence in the employment and
labour law systems of a number of Anglo-American countries, perhaps leading to a
new emerging model. Statutory Regulation and Employment Relations: The Impact of
Statutory Trade Union Recognition may bolster this convergence hypothesis through
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390 British Journal of Industrial Relations
© 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/London School of Economics.
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