Organized labor and government in the Wilson Era; 1913–1921: Some conclusions

This article draws on empirical evidence from a trade union in the centre of Athens to explore the impact of a politically active membership and its dialectical relationship with union renewal. The examined union is considered as an exemplar for the Greek accounts of unionism in the sense that it has achieved considerable collective bargaining gains and it has organized successful membership mobilization stories. It is argued in the analysis that the success of this union stems from a strategy of making rank-and-file activists the very fabric of union's organizing and mobilization activities. Further, trust issues between leaders, activists and ordinary members are significant in the increase of the likelihood of collective action.     

"A Trade Union Oriented War on the Slums": Harold Gibbons,Ernest Calloway,and the St Louis Teamsters in the 1960s*

Michael Ross was international affairs director for the American Congress of Industrial Organizations from 1945 to 1955 and for the merged American Federation of Labour—Congress of Industrial Organizations from 1958 until his death in 1963. As such, he played a prominent role in the bitter anti-communist international trade union politics of the day. Ross, however, had been a communist in his younger years. Making use of Ross's own writings and an extensive secondary literature on the politics of the period, this article seeks to describe and explain his ideological journey. It argues that, while there were significant shifts in Ross's politics, there were also underlying consistencies. Specifically, it is contended that Ross retained a consistent commitment apparent throughout his career—as advocate of Soviet communism, New Deal bureaucrat, and trade union official—to working-class interests advanced by technocratic planning. It notes, however, that the radicalism and ambition of this politics were diluted both by the successes and constraints of Ross's career advancement and, more substantively, by a political context hostile to planning ideals in the US after 1945.     

公平感知对于工会职能认知的影响 ——基于 CGSS2015 数据的分析

工会在代表职工、维护职工权益方面发挥着重要作用,但不同群体在不同条件下可能会对此有不同认知。研究探讨具有不公平感知的员工是否对工会职能有更高的正向认知问题。研究结果表明:在控制人口统计学特征以及个体就业特征后,社会不公平感知并没有对员工的工会职能认知产生显著影响;一般的职场不公平感知不会显著影响员工的工会职能认知,只有严重的职场不公平感知才会显著提升员工对工会职能的正向认知。这一结果说明对中国工会职能的认知在不同群体之间存在复杂的差异性。     

“工友驿站”创新模式与珠海工会改革经验探析

工会作为代表和维护职工合法权益的群团组织,存在最大的问题是脱离群众,其群团作用难以发挥。随着中国经济体制改革的深入,劳资冲突事件的增多,工会改革势在必行。珠海创建的首家"工友驿站"—新加坡花园站,是珠海工会去行政化所采取的重要改革举措,即以社会组织作为工会改革和社会治理创新工作的思路,通过向社会组织购买服务,建立"工会+社工+义工"的"三工"联动模式,为职工提供维权、帮扶救助、就业介绍、幼托等一系列服务,打通服务职工的"最后一公里"。     

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.     

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.     

Gideon's Band: From Socialism to Vigilantism in Southeast Missouri, 1907-1916

The reigning historical consensus is that the McCormick Riot of 3 May 1886 was a spontaneous conflict between strikers and scabs that provoked a brutal police attack. This re-examination of the evidence shows the complicated nature of work relations in the plant, the different interests and loyalties of various groups of McCormick employees, and the early involvement of Chicago's anarchists in exploiting McCormick's union tensions for their own purposes. New revelations detailing August Spies’ private motives for revenge against the police are uncovered.     

俄罗斯工会改革的历史与现实：基于社会统合主义的分析

俄罗斯工会在苏联解体之后经历了由计划经济到市场经济的转变,最终形成了社会统合主义的 模式。本研究在梳理俄罗斯工会改革历史的基础上,根据统合主义理论分析了俄罗斯工会在与政府的关系、对 工人利益的代表性和自身行动能力 3 个方面的现实情况。研究认为,俄罗斯工会在改革初期复杂、动荡的政治 经济背景下所追求的自由主义模式受历史因素影响并不成功。改革的转机出现在统一俄罗斯党成立之后,俄罗 斯工会与政府关系迅速改善,并在执政党的同情和支持下提升了自身对工人利益的代表性和行动能力,特别是 运用法律武器的能力。但俄罗斯工会也面临着新就业形式和移民劳工增长的挑战,还需要进一步的改革以适应 劳动力市场的复杂变化。     

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.     

