Trade unions and the amendment of the labour code in Romania
Abstract Employment relations, as well as issues of social and labour-market reforms or the social dialogue, have been extensively treated by various researches interested in the East and Central European region. In this context, much attention has been paid to the changing roles of trade unions, the problem of re-making ancient structures perverted by their more or less collaboration with the Communist parties from the region and the emergence of new structures in search for legitimisation, the difficulties of trade unionism in articulating and representing interests, an aspect that is directly related to their organisational problems, the relations with the governmental authorities and with the employers' organisations in the tripartite framework, as well as the nature of the tripartism in reuniting social partners and state. This article focuses on national organised labour in Romania in relation to the 2005 Labour Code amendment. This specific level of national interest representation is privileged in order to highlight the peculiarities of recognised representative labour organisations in the post-Communist period. The main assumption is that trade unions are facing a particular policy interest with a shift from fragmentation and unstable co-operation to a ‘common position’. Thus this contribution assesses the determinants defining labour's collaboration while shedding light on state – trade union relations.
Taking stock of the crisis: A multilevel analysis of the Romanian trade union movement
This paper analyses the evolution of industrial relations in Romania since the onset of the crisis from a multilevel perspective. It shows that the crisis has contributed to a significant decline in the power of trade unions at the national and sectoral levels as employers capitalized on weaknesses the union movement had accumulated during the previous decade. We discuss why the repeated attempts by unions to block labour marketreforms or to push for the government to roll them back once they were adopted have been unsuccessful. For national union confederations, these shifts have rendered the question of reconsidering their relation with local constituencies and organizations positioned lower down the union hierarchy more urgent than ever. In this context of problematic labour relations at the national level, we find the local picture to be more nuanced. By looking at the example of the Romanian automotive industry, a traditional stronghold for trade unions, we analyse how trade unions defend their interests at the local level. We find that variation in union success between assembly plants depends on the power resources that local unions themselves possess and that immediate union success or failure has progressively become uncoupled from supralocal resources and forms of organization. For local unions, the sweeping reforms after the onset of the crisis have nonetheless emphasized the need to reconnect with the national union movement and secure an influence on supralocal decision-making processes.
L-band 3D imaging of an Alpine Glacier: Results from the AlpTomoSAR campaign
In this paper we present results from the tomographic analysis of L-Band SAR data acquired in February/March 2014 over the Mittelbergferner glacier, Austrian Alps, during the ESA campaign AlpTomoSAR. The campaign includes coincident in-situ measurements of snow and ice properties, as well as high-frequency Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) data acquired over a total length of 18 km. The analyses of three-dimensional TomoSAR data cubes shows the complexity of the glacier sub-surface scattering. Most areas are characterized by surface scattering in proximity of the Lidar surface, plus a complex pattern of in-depth volumetric scattering beneath. Various subsurface features observed in GPR transects at 600 MHz and 200 MHz clearly showed up in TomoSAR sections as well. In particular: firn bodies, crevasses, and even the bedrock down to 50 m below the ice surface.