Peter Fairbrother, John O’Brien, Anne Junor, Michael O’Donnell and Glynne Williams, Unions and globalisation: governments, management and the state at work. Routledge: London, 2011; 256 pp.: 9780415416641, RRP $150 : [book review]

This book begins by establishing the context for state restructuring in recent decades. It identifies the puzzle of restructuring into a managerial state pursued by both sides of the political spectrum, albeit through different paths of marginalising or incorporating unions. It questions whether this is due to economic factors, global forces or a triumph of neo-liberalism. This study of convergence of actions in neo-liberal reforms had me hooked. The central research question is: to what extent were state sector unions able to mitigate the effects of ‘reform’ or even influence its direction?