Showing papers in "Labor History in 2022"

A contracorriente. Las disidencias ortodoxas en el comunismo español (1968-1989)

Abstract: Historical studies of the communist movement in Spain have recently experienced a remarkable boom. In the heat of the centenary of the founding (1921) of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE/ Partido Comunista de España), many works have appeared. In addition to synthesizing existing knowledge, these works explore moments and facets of the history of communism in Spain that until recently have been in the background, overshadowed by a largely political focus on certain periods (such as Francoism). The book under review A contracorriente. Las disidencias ortodoxas en el comunismo español (19681989) (Counterflow. Orthodox dissidence in Spanish communism), written by the young researcher Eduardo Abad from northern Spain’s University of Oviedo, is innovative in terms of the subject of study and its methodology. It is also somewhat original in regard to the time period it covers, which goes beyond the usual limit of the Spanish transition to democracy and extends to the collapse of real socialism (something that other recent works have also begun to do). With the exception of a few articles, the most recent books have not focused on the broad constellations of groups which, for various reasons, tried to form a political alternative. I am referring to the various formations that the press of the time grouped together under the label ‘pro-Soviet,’ a definition against which Abad rebels for several reasons that he sets out at length in the introduction. Before analyzing these oppositional groups, Abad informs us that the term pro-Soviet ‘is not adequate to encompass them’ because it undervalues their heterogeneity ‘cornering their identity under the appearance of a simple cliché’ (p. 38). Nor does Abad consider accurate the standard classification that divides pro-Soviets from ‘Leninists’. Abad’s bold break from the standard focus on the ‘official’ party of Spanish communism makes this a necessary work, one better placed to reveal the deeper rifts in Spain’s left political culture. Abad prefers to categorise this conglomerate of groups and parties as ‘orthodox.’ In doing so, Abad takes the baton from studies on political cultures and proposes the hypothesis that the substantial, unifying element of all these groups (born in different political situations, in reaction to different situations and with markedly different militant composition) was the claim to a traditional communist identity. This, from the dissidents’ point of view, was being betrayed by the course of the PCE under the authoritarian leadership of Santiago Carrillo (1960-1982). The orthodox identity would bring together political values, organizational formulations, and militant practices, as well as an insertion into the international communist movement whose main pole was Moscow. However, this would not be the main element, nor would it have the same importance in all cases, since some orthodox groups also took critical positions toward the

COVID-19 and remote work inequality: Evidence from South Korea

Abstract: Even though remote work in South Korea was very unusual before the pandemic, the COVID-19 pandemic has facilitated remote work, so the ratio of remote workers to total employees increased from 0.5% in 2019 to 5.4% in 2021. In this regard, this study investigated determinants of remote work during the pandemic using the Economically Active Population Survey in 2019, 2020, and 2021 with a logistic regression. Since the Korean government did not impose a national lockdown and business owners introduced remote work voluntarily, this study can identify significant heterogeneity. First, younger, female, highly-educated, and high-earning workers are more likely to work remotely. Second, large firms tend to provide more remote work opportunities to their employees. Lastly, ICT, finance, and education sectors present high probabilities to remote work. In recent times, remote work has been considered an important trigger to alleviate long working hours and improve work-life balance in Korea; however, it is also necessary to relieve remote work inequality.

The OECD and technical education in post-war Mediterranean Europe

Abstract: The role of international organizations in fostering the evolution of education systems worldwide emerged in the 1950s, and the OEEC-OECD, in particular, contributed to shaping the so-called ‘education-economic growth’ paradigm. First, its education agenda was the push to spread technical and vocational education, being one of the key means for preparing citizens for modern society in a Cold War context. In addition, the spread of these relevant skills provided solutions to actual problems that affected the less-developed Western European countries. Consequently, Mediterranean Europe became a laboratory for new visions and practices for development. In the educational field, these countries were an ideal environment to observe the changes underway and, above all, evaluate the actual outcomes of these early programs.

