Telefónica’s bargain with the unions: Labor-mediated downsizing lessens conflict

– Analyzes the restructuring approach followed by the highly-profitable Telefónica in its 2011 redundancy plan. Explores unions’ response to management strategy.

– Follows a case-study approach, constructing a dataset with information from company reports, committee records, union documents, press releases and other available sources, such as specialized journals and newspapers.

– Tries to show how massive job cuts have been implemented through a labor-mediated downsizing strategy that mitigates disagreement and industrial conflict.

– Tackles the question of how unions respond to corporate restructuring (involving downsizing) in countries where industrial-relations institutions remain relatively strongly embedded.