Professor Steve Jefferys
Position
Director of Working Lives Research Institute
Qualifications
- PhD Warwick
- MSc (computation) Umist
- BSc (econ) LSE
Background/Career
Having been an activist at the LSE in 1965-68 Steve’s first job was on the line in the Chrysler Linwood factory in Scotland. He later became a journalist first based in Glasgow and then in London. In 1980 he went to Warwick University where he wrote a PhD and his first book on the unionisation of the Chrysler Dodge Main plant in the USA. His first academic job was at Manchester Polytechnic and during his time there he also completed a masters in computing.
In 1991 he went to Keele University where he launched a European MA in Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management and increasingly specialised in European and French industrial relations. In 2000 he moved to become Professor of European Employment Studies at the University of North London, and when that merged in August 2002 to become London Metropolitan University he became Director of the Working Lives Research Institute.
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Research interests and expertise
Steve’s research interests are largely in three areas: comparative and especially French employment relations; trade union activism; and trade union policy towards racism. He is currently working on research projects on banking and telecommunication trade unions in Britain and France, as well as on European funded projects examining the responses of trade unions to racism and xenophobia and how trade unions can best represent workers in small firms.
Contact details
s.jefferys@londonmet.ac.uk
Working Lives Research Institute
London Metropolitan University
31 Jewry Street
London EC3N 2EY
Tel. 020 7320 3042
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Publications
Books
- 2003 Liberté, Egalité and Fraternité at Work: Changing French Employment Relations and Management, London: Palgrave. Read a review:
- 2001 European Working Lives Edited by Steve Jefferys, Frederik Mispelblom (Évry University) and Christer Thornqvist (Gothenberg University, Sweden), Aldershot: Edward Elgar.
- 2000 Management, Welfare and Work in Western Europe: an historical and contemporary analysis with Mick Carpenter, Aldershot: Edward Elgar.
- 1986 Management and Managed: Fifty Years of Crisis at Chrysler, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Book Chapters
- 2008 ‘Trade Unions, Migration and Racism in France’ pp 121-138 in (ed.) S. McKay, Refugees, Recent Migrants and Employment: Challenging Barriers and Exploring Pathways, London: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-09977-3.
- 2008 ‘Les relations professionelles prises comme objets de recherché: le role des enquêtes statistiques dans leurs contexts nationaux (France et Grande-Bretagne)’, pp 1-37 in (eds.) Thomas Amossé, Catherine Bloch-London, Loup Wolff, Les relations sociales en entreprise : un portrait à partir des enquêtes ‘Relations professionnelles et négociations d’entreprise’, Paris : La Découverte.
- 2005 ‘Between welcome and rejection - The ambiguities of UK policy on migration and integration’ in eds M. Alaluf and E. Krzeslo, Regards croisés sur la mondialisation en Europe et en Chine, Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles, ISBN 2-8004-1359-X.
- 2005 ‘Racism and discrimination in the employment sector of the 25 EU Member States and initiatives on how to prevent it’, in EUMC, Racism and Xenophobia in the EU Member States: trends, developments and good practice. Annual Report 2005 –Part 2, European Union Monitoring Centre for Racism and Xenophobia: Vienna, pp34-48.
- 2004 ‘Critical Times for French Employment Regulation: The 35-hour Week and the Challenge to Social Partnership’ in J. Stanford and L. F. Vosko (eds.) Challenging the Market: The Struggle to Regulate Work and Income’, Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
- 2003 ‘Early Days: Belgian and UK Experiences of European Works Councils’, with Thérèse Beaupain in W.N. Cooke (ed.), Multinational Companies and Global Human Resource Strategies, Westport, Connecticut: Quorum, 329-346.
- 2003 ‘Some early UK experiences of European Works Councils’, pp 99-112.in F. Guarriello and S. Leonardi (eds.), Globalizzazione e Relazioni Industrialia: Consultazione dei lavoratori nelle imprese transnazionali, Roma: Ediesse.
- 2003 ‘Immigrati e "minoranze etniche" in Gran Bretagna: tra razzismo e "pari opportunità"’, with Umut Erel in P. Basso and F. Perocco (eds.), Gli immigrati in Europa. Diseguaglianze, razzismo, lotte, Milano: Franco Angeli.
- 2003 ‘HRM, commitment, insecurity and low pay: some indicative evidence from the European banking sector’ with C. Thornley and S. Contrepois, in (eds) D. Coffey and C. Thornley, Industrial and Labour Market Policy and Performance: issues and perspectives, London: Routledge, 130-145.