Charles Stelzle: Apostle to labor

The great British miners' strike of 1984–1985 began 30 years ago. This personal reflection centres on the debate over trade union strategy during the strike. The Communist Party of Great Britain (CP) had long been an important influence in the leadership of the National Union of Mineworkers, but the strike also coincided with and exacerbated divisions within the CP and the wider left about how to respond to the ‘New Right’ Thatcher Conservative Government. This article focuses on the distinctive Eurocommunist analysis of the journal Marxism Today. The political atmosphere of the time is recalled, and then the Gramscian industrial relations strategy of winning the political argument through a ‘broad democratic alliance’ is reconstructed. Arguably, this ‘social movement’ approach could have produced a better outcome to the strike, while it provides lasting lessons about the limitations of a narrowly economistic view of trade union power.     

习近平同志在浙江工作期间关于工人阶级和工会工作的思考

浙江是习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想的重要萌发地。十八大以来,习近平同志关于工人阶级和工会工作的重要论述的许多内容发端于他在浙江从省域层面对新形势下工人阶级和工会工作进行的思考。研究重点阐述习近平同志在浙江工作期间关于工人阶级和工会工作论述的主要内容,以及与十八大以来习近平同志关于工人阶级和工会工作的重要论述的内在契合。     

‘The Assembly Line and Cars Come First’: Labor Relations and the Demise of Nissan Car Manufacturing in Australia

This article examines the fate of Nissan's plant in Melbourne, Australia, which the company closed in 1992. Studies of Japanese car plants that were set up in overseas markets have generally been positive, outlining how these firms were able to thrive by setting up flexible or lean production methods. In Australia, however, the company was unable to establish lean production and executives complained bitterly about union resistance to non-traditional production methods. The plant was also dogged by poor worker morale and high turnover. This is the first study of Nissan's Australian plant and it shows that not all Japanese transplants were successful.     

员工对工会的职能感知加深对工会凝聚力的影响 —— 中国情景中的权力距离调节作用

近年来中国工会通过强化维权职能、改革组织结构、组织工会活动等一系列措施以解决工会“四 化”问题,目标在于提升工会对员工的凝聚力和员工对工会的归属感,这一路径在理论上已达成共识,但在实 践中还需要更多的验证。本研究通过对 142 家企业和 2457 名员工的问卷调研,基于社会交换理论,探究中国情 境中员工对工会的职能感知加深从而提升工会凝聚力的路径机理。研究结果表明：在工会的深入改革中,员工 认识到工会对自己的权益保护功能（工会职能感知）的确能提升对工会的归属感和认同感（工会承诺）,且通 过组织工会活动提高员工对工会的参与度（工会参与）,进而加强了工会凝聚力。同时,如果企业的管理层级多、 上下级沟通不畅（即企业与员工的权力距离大）,反而会促进员工更积极参与到工会建设中,希望工会为自己代言, 从而提升工会吸引力、凝聚力、战斗力。     

Indispensable Outcasts: Harvest Laborers in the Wheat Belt of the Middle West, 1890–1925

This article assesses the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) during the presidency of John J. Sweeney, which lasted from 1995 until 2009. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including press accounts and the AFL-CIO's own papers, it provides one of the first scholarly assessments of the entire Sweeney presidency. Sweeney won office in the first contested election in the AFL-CIO's history, and he came into power promising to revitalize the Federation, which is the largest labor federation in the Western world. Under Sweeney, the AFL-CIO invested an unprecedented amount of resources into both organizing and political mobilization, two key areas. In the early years of his presidency, Sweeney oversaw some important gains, particularly in the organizing arena, but the 2000 presidential election proved to be a turning point. After 2000, Sweeney's reforms were undermined primarily by external factors, particularly mounting corporate opposition, deindustrialization, and a hostile political climate, although internal resistance and division also played a role. As a result, a major campaign to secure labor law reform fell short, and union density continued to decline, yet the rate of decline was slower than it had been in the 1980s and early 1990s. Overall, although the results of Sweeney’s efforts were mixed, the important role that the AFL-CIO played in electing Barack Obama partly justified Sweeney’s emphasis on political mobilization.     

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’.     

