The role of the TUC in significant industrial disputes: an historical critical overview

ABSTRACT

Historically the British Trades Union Congress’s (TUC) role in a significant number of major industrial disputes has been subject to both accusations of ‘betrayals’ and ‘sell-outs’ as well as more sympathetic accounts which emphasise the constraints faced by the TUC both in terms of their institutional role and their relationship with constituent unions. Drawing on evidence concerning the role of the TUC in significant disputes including the 1926 General Strike, the strike wave of 1972, 1975–8 Grunwick dispute, the 1978/9 ‘winter of discontent’, the 1984/5 miners’ strike, the 1986–7 News International strike and more recent examples, the paper highlights four constraints on the role of the TUC in relation to major disputes: their political loyalty to the Labour Party; an aversion to defying the law; the avoidance of appearing to challenge state power; and structural constraints to an extent inherent within trade union officialdom.     

Organized labor in the political process: A case study of the right‐to‐work campaign in Ohio

The 40-year anniversary of the Equal Pay Act in 2010 brought a new notoriety to what was once an obscure dispute – the Ford sewing machinists’ strike of 1968. Even a film, Made In Dagenham, has now been released in Britain and the US and, as described below, a number of letters and articles have appeared celebrating what is universally described as ‘a strike for equal pay’. Yet the sewing machinists’ placards at their union conference proclaiming ‘Equal Rights’ are probably the nearest the workers themselves got to a demand for equal pay. That demand was instead developed by the male trade unionists who came to control the dispute. The one woman in the case who enthusiastically embraced the concept of equal pay – Minister of Labor Barbara Castle – did so only in order to get the women back to work. Classifying the 1968 strike as ‘a strike for equal pay’ conceals its real importance as a protest against injustice and exploitation.     

Negro labor in the western cattle industry, 1866–1900

The trade union movement in sub-Saharan Africa during the struggle against colonial rule in the 1950s has long commanded the attention of historians. Numerous books and articles have detailed the growing strength and critical role of trade unions in France's vast West African colonial federation, l'Afrique occidentale française (AOF). Far less is known about the fate of these trade unions in the nine newly independent countries that emerged from the demise of AOF. In the 15 years following independence, most autonomous trade unions in French-speaking West Africa were either marginalised or integrated into the political structures of ruling parties. With the exception of Burkina Faso, single national trade union federations controlled by ruling political parties existed everywhere in francophone West Africa by 1975. Whether capitalist, military or socialist, all political elites sought to create a trade unionism that would serve as a transmission belt for party control over the workforce, a type of unionism that was referred to as ‘participation responsable’. This article details the experience of Dahomey (now Benin), where independent trade unions struggled against responsible participation and continued to play a pivotal political role until 1975, when the state socialist regime of Mathieu Kérékou finally succeeded in imposing state-controlled trade unionism.     

Article 23(4) Trade Union Rights and the United Nations policy of devolution on labour relations

ABSTRACT

Article 23(4) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states ‘Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.’ This article documents the global legislative history of Article 23(4) trade union rights from its original drafting to interpretation by international labour standards. The history includes debates on the fundamental principles of trade union rights, the decision by ECOSOC to ignore a call to establish a permanent UN Commission on Trade Union Rights, the devolution of authority from the United Nations to the International Labour Organization, how ILO international law experts framed trade union rights as a subset of the freedom of association, and the treatment of labour relations policy, including compulsory union membership, that resulted under international human rights norms. The history is discussed as one that confines standards of policy on labour rights in the global political economy and has particular implications for the discourse on labour rights as human rights.     

David Brody: Heir to the Wisconsin school

Recently, there has been a move to use a ‘fine-grained’ approach to the study of the multinational companies (MNCs). In this paper, we examine in depth a significant part of the maintenance activities in the process plants of petrochemical MNCs in the UK. While the MNCs have de-recognized their internal trade unions, and out-sourced maintenance to on-site contractors, we find that such work is still linked to trade union recognition. In this sector, the MNCs have in general adopted a national agreement for their on-site contractors. This paper discusses and evaluates the changing situation and provides a unique contribution to theory regarding the rationale behind trade union recognition in that isomorphism underlies the national recognition for trade unions in the sector and, given the changing political situation in the UK, we argue this is ultimately based on legitimacy-seeking.     

