Frame extension, trade union identities and wage politics : evidence from Sweden

Date
2011
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Source Title
Social Politics
Print ISSN
1072-4745
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Oxford University Press
Volume
18
Issue
3
Pages
419 - 440
Language
English
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Abstract

Drawing on frame theory, this paper examines how policy entrepreneurs within the Swedish Trade Union Confederation Landsorganisationen i Sverige (LO) embarked on a campaign to extend an exclusively class-based solidarity frame along gender lines. In the process, LO’s identity was modified. Once the new solidarity frame had been accepted, it was operationalized in the collective bargaining process through the creation of a “women’s pot”—i.e., a wage supplement given to female employees, or female-dominated sectors, to counter gender-based pay discrimination. Nevertheless, the new frame has yet to meet with success in the wage-bargaining arena, as LO faces problems of intra-union coordination in an unfavorable institutional context.

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Published Version (Please cite this version)