A successful union in an era of decline: interrogating the growth of the Service Employees International Union, 1980-1995

ABSTRACT

Between 1980 and 1995, while John Sweeney was president, the membership of the Service Employees International Union rose from around 600,000 to over 1.1 million. It continued to increase after 1995, making the SEIU the largest and fastest-growing union in the country. This growth was remarkable because it occurred at a terrible time for unions, one where the overwhelming emphasis – in both the media and academic scholarship – was on labor’s decline. While scholars have noted the SEIU’s growth, there has been little sustained analysis of how it was achieved. Existing accounts also posit growth largely as a reflection of the union’s organizing prowess. Drawing on the SEIU’s papers and interviews, this article argues that the union’s growth under Sweeney did reflect its commitment to organizing. At the same time, the article makes a fresh contribution by showing that the SEIU also grew because of lesser-known factors, including the affiliation of independent unions and legislative advances in public sector rights. The SEIU also benefited from operating in a growing sector of the economy, where low-paid workers needed unions. These conclusions are developed through analysis of “flagship” drives at Beverly Nursing homes, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and the high-profile “Justice for Janitors” campaign.     

Life into art and art into life: visualising the aesthetic woman or ‘high art maiden’ of the Victorian ‘renaissance’

There has been a great deal of research concerning the effect of aestheticism on men in the late nineteenth century, especially in terms of their sexuality, but its impact on women has been largely dismissed as unnecessary, as women were naturally ‘feminine’. This article examines whether ‘the self-absorption and heightened emotional life of Aestheticism’ (J.B. Bullen, 1998 [Oxford: Oxford University Press]) was tolerable in women or if it was leading to disease, decay and corruption. Aestheticism's insistence on individuality and self-discovery were to have important consequences for women, fuelling the desire for a life of their own rather than solely service to others.     

新时代“枫桥经验”对工会参与社会治理的启示 ——基于绍兴市总工会实践的分析

在国家治理体系和治理能力现代化进程中，工会在社会治理方面扮演着政府无法替代的角色。 新时代“枫桥经验”与工会参与社会治理在价值理念、目标要求、基层基础、基本方法方面，有着共同的内在机理。 本研究以新时代“枫桥经验”视角下工会参与社会治理的绍兴实践为基础，分析了调解式治理、化解式治理、 协商式治理、渗透式治理4种治理模式。研究发现，新时代工会参与社会治理在制度层面、社会层面、工会层 面还存在一定问题。研究建议，借鉴“枫桥经验”，工会应在政治能力方面加强党对工会工作的领导，在法治 能力方面打造“工会参与法院劳动争议案件调解”升级版，在组织能力方面扩大工会组织覆盖面，在工会专业 能力方面提升工会干部队伍水平,以增强工会参与社会治理的能力     

Left Activism,Succour and Selfhood: the epistolary friendship of two revolutionary mothers in 1970s Britain

At the height of mass activity on the Left, the ascendancy of the women's liberation movement (WLM), and the beginnings of real social and personal change for men and women, the 1970s are increasingly seen as the decade when sixties permissiveness began to be truly felt in Britain. This article draws upon a personal archive of correspondence from this turbulent decade, between two revolutionary women, Di Parkin and Annie Howells. It argues that the women's letters form an important contribution to new understandings about the construction of the post-war gendered self. The letters represent an interchange of motherhood, domesticity, far-left politics, and close female friendship. The article will show how the women's epistolary friendship offers intimate insight into female self-fashioning at a breakthrough social and political moment in 1970s Britain. As they reflected on some of the key political and social themes of the decade—class, labour, race and gender relations, as well as international politics—Di and Annie sought to negotiate themselves in relation to shifting discourses and social patterns. Writing as relational female subjects and individuals, the women's letters became simultaneously a private and shared space in which to compose themselves as women, revolutionaries and feminists, and autonomous sexual subjects. As a result, this article will show, the epistolary lives of these two radical women inform valuable understanding about some of the complex ways in which post-war individuals used available cultural and political resources to find meaning in their lives.     

新时代中国工会理论创新何以可能？——对习近平总书记关于工人阶级和工会工作的重要论述的几点思考

习近平总书记关于工人阶级和工会工作的重要论述,是新时代中国共产党推进工会理论创新的最重要的理论成果,是新时代中国工运事业和工会工作实践经验的深刻总结和理论表达。从历史发生学角度看,中华民族伟大复兴的历史使命与中国工运事业面临的新情况新问题是中国工会理论创新的物质性动因,通过一系列突破性的术语革命和关键性的理论路标呈现中国工会理论创新的结果和进程。新时代中国工会理论创新开辟了马克思主义工会学说中国化时代化新境界,引领和推动中国特色社会主义工会发展道路要素更全、形态更优、效能更强,为构建人类文明新形态贡献“工会力量”。