Mitgliedergewinnungsstrategien österreichischer Gewerkschaften

The focus of this research are organizing policies of Austrian labor unions. I am going to analyze strategies that selected unions use to win new members in the construction industry given massive member losses. Two Austrian unions will be examined by means of a comparative analysis. These unions show differences in their membership and related to that in their culture as well as in their size and structure. I am going to develop different and common features of their organizing strategies. The following factors are considered: socioeconomic change, the institutional context of industrial relations, employer and states strategies, and union structures. Apart from these factors, I am going to study patterns of interpretation and action of union actors considering these as fundamental inner-organizational factors. Therefore an actor-oriented perspective will be employed that sheds light on the way, strategic choices develop within union organizations. The example of union organizing shows that besides objective structures, subjective patterns of perception and interpretation of union actors are a central factor in explaining how union organizations handle organizational problems.