Journal of Social Policy Conferences

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DOI :10.26650/jspc.2023.84.1221130   IUP :10.26650/jspc.2023.84.1221130    Full Text (PDF)

İşveren Sendikalarının Değişen Görünümü: Seçilmiş Ülkeler Üzerine Bir İnceleme

Muhammed Seyyid Yelek

İşveren sendikaları, sermaye sahiplerinin endüstri ilişkilerindeki ortak ekonomik hak ve çıkarlarını korumak ve geliştirmek için oluşturdukları örgütlerdir. Sanayi devriminden sonra sınıflar arası ilişkilerde görülen değişim üzerine kurulan işveren sendikaları uzun bir dönem boyunca endüstri ilişkilerindeki kural koyma sürecinde önemli görevler üstlenmişler ve üyelerinin sınıfsal çıkarlarını korumada büyük ölçüde başarıya ulaşmışlardır. Ancak ilerleyen süreçte, işveren sendikalarının ortaya çıkmalarına sebep olan olgularda görülen zayıflama, bu kurumların üye kaybı yaşamalarına ve güçlerini önemli ölçüde yitirmelerine sebep olmuştur. Bu durum karşısında işveren sendikaları üye kayıplarını azaltmak ve güçlerini muhafaza etmek amacıyla çeşitli önlemler almışlardır. Çalışmada işveren sendikacılığının erken gelişme gösterdiği ülke örneklerinden İngiltere, Almanya ve Amerika Birleşik Devletleri ele alınmıştır. İşveren sendikalarının varlıklarını devam ettirmek kaygısıyla giriştikleri mücadeleler ve izledikleri faaliyetler neticesinde önemli bir dönüşüm geçirdikleri, işveren dernekleri ve odalar gibi diğer işveren örgütlerinin yürüttükleri faaliyetleri de imkânları doğrultusunda üstlendikleri görülmüştür. İşveren sendikalarının böylelikle saf endüstri ilişkileri örgütleri olmanın ötesine geçerek giderek karma örgütler haline gelmeye başladıkları sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.

Keywords: İşveren Sendikaları, İşveren Örgütleri, Endüstri İlişkileri
DOI :10.26650/jspc.2023.84.1221130   IUP :10.26650/jspc.2023.84.1221130    Full Text (PDF)

The Changing Appearence of Employers’ Associations: A Review of Selected Countries

Muhammed Seyyid Yelek

Employers’ associations are formed by capital owners to protect and develop their common economic rights and interests in industrial relations. Employers’ associations were founded based on the change in interclass relations after the Industrial Revolution and have played an important role in the process of making rules regarding industrial relations for a long time, having achieved great success in protecting the class interests of their members. However, the weakening in the reasons that led to the formation of employers’ associations in the following period caused these institutions to lose their members and power to a significant extent. As a result, employers’ associations have taken various measures to prevent membership losses and to maintain their power. This article discusses England, Germany, and the United States of America as examples of countries where employers’ associations developed early. Employers’ associations are observed to have undergone a significant transformation as a result of their struggles and activities related to maintaining their existence, and they started undertaking the activities of other employers’ organizations in this context and in line with their capabilities. Based on these changes, this study concludes that employers’ associations have gone beyond being pure industrial relations organizations to gradually having become hybrid organizations.

Keywords: Employers’ Associations, Industrial Relations

EXTENDED ABSTRACT


Employers’ organizations have been set up to protect and develop the common economic rights and interests of capital owners. The competition among early capitalists had hampered the ability of this class to act collectively, at least regarding some issues. This made the early organizations transient and short-lived. However, the changes in labor relations that occurred over time reinforced the idea that defending the private interests of capital meant defending class interests, caused class consciousness among capital owners to increase, and saw organizations starting to take on more permanent forms.

Capital owners developed several organizational forms with a range of functions in response to their various needs. During the early period of capitalism, employers generally acted within organizations that were not involved in industrial relations in order to protect the various economic interests they had difficulty doing on their own. Employers’ organizations and chambers were the main organizations in this context. The fact that capitalism had become the dominant production system through the Industrial Revolution and that class relations had emerged more visibly was effective in employers’ associations being established with a focus on industrial relations.

In parallel with the increase in the size of the working class in this period, class consciousness emerged among workers. They acquired the ability to act collectively and established trade unions. The struggle of the working class resulted in the acquisition of the right to strike and collective bargaining. This struggle with trade unions was the primary motivations for employers to form associations focused on industrial relations. In addition, governments had enacted certain proworker policies and regulations in line with both the pressures of the working class as well as the democratization in politics. This situation caused employers to feel the managerial privileges property rights had granted them to be in danger and created the need for employers to act collectively against the state. This was another effective phenomenon in the establishment of employers’ associations. Lastly, employers realized the need for a collective movement in order to reduce the wage-based competition that often led to negative outcomes for them.

Employers’ associations started to be seen in many sectors in the industrializedWestern countries in the second half of the 19th century and gained more centralized structures by merging and forming umbrella organizations in the 20th century. During this process, employers’ associations contributed to the formation of a stable industrial relations system by serving the proliferation and centralization of collective bargaining. They were also effective in creating legislation in line with representational activities and in this way have for a long time been one of the main actors guiding industrial relations. Since the last quarter of the 20th century, employers’ associations have been losing the strong position they had mostly gained through their struggles with trade unions, lobbying efforts with governments, and widespread public activities and have also started losing great numbers of members.

This study discusses employers’ associations, whose fields of interest involve industrial relations, and examines the developments, activities, and effects these institutions have had on industrial relations in this context. The study discusses the course these organizations took throughout their historical process through the examples of countries in which employers’ associations had first developed and explores the reasons that led to the formation of employers’ associations, their emergence as significant players in industrial relations, and how they then losing their importance compared to previous periods. The article also addresses the struggles employers’ associations went through, the policies they adopted, and how they developed their fields of activity in order to protect their strength and minimize membership losses in the face of these circumstances in an attempt to determine the transformations employers’ associations have experienced.


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APA

Yelek, M.S. (2023). İşveren Sendikalarının Değişen Görünümü: Seçilmiş Ülkeler Üzerine Bir İnceleme. Journal of Social Policy Conferences, 0(84), 59-76. https://doi.org/10.26650/jspc.2023.84.1221130


AMA

Yelek M S. İşveren Sendikalarının Değişen Görünümü: Seçilmiş Ülkeler Üzerine Bir İnceleme. Journal of Social Policy Conferences. 2023;0(84):59-76. https://doi.org/10.26650/jspc.2023.84.1221130


ABNT

Yelek, M.S. İşveren Sendikalarının Değişen Görünümü: Seçilmiş Ülkeler Üzerine Bir İnceleme. Journal of Social Policy Conferences, [Publisher Location], v. 0, n. 84, p. 59-76, 2023.


Chicago: Author-Date Style

Yelek, Muhammed Seyyid,. 2023. “İşveren Sendikalarının Değişen Görünümü: Seçilmiş Ülkeler Üzerine Bir İnceleme.” Journal of Social Policy Conferences 0, no. 84: 59-76. https://doi.org/10.26650/jspc.2023.84.1221130


Chicago: Humanities Style

Yelek, Muhammed Seyyid,. “İşveren Sendikalarının Değişen Görünümü: Seçilmiş Ülkeler Üzerine Bir İnceleme.” Journal of Social Policy Conferences 0, no. 84 (May. 2024): 59-76. https://doi.org/10.26650/jspc.2023.84.1221130


Harvard: Australian Style

Yelek, MS 2023, 'İşveren Sendikalarının Değişen Görünümü: Seçilmiş Ülkeler Üzerine Bir İnceleme', Journal of Social Policy Conferences, vol. 0, no. 84, pp. 59-76, viewed 18 May. 2024, https://doi.org/10.26650/jspc.2023.84.1221130


Harvard: Author-Date Style

Yelek, M.S. (2023) ‘İşveren Sendikalarının Değişen Görünümü: Seçilmiş Ülkeler Üzerine Bir İnceleme’, Journal of Social Policy Conferences, 0(84), pp. 59-76. https://doi.org/10.26650/jspc.2023.84.1221130 (18 May. 2024).


MLA

Yelek, Muhammed Seyyid,. “İşveren Sendikalarının Değişen Görünümü: Seçilmiş Ülkeler Üzerine Bir İnceleme.” Journal of Social Policy Conferences, vol. 0, no. 84, 2023, pp. 59-76. [Database Container], https://doi.org/10.26650/jspc.2023.84.1221130


Vancouver

Yelek MS. İşveren Sendikalarının Değişen Görünümü: Seçilmiş Ülkeler Üzerine Bir İnceleme. Journal of Social Policy Conferences [Internet]. 18 May. 2024 [cited 18 May. 2024];0(84):59-76. Available from: https://doi.org/10.26650/jspc.2023.84.1221130 doi: 10.26650/jspc.2023.84.1221130


ISNAD

Yelek, MuhammedSeyyid. “İşveren Sendikalarının Değişen Görünümü: Seçilmiş Ülkeler Üzerine Bir İnceleme”. Journal of Social Policy Conferences 0/84 (May. 2024): 59-76. https://doi.org/10.26650/jspc.2023.84.1221130



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Submitted19.12.2022
Accepted05.04.2023
Published Online23.05.2023

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