- 2001 ‘Le paradoxe du temps de travail Outre-Manche: où de plus en plus de gens travaillent moins de 30 heures et de plus en plus de gens travaillent plus de 45 heures par semaine’, in G. Groux (ed.) L’action publique negociée: approaches a partir des ’35 heures’ – France-Europe, Paris: L’Harmattan.
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2001 ‘Taking the Pulse of British Trade Unionism: The Experience of the Communication Workers Union’, with A. Roe and C. Whitston, in S. Jefferys, F. Mispelblom, C. Thornqvist (eds), European Working Lives, Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 185-200.
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2000 ‘Western European trade unionism at 2000’, in L. Panitch and C. Leys (eds), The Socialist Register 2001, London: Merlin.
Selected Refereed Journal articles
- 2007 ‘Why do unions find fighting workplace racism difficult?’, Transfer, Vol 13. No 3. pp. 377-391, ISSN 1024-2589.
- 2007 ‘Trade unions and racism in London, Brussels and Paris public transport’, (with Nouria Ouali), Industrial Relations Journal, Vol 38, No. 5, pp 406-422.
- 2007 ‘Who are the fairest? Ethnic segmentation in London’s media production’, (with Ashika Thanki), Work organisation, labour & globalisation, Vol 1, No. 1, pp. 108-18. ISSN 1745-641X.
- 2006 ‘French Government Pay Interventions and Incomes Policies, 1945–1981’, (with Sylvie Contrepois) Historical Studies in Industrial Relations, 16, Dec, pp, 3-30. ISSN 1362 1572.
- 2005 ‘Trade Unionism under challenge from off-shoring and globalisation’ (with Sylvie Contrepois), Transfer, Vol 11, No. 4, pp. 549-568. ISSN 1024-2589.
- 2004 ‘The Next French Upsurge?’, Labor History, Volume 45: 3
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1999 ‘Job regulation and the managerial challenge to trade unions: evidence from two union membership surveys’, with Colin Whitston and Alan Roe, Industrial Relations Journal, December. pp 482-498.
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1997 ‘Restructuring and trade unions in British and French banking’ with Carole Thornley (Keele) and Sylvie Contrepois (Evry), European Journal of Industrial Relations, 3 (1), March, pp. 83-105.
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1996 ‘Down but not out: French unions after Chirac’, Work, Employment and Society, 10, 3, September, pp. 509-527.
Selected recent conference papers
- 2006 April 12. London. International Labour Process Conference. ‘Trade union membership, participation and involvement among black and migrant workers employed in the public transport sectors of London, Brussels and Paris’ with Nouria Ouali.
- 2005 December 1. Paris. LISE/ CNRS-CNAM et le CMS de la Ville de Gennevilliers. ‘Risques accrus pour les travailleurs migrants’.
- 2005 October 20-21. Paris. RITU final conference. ‘Comparing the participation and involvement of ethnic minority and migrant workers in the public transport industries of London, Paris and Brussels’.
- 2004 September 7-11. Lisbon. European Congress of IIRA. ‘Globalisation, Relocation and the Challenge to Bank Trade Unions in France and Britain’ with Sylvie Contrepois.
- 2004 July, Nottingham. BUIRA. ‘Understanding activism: the meaning of ‘militancy’ in France and Britain’.
- June, London. UNI-Europa seminar on fight against racism and xenophobia, ‘Problems of discrimination at the workplace and the current state of discussion within the trade unions’.
- 2004 May, Brussels. ULB and EU. ‘Between welcome and rejection - The ambiguities of UK policy on migration and integration’.
- 2003 September 8-12, Berlin. World Congress of International Industrial Relations Association.‘Founding values or instrumentalism? Comparing bank sector trade union activism in France and Britain’ with Sylvie Contrepois.
- 2003 November, Paris. Journées du Sociologie du Travail. ‘”Liberté, égalité, fraternité au travail”. Au-delà de la devise, un outil pour comprendre les systèmes de relations professionnelles’.
- 2003 July 9. Greenwich. International Employment Relations Association conference. ‘Understanding trade union ideology: members and activists in the British CWU’.
- 2003 June 18-19. European Foundation Dublin, Socially-responsible restructuring seminar. ‘Understanding the social, gender and ethnic dimensions of European restructuring and insecurity'.
- 2001 October 10. UNL. French Political Economy Seminar. ‘The minimum wage and workers’ struggles in France, 1950-1980’.
- 2001 September 20-22. URMIS biennial conference, Rennes, France. ‘Racial discrimination in and outside of work in North London’.
A new type of activism. See video
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