“We feel that our strength is on the factory floor”: Dualism,shop-floor power,and labor law reform in late apartheid South Africa

ABSTRACT

This article explores the transformation of South African labor relations during the 1980s. In 1979, prompted by new shop-floor militancy, the Wiehahn Commission recommended that black workers, previously excluded from state labor machinery, be permitted to join recognized trade unions. Most discussions of this shift in apartheid labor relations focus on the ensuing debate within the black unions, torn between preserving their independence or securing state legitimation. This article looks instead at the related debate about ‘levels of bargaining’: should emergent black unions demand to negotiate at the factory level, where they had secured shop-floor strength through organizing and democratic practice, or pursue the benefits of the corporatist bargaining structures that had long excluded them and had privileged white workers? The eventual drift towards corporatism, I argue, imprinted the character of the South African labor movement into the post-apartheid era. An understandable desire to wield influence at the level of the national political economy eroded the tradition of workers’ control, shop floor democracy, and struggle unionism that black unions had forged during the 1970s and 1980s.     

Injustice and outcomes: a comparative analysis of two major disputes

Abstract

Injustice is said to be the cornerstone of collective action, but why is it so important, and how does the way in which it is framed for mobilisation affect the outcomes? This paper compares two lengthy disputes in the Australian electricity industry which demonstrate that a sense of injustice and a history of successful industrial action do not guarantee that a dispute will be resolved to employees’ satisfaction when the wider context is unfavourable. Although leaders of both disputes expressed confidence in success predicated on the outcomes of previous industrial activity, there were specific factors within the industrial, economic and political context which provoked determined employer and government counter mobilisation leading to unsuccessful outcomes for the workers in dispute. The reasons for the poor outcomes are discussed within the context of the framing of the injustice by leaders and the effect of the response of a determined government.     

Developing the meat grab

‘Meat grabbing’ describes actually existing land deals undertaken for industrial meat production, either directly in the form of animal housing and stocking (confined animal feeding operations, or CAFOs), or indirectly in the form of monocrop grain and oilseed production for livestock feed. Meat grabbing is also a concept for analyzing the relationships between industrial meat regimes, food security politics and the global land rush, relationships which have not yet been sufficiently considered in research or in policy. Using China's reform-era meat revolution as an analytical case, this paper proposes meat grabbing as a concept with three broad goals: (1) to show how industrial meat complicates notions of food security and of food security land grabs, (2) to incorporate social inequalities and environmental injustices into the conceptualization and measurement of land deals and (3) to expand dispossession's domain to include relationships between people and agroecosystems. This is an initial exploration of the content and framing of meat grabs, intended to synthesize its core features and raise questions for further study.     

Fatal Methemoglobinemia Due to Acute Inhalation of Methyl Nitrite in an Industrial Accident

Methyl nitrite is suggested to cause methemoglobinemia by generating methemoglobin, which may be lethal when the methemoglobin concentration exceeds 70%. However, intoxication with methyl nitrite is seldom reported compared with that with other nitrites. Here, we present an industrial accident involving methyl nitrite inhalation during its synthesis process that resulted in three fatalities and one survivor. The autopsy revealed conspicuous blue-gray discoloration in various parts of the body, including the skin, airway mucosa, vessels, brain, heart, and among other areas. The toxicological tests on the deceased showed methemoglobin concentrations in the blood over the lethal level and increased nitrite ion levels in the blood, gastric contents, liver, and lung tissue compared with those in control samples. The cause of death was determined to be methemoglobinemia-induced hypoxia due to methyl nitrite inhalation. This report provides evidence that in methyl nitrite intoxication, exposure duration has a significant influence on the postmortem changes and likelihood of a fatal outcome may be related to the age of the victim. More attention is required regarding the industrial hazards of this substance.     

刑事被害人当事人化的反思与制度重构

刑事被害人当事人化的实质是犯罪损害追诉方式的公私合一,该制度设计混淆了公益和私益两种不同性质的诉讼,导致两种权益保护相互冲突进而对刑事司法结果公正造成负面影响。公私分离是刑事被害人去当事人化的当然制度选择,其立法对策主要包括在刑事立法中确立被害人为特殊诉讼参与人、废除被害人在刑事审判中就定罪量刑发表意见的权利、废止被害人刑事自诉权和切断其引起刑事二审、再审的程序路径。同时需要完善相关配套举措,如允许被害人对其物质和精神损害单独提起民事诉讼、完善精神损害赔偿制度、建立刑事被害人国家补偿制度等。     

知识经济背景下国际产业转移研究新趋势

新的国际背景下,传统产业转移理论对国际产业转移的新趋势的解释力逐渐失去了效力,迫切需要有新的突破和发展。文章从弗农产品生命周期理论、比较优势理论、雁行模式理论、产业梯度转移理论、国际分工理论、内部化理论、西方中心论、可持续发展理论等方面分析了国际产业转移发展的新问题,并提出了国际产业转移发展的新动向,认为国际产业转移理论正向东道国、知识因素、产业链、产业风险、跨国公司等方面的互动理论方向发展。     

侵害著作权之赔偿论

为应对著作权侵权行为,采取合理而充分的救济制度来制裁侵权行为、保护著作权人的利益,是著作权法的核心内容。学界应从侵害著作权的行为方式入手,对侵害著作权的赔偿范围进行分析,引用惩罚性赔偿制度对侵害著作权的行为进行追究制裁,同时对赔偿数额的计算方式予以规定。     

完善我国公益征收法律制度的思考

在我国有关公益征收的立法中,对于公共利益的界定、补偿的原则和具体标准以及程序都存在很大的缺陷。我国应建立完善的公益征收制度,根据公共利益的特点对其进行界定,并针对现行补偿制度的缺陷提出适合本国国情的补偿原则、具体标准。     

民事自助行为制度的功能分析及立法选择

自助行为属于私力救济的一种形式,它具有保护利益的特定性、行为的法定性和公力补充性的特征;自助行为制度有利于保护公民的合法权益,降低司法成本,提高司法效率,维护市场经济信用秩序等方面的功能;我国的民事立法中应该引入该制度,以促进我国法制现代化进程。     

死亡补偿费研究——尝试一种非主流观点

死亡补偿费的性质不仅关系死亡的民事救济,还涉及生命权的有无以及宪政和刑法理论对于生命的关注.现行法将死亡补偿费定性为对财产损失的赔偿,客观上把人看作获取收益的工具,有悖生命伦理.死亡补偿费应该是对生命损害的补偿,死亡赔偿项目除包括死者生前的健康和财产损失,现行法规定的其余赔偿项目都应以死亡补偿费概括.死亡补偿额以35岁为基数,赔偿可支配收入35年,每增加或者减少一岁,减少一年,最低赔偿不低于10年,对二亲等亲属的赔偿数额酌减.