Global internationalism: An introduction

Abstract: Internationalism is a very broad concept that can have several meanings and has a long history. Two conceptions of internationalism can be distinguished, a strong and a weak one. There are different types and forms of international solidarity. It can be understood as part of a politicization process in which identities are built and reconfigured as a result of political struggle and combines altruistic motives and mutual interest. International solidarity can be associated with the concept of translation used among other author by Gramsci. This special issue of Labor History aims to discuss internationalism, with a special emphasis on labor internationalism, blending historical and present-day analysis. ‘Internationalism’ is not a term commonly used in contemporary political discussion. As a virtue, it has a strong political and strategic meaning and internationalism, transnationalism and also terms such as global justice or global solidarity should not necessarily be considered as mutually exclusive.

Culture lag in Chinese labour relations: managers’ perceptions and behaviour towards workplace trade unions (2009 - 2014)

Abstract: ABSTRACT Over the period of the mid-2000s to 2015, in response to increasing labour disputes and workers’ grievances, China initiated a series of regulatory reforms to promote collective labour relations and enhance workers’ rights. Surprisingly, these reforms were not as successful in limiting the increase in labour disputes as anticipated. To understand this puzzle, the current study goes beyond existing state-union dominated explanations for the problems in Chinese labour relations by examining Chinese managers’ perceptions and behaviour towards trade unions and workplace power-sharing over the years 2009–2014. The qualitative data collected from 21 firms revealed that managers viewed workplace trade unions as submissive assistants, dominated workplace employment decisions, and were not committed to power sharing. This evidence is consistent with the Chinese labour relations literature developed up to the mid-2000s, indicating unchanged managers’ beliefs, attitudes and behaviour in this regard. Drawing on cultural lag theory, this article argues that there exists an authoritarian cultural lag in China’s labour relations system, with managers still managing with their long-established authoritarian mode of thinking and acting against pro-labour changes in the macro environment. The concept of authoritarian cultural lag can assist in understanding why macro level pro-labour reforms have encountered difficulties in improving labour protection.

‘Class Against Class’: The leadership of the Communist Party of Great Britain during the Comintern’s Third Period, 1928–1934

Abstract: ABSTRACT A prosopographical survey employed statistical analysis of data detailing the origins, occupations, prior affiliations, political careers and destinations of the 66 leading Communists who served on the Central Committee (CC) of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) during the Comintern’s Third Period, 1928–1934. There was significant innovation in composition: consonant with transformed politics, around 62% of CC representatives were newcomers, turnover accelerated significantly compared with 1923–1927 and the Old Guard was discarded. The committees were younger, although mean age only declined from 37 to 34 years, and female representation more than doubled. The CC remained overwhelmingly working-class – slightly more than in earlier years – with strong representation from skilled manual workers and miners. Only a small minority met the Comintern prescription that the committee be revitalised by electing factory militants; by the end of the Third Period, 90% of members were paid party workers. Short-term change failed to produce an enduring renewal of the Communist leadership. Some 75% of Newcomers during the ‘Class Against Class’ years failed to survive beyond them as CC representatives, with negative implications for the construction of an experienced cadre. A core of 12 who served before, during and after the Third Period was reinforced by 10 Newcomers who continued in the leadership after 1934. In succeeding decades, none of them challenged in prominence and prestige the core of leaders in place prior to 1929.

A fruitless exercise? The political struggle to compel corporations to justify factory closures in Canada

Abstract: ABSTRACT This paper examines the political history of the failed struggle to require companies to justify their plant closing decisions in Canada’s industrial heartland of Ontario. Demands for the public review of plant closing decisions began, locally, in the auto town of Windsor in the 1950s and 1960s and reached Toronto with the closure of Dunlop Tire in 1970. Another wave of closures struck in 1980, this time reaching deep into rural and small-town Ontario as well as larger industrial towns and cities, generalizing concern. The resulting Select Committee on Plant Shutdowns and Employee Adjustment, created by the Ontario legislature, took it upon itself to conduct the kind of public review of recent closures that was long demanded. Due to the strength of the political opposition to any interference with management rights, it was essential that proponents could point to precedents in Western Europe. Trade unionists also grounded their argument in favour of government regulation in the moral economy idea that long-service workers accrued a proprietary right to their jobs.

Repressing worker dissent: lethal violence against strikers in the early American labor movement

Abstract: ABSTRACT Despite U.S. labor-management history having long been recognized as the most violent and bloody of any Western industrialized nation, unanimity has failed to materialize regarding its impact on concomitant labor protests, organizations, and politics. We examine the impact of striker fatalities on the strength and trajectory of the early American labor movement against the null hypothesis that such bloodshed is largely random and/or inconsequential by building recently constructed measures of fatal strike violence into time-series regression models of strike frequency, union membership, and membership within the Socialist Party of America. The results suggest that killing strikers, labor organizers, and strike sympathizers had deleterious consequences for labor: dampening strike activity through the long-term cumulative history of picket-line deaths – particularly strikes for union recognition; and hampering union and Socialist Party organizational growth. Thus, repressive elite violence appears to have contributed, in part, to propelling the American labor movement along what has traditionally been characterized as an ‘exceptional’ path of weakening labor’s potential power during its formative decades.

‘Class Against Class’: The leadership of the Communist Party of Great Britain during the Comintern’s Third Period, 1928–1934

Abstract: A prosopographical survey employed statistical analysis of data detailing the origins, occupations, prior affiliations, political careers and destinations of the 66 leading Communists who served on the Central Committee (CC) of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) during the Comintern’s Third Period, 1928–1934. There was significant innovation in composition: consonant with transformed politics, around 62% of CC representatives were newcomers, turnover accelerated significantly compared with 1923–1927 and the Old Guard was discarded. The committees were younger, although mean age only declined from 37 to 34 years, and female representation more than doubled. The CC remained overwhelmingly working-class – slightly more than in earlier years – with strong representation from skilled manual workers and miners. Only a small minority met the Comintern prescription that the committee be revitalised by electing factory militants; by the end of the Third Period, 90% of members were paid party workers. Short-term change failed to produce an enduring renewal of the Communist leadership. Some 75% of Newcomers during the ‘Class Against Class’ years failed to survive beyond them as CC representatives, with negative implications for the construction of an experienced cadre. A core of 12 who served before, during and after the Third Period was reinforced by 10 Newcomers who continued in the leadership after 1934. In succeeding decades, none of them challenged in prominence and prestige the core of leaders in place prior to 1929.

‘Revolution in the coalfields’: industrial relations in wartime south Wales, 1939-45

Abstract: ABSTRACT Labour unrest in the United Kingdom during the Second World War was concentrated within the coal industry that accounted for around half of all strikes. This article proposes that institutional industrial relations within this regionally constituted industry should be analysed through a regional lens, as opposed to a national approach. It uses a case study of the south Wales coalfield to examine how the regional union and employers’ association interacted with each other and the state to govern industrial relations. It makes two arguments. One is that war transformed their relative power given the need to produce sufficient coal to fuel the war economy. The South Wales Miners Federation gained influence as it offered co-operation to boost production, but the Monmouthshire and South Wales Coalowners Association lost agency as it sought unsuccessfully to maintain pre-war approaches, while ongoing crises forced the government to accelerate interventions. The other is that these shifts enabled regional unions to outflank owners and co-opt the state to achieve their goals within industrial relations; the recreation of national bargaining machinery and obtaining higher wages. Although unions could not secure nationalization, the war ended with a consensus that the ownership status quo was untenable.

Globalisation, internationalism and the Great War

Abstract: The declaration of war in August 1914 seemed to sanction the impotence of the organized labor movement and these international bodies. The First World War would prove ‘the gigantic force of imperialism’, accelerating and intensifying a new period of globalization. Thus, while at the beginning of the twentieth century John Atkinson Hobson described inter-imperialist entente as one of the consequences of what he called ‘patriotic parasitism’ and, like Karl Kautsky, excluded the risks of a global war, other commentators saw precisely in the imperialism of the great powers, and in particular in their unequal development, the reasons for future conflict. The First World War also promoted an ‘offensive war of self-defense’ by the state and the ruling classes against the organized labor movement. This paper proposes to discuss the conflicting and contradictory links between internationalism, globalization and war by taking a transnational approach, conceived as necessarily attentive to the ‘unequal and combined geographical development’ of the world. The combined nature of the transformations affecting the various societies at war thus becomes essential in attempting to grasp the apparently simple idea that the processes at work in certain advanced societies ‘irrevocably transform the conditions and character of similar processes about to take place elsewhere’.

The OECD and technical education in post-war Mediterranean Europe

Abstract: ABSTRACT The role of international organizations in fostering the evolution of education systems worldwide emerged in the 1950s, and the OEEC-OECD, in particular, contributed to shaping the so-called ‘education-economic growth’ paradigm. First, its education agenda was the push to spread technical and vocational education, being one of the key means for preparing citizens for modern society in a Cold War context. In addition, the spread of these relevant skills provided solutions to actual problems that affected the less-developed Western European countries. Consequently, Mediterranean Europe became a laboratory for new visions and practices for development. In the educational field, these countries were an ideal environment to observe the changes underway and, above all, evaluate the actual outcomes of these early programs.

A defining battle: the fight for $15 campaign and labor advocacy in the U.S

Abstract: Notions of decline dominate scholarship on workers in the contemporary U.S. Labor has been pictured as “flat on its back,” framed by a narrative of loss that is linked to the long fall in union density. Through a detailed examination of the Fight for $15 campaign, this article challenges this narrative. Launched in 2012, within four years the labor-based drive had won over $68 billion in increased pay, helping some 22 million workers. By 2021, eight states plus the District of Columbia had pledged to increase their hourly minimum wage to $15 or more, as had numerous cities and leading corporations, including Amazon, Target, and Wal-Mart. The $15 wage had also been awarded to all 390,000 federal contractors. Moving beyond the emphasis on density, the article views Fight for $15 in the broader context of labor’s advocacy for all workers. While often pictured as new, Fight for $15 drew on long-term precedents, including growing income inequality, increasing links between unions and community groups, the steady growth of the Service Employees International Union – the campaign’s key backer - and extensive groundwork by organized labor. Overall, Fight for $15 demonstrates that workers still had clout, both at the grassroots and national level.

Giving meaning to ‘division of labour’: is Malaysia sliding into ethnic labour caucuses?

Abstract: ABSTRACT The paper assesses the prevalent assumption in Malaysia, which equates certain ethnic groups with particular labour roles. It looks at how this situation has developed over the years to the extent that today certain ethnic groups are seen as the ones with the requisite guile and mastery of some particular skills and, therefore, with the ability to fill those roles. The paper investigates this phenomenon and provides a theoretical effort to unpack how ethnicity intersects with other forms of work. The resulting new framings of identity (ethnic, work and otherwise) provide the basis for our paper. The paper finds that this social construction of ethnicity has facilitated its appropriation by ethnic groups and employers.

The ‘iron law of oligarchy’ and North-South relations in global union organisations: a case study of the International Dockworkers Council’s expansion in the Global South

Abstract: ABSTRACT Global union organisations face recurrent organisational challenges concerning 1) the tendency towards bureaucratisation and oligarchy as they operate at increasing scales and 2) the tendency to reinscribe unequal relations of power between trade unions in the Global North and the Global South. This double problem is investigated through a case study of the International Dockworkers Council (IDC), an independent global union organisation, which underwent a period of rapid expansion in the Global South, particularly in Latin America, in the 2010’s. The IDC has been remarkably successful in adapting its organisational model, developed in Europe, to the Latin American context, building an effective regional-level organisation of rank-and-file activists while relying more heavily than in Europe on a regional coordinator as denser relationships within the regional network develop. At the same time, at the global level, the story is somewhat more mixed. Latin American activists have the autonomy to develop and carry out their own priorities with appropriate financial, industrial and technical support from the global organisation. Yet