Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:42:14.492Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Service Delivery By a Trade Union—Does It Pay?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Uri Yanay
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A changing socio-economic environment and competition have led trade unions to extend their role and become service providers. This paper examines some of the issues of service delivery which arise. Four central implications are discussed: the trade union's need (1) to adapt to the competitive service provider's market, (2) to enlarge its consumer body, (3) to become an employer of workers, and (4) to expand its interests with business establishments and authorities over non-union matters. The paper focuses on the General Federation of Labour in Israel (the Histadrut), and its comprehensive health insurance scheme (Kupat Holim). The scheme is provided to all union members and their families as part of union membership. Nonetheless, alternative service systems seem sufficiently attractive for many union members to consider ‘deserting’ their union. The union depends on its members—consumers—to secure its broad base, universalistic image, source of income and legitimacy. Trying to attract consumers causes the union to bend some of its principles. Ultimately, service provision forces the union to adopt characteristics alien to, and even contradicting, its traditional, militant role as an organiser of labour.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , April 1990 , pp. 221 - 234
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bartal, Gavriel (1987), Histadrut—Structure and Activities, Tel Aviv, Histadrut—General Federation of Labour in Israel, 8th Edition (in Hebrew).Google Scholar
David, Joseph Ben (1970), ‘Professionals and unions in Israel’ in Eisenstadt, S.N., Yosef, R. Bar and Adler, C. (ed.), Integration and Development in Israel, Israel Universities Press, Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Sira, Zeev Ben (1981). The Ambulatory Medical Services: Patterns of Referral and Image, The Israel Institute of Applied Social Research, Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Sira, Zeev Ben (1988), Politics and Primary Medical Care: Dehumanisation and Overutilization, Gower, Aldershot, 1988.Google Scholar
Crouch, Colin (1982), Trade Unions: The Logic of Collective Action, Fontana Paperbacks, London.Google Scholar
Ellencweig, A.Y. et al. (1983), A Comparative Analysis of Programmes for Health Insurance in Israel, The Centre for Social Policy Studies in Israel, Jerusalem (in Hebrew).Google Scholar
Giddens, A. (1973), The Class Structure of the Advanced Societies, Hutchinson, London.Google Scholar
Hawkins, Kevin (1981), Trade Unions, Hutchinson, London.Google Scholar
Kanev, Itzhak (1953), Mutual Aid and Organised Medicine in Israel—Forty Years of the Workers Health Services—Kupat Holim, The Social Research Institute of the General Federation of Labour in Israel, Tel Aviv.Google Scholar
Kelly, John (1988), Trade Unions and Socialism, Verso, London.Google Scholar
Olson, M. (1965). The Logic of Collective Action—Public Goods and the Theory of Groups, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Panitch, L. (1976), Social Democracy and Industrial Militancy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powell, Walter W. (ed.) (1987), The Nonprofit Sector—a Research Handbook, Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Reynolds, Lloyd G. (1982), Labor Economics and Labor Relations, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey (8th Edition).Google Scholar
Shirom, Arie (1983), Introduction to Labour Relations in Israel, Am Oved Pub, Tel Aviv (in Hebrew).Google Scholar
Yadlin, Asher (1980), Testimony, Adanim Pub, Jerusalem (in Hebrew).Google Scholar