‘The knife in the hands of the children’? Debating the political mass strike and political citizenship in Imperial Germany

German trade union leader Ludwig Rexhäuser compared workers who might use the political mass strike to children one could not trust with a knife. No other worker leader so openly disparaged the masses, and some embraced worker activism. Nonetheless, pre-1914 German Social Democrats, in debating the mass strike, differed sharply over whether and which workers could be trusted with political agency, how workers could attain political maturity, and what tactics citizens might or should legitimately use. The contested nature of political citizenship within Germany's most democratic movement illuminates just how complex democracy and democratization have proven in practice.     

Labor and the Landscape of American Gothic*

The 1987–88 strike at International Paper's Androscoggin Mill in Jay, Maine severed a longstanding ‘social contract’ where workers and community residents tolerated the mill's air and water pollution in return for good-paying jobs and a robust local economy. This article traces the development of environmental consciousness among union workers and community residents during the strike and their efforts to protect the environment from the pollution of the mill. The union publicized environmental problems at the mill and the state's failures to regulate pollution when the strike began. After a series of environmental accidents during the strike, including a massive chlorine dioxide gas leak that threatened the safety of the town, Jay residents formed a community environmental organization and pressured the company and the state to close the mill. The environment remained an important issue after the strike, as labor and environmental activists joined forces to uphold a municipal ordinance that allowed the town to enforce state and federal environmental laws. This article studies how labor and environmental politics converged on a local level and also explores the broader themes of the conflict between job prosperity and environmental protection in industrial communities, labor and environmental movement alliances, and the current issues surrounding the ‘green economy’.     

British trade unions,the 1975 European Referendum and its legacy

This paper examines the evolution of British trade union policy relating to the European Union (EU). It focuses upon the 1975 UK referendum on continued membership of the Common Market (latterly the EU), and uses this key event to illuminate the range of the debate within the trade union movement, the rationale why it determined to oppose British membership of the EU and why its scampaigning proved largely ineffective, before considering the consequences arising from the referendum defeat. The paper identifies a number of issues resonant within the labour movement–including the decline in the strength of the left and the concomitant polarisation of opinion concerning the optimality of pursuing predominantly national or super-national economic and social policy–which have resulted in the periodic oscillation in trade union strategy, from opposition to (conditional) support for the European integration ‘project’. It surmises that the inability of the trade union leadership to construct a viable strategy, able to combine full employment with social and labour market protection for vulnerable workers, implies that the questions last comprehensively aired during the 1975 referendum campaign have never been satisfactorily resolved. Consequently, an understanding of the factors pertaining to the 1975 referendum campaign has the potential to inform the contemporary debate.     

A syndicalist moment? Democracy,insurgent unionism,and the ‘Outlaw Strike’ of 1920

This article considers World War I era labor insurgency through an examination of the 1920 ‘outlaw’ switchmen’s strike, one of the largest rank-and-file revolts of the postwar strike wave. Drawing upon Bureau of Investigation surveillance reports, the article argues the strike represented not so much an expression of a ‘syndicalist impulse’ as a struggle over the definition of the new unionism and the ideological legacy of the war. Inspired by the wartime rhetoric of Americanism and industrial democracy, pressed by the rising cost of living, and frustrated with the failure of the state and their parent unions to deliver living wages, the insurgents briefly succeeded in building democratic, cross-craft unions. The rebel unionists failed, but the ‘Outlaw Strike’ arguably was as important as the later and larger 1922 national shopmen’s strike in the way it highlighted issues of wages, union democracy, and employee representation.     

Showdown at Nissan: the 1989 campaign to organize Nissan in Smyrna,Tennessee, and the rise of the transplant sector

In July 1989, workers at Nissan’s plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, voted 1622 to 711 against being represented by the United Automobile Workers of America (UAW). At the time, many reporters saw the well-publicized Nissan vote – dubbed a ‘showdown’ by the New York Times – as a defining moment in modern labor history. The election deserves further exploration, especially as it played a key role in establishing the non-union ‘transplant’ sector. UAW leaders blamed the Smyrna loss on Nissan’s anti-union tactics, while the company claimed that workers did not need a union because they were already well paid (although this was largely due to the UAW’s presence). This article is the first to provide a detailed analysis that draws on the union’s records of the campaign, as well as many other sources. While the factors cited publicly were important, the article demonstrates that there were additional reasons for the union’s defeat, including internal divisions, unanticipated staffing problems, and the logistical challenge of organizing such a big – and new – facility. Although Nissan workers had many grievances, the company also fostered loyalty by not laying off workers, and by expanding the plant. Finally, it secured a high level of community support, and drew off the conservative political climate of the era.     

Bound to Please: a history of the Victorian corset

This paper addresses feminist materialism as political practice through a case study of IWW-Earth First! Local 1, the late Judi Bari's organization of a radical ecology/timber workers' union in the ancient redwood forests of Northern California. Rejecting the Earth First! mythology of timber workers as ‘enemies’ of nature, Bari sought to unite workers and environmentalists in pursuit of sustainable forestry practices against the devastating approaches favoured by multinational logging corporations. In so doing, she brought a working-class feminist perspective to the radical ecology of Earth First! Bari's work provided a significant instance of community organizing in opposition to the masculinist, exclusionary practices and misanthropic posturing of Earth First!'s self-proclaimed ‘eco-warriors’ and ‘rednecks for nature’. What is perhaps most interesting about the development of Local 1 is the articulation of feminist, environmentalist and labour discourses through a series of political actions.     

A pivotal role? The AFL–CIO and the 2008 presidential election

This article explores the role that organized labor played in the landmark presidential election of 2008. In particular, it explores the work of the American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO), which ran its biggest ever election campaign in 2008, spending upwards of $250 million. While there is a vibrant emerging literature on the election, particularly from political scientists and former reporters, labor’s role in the story has been largely overlooked. Drawing on new parts of the AFL–CIO’s papers, as well as interviews with key staffers and federation leaders, this article highlights the important – and overlooked – role that labor played in putting Barack Obama into the White House. Especially important were its extensive efforts to educate – and pressure – white members, many of whom had backed other candidates during the Democratic primaries, to support Obama. Indeed, the Washington Post asserted that union members played a ‘pivotal role’ in Obama’s victory, especially in terms of delivering the white vote. It was a conclusion largely supported by exit polls, which showed that white union members were much more likely to support Obama than whites who were not in unions. The article highlights that despite the decline in union density – by this time only about 12% of American workers belonged to unions, compared to 35% in the 1950s – the labor movement retained considerable political influence, chiefly because of reforms carried out by AFL–CIO President John J. Sweeney. While Obama was unable to fulfill many of the expectations generated by his campaign, the story of labor and the 2008 election is an important one in its own right, showing that contemporary labor could still be a powerful and constructive force.     

The evolution of industrial relations in Nepal: a biological evolutionary perspective

ABSTRACT

A great deal of literature focuses on exogenous forces transforming industrial relations in liberal and neoliberal contexts. Further, most scholars claim that the transformation occupies a similar trajectory of convergence across the globe. However, very little is known about the evolution of industrial relations in Nepal. Therefore, this paper considers the labor movement of 1947, the royal coup d’état of 1960, the ban on the trade unions, and the alliance of the trade unions with the political parties and political economy as endogenous drivers in explaining the evolution of industrial relations in Nepal. Thus the objective of the paper is to investigate the evolution of industrial relations in Nepal through an evolutionary perspective. This analysis shows that the evolution of industrial relations in Nepal is a ‘punctuated’ (discontinuous or revolutionary) one compared with a traditional, incremental model, which employs the construct of the institutionalization of industrial relations, using a standard, union-based paradigm of employment relations against the growing nonstandard employment model of more flexibility and irregular work that is growing in the West and Asia. Further, the theoretical contributions are put into perspective in the context of the broader industrial relations backdrop.     

加强满意度调查 促进工会工作纵深发展——以某学校工会工作满意度调查研究为例

为了解工会会员对工会工作的满意度,促进工会工作进一步发展与提高,采用问卷调查法进行调查.调查发现群众对工会的满意度比较高,工会工作卓有成效;组织建设和文化建设工作突出,生活保障职能、维护职工权益和参与决策工作职能需加强;工会干部素质满意度评价很高,也需要进一步加强创新意识、政治法律素质、服务意识与协调能力的培养;工会活...     

‘Labor's Empty Gun’: Permanent Replacements and the International Paper Company Strike of 1987–88

In June 1987, managers at International Paper Company (IP) permanently replaced more than 2,200 union members who had gone on strike after resisting the firm's demands for extensive concessions. Previous accounts of this dispute, which lasted until October 1988, have focused on Jay, Maine, where around half the strikers were located. This study gives a fuller history, detailing the involvement of strikers in De Pere, Wisconsin and Lock Haven, Pennsylvania as well. In addition, it highlights the important part played by 1,200 IP workers in Mobile, Alabama. In March 1987, IP executives locked out the Mobile workers, precipitating the entire conflict between the two sides. Blending oral history interviews with unprocessed archival material and local newspaper accounts, Minchin shows that the company's use of permanent replacements tipped the balance in its favor, despite the union's efforts to launch a corporate campaign against IP. Although the strikers held firm, they had little bargaining power once they had been replaced. The dispute graphically highlights how difficult it is for unions to win strikes in the contemporary US, confirming union leaders’ complaints that the hiring of permanent strike replacements has left them with an ‘empty gun.’     

关于工会社会公信力研究——坚持“中国特色社会主义工会发展道路”的实践要求

工会社会公信力是指工会组织信守承诺而对社会产生的广泛而深远的影响,是工会组织通过开展活动、履行社会职能及其取得的实际效果而体现出的、并被社会积极认同和信赖的、维护公平正义的组织能力和社会影响。工会组织社会公信力的形成是以劳动者结社所体现的契约精神为基础,是通过工会对会员维权承诺及其实现而形成的一种社会价值判断,因而具有强烈的契约精神和社会伦理意义。提高工会社会公信力作为中国特色社会主义工会发展道路的实践要求,其实现路径就是要遵循中国特色社会主义工会发展道路所提出的基本原则和基本理念,坚持中国特色社会主义工会发展的基本方向,按照工会工作规律创造性地开展工作,维护好和实现好职工的切身利益与合法权益,以实际作为在社会上树立起工会组织的崭新形象。     

Arts and Media

The Little Steel strike of 1937 has taken on iconic significance for historians, in large part because of the anti-labor violence of the Memorial Day Massacre. What has garnered considerably less attention is the community mobilization that accompanied the strike. For a brief moment, steel workers and their allies challenged the anti-democratic tendencies in the Steel Workers Organizing Committee. While SWOC leaders focused almost exclusively on the achievement of a signed contract, women of the steel auxiliaries, workers on the picket line, and middle-class liberals from across Chicago sought to transform the strike into something larger than a showdown over union recognition. For this coalition, the Little Steel strike was a flashpoint in a wider struggle social democratic reform. In the mobilization prior to Memorial Day and in the protest movement that followed it, key elements of Chicago's liberal-labor coalition espoused the egalitarian values of the Popular Front. Far from an exercise in bread-and-butter moderation, the strike became the occasion for a larger social uprising. This expression of united front commitment drew on the example of the Unemployed Councils and the front-line militancy that is often only associated with the Flint sit-down strike and the general strikes of 1934. In Chicago, the Little Steel strike raised the possibility that steelworkers might embrace the ‘civic unionism’ that animated the left-led unions of the era.     

Redesigning the Strategy of the Frente Auténtico del Trabajo in the Maquiladoras

This article assesses the consequences of political reform and structural adjustment programmes on trade union development in the countries of francophone West Africa. It addresses the key questions of how and to what extent the democratic upsurge of the 1990s has impacted trade unionism and how structural adjustment has reshaped the industrial relations landscape. It surveys recent developments such as the increasing influence of international labour organisations, the growth of social dialogue in the region, trade union proliferation and the new focus on organising informal-sector workers. The article concludes that, despite the decline in trade union density, the present climate represents opportunities as well as dilemmas for continued trade union vigour.     

工会形象与形象塑造

工会形象是工会在长期的社会实践过程中留给人们的印象和看法.近些年来,社会各界对工会的评价褒贬皆有,中国工会尚未树立起完美的社会形象.近期工会组织的职工队伍调查显示,职工对所谓自己利益“代表者”工会的工作也仅仅给了个“及格”分数,离真正“职工之家”的要求还有很大差距.工会组织应充分认识到重塑形象的重要性,并采取强有力措施,履行好基本职责,切实维护职工群众合法权益,唯有如此才能重新获得职工群众的信任.     

Trade unionism in British sport, 1920–1964

Taking as its starting point contemporary and scholarly debates about the appropriateness of trade unionism in the British entertainment industry, this paper examines the origins and development of trade unions in three important professional sports – association football, boxing and speedway racing – from 1920 to 1964. Utilising the concept of ‘unionateness’, it maps out the trajectories of the key unions and professional associations in each of these sports, especially the Association Football Players' and Trainers' Union/Professional Footballers' Association, National Unions of Boxers/National Boxing Association and the Speedway Riders' Association. Particular emphasis is placed on the specific industrial and organisational contexts in which these unions emerged, as well as on the structures, membership and leadership of the unions. Unionateness varied over time and none of these bodies could be regarded at any point as fully ‘unionate’. However, the paper argues that each managed to wield considerable influence, through formalised collective bargaining processes, direct representation on industry-wide governing bodies or by directly challenging the authority of the controlling bodies. They thrived particularly for a short period from the late 1940s to the early 1950s, when attendances at spectator sports were high and the wider trade union movement was at its strongest and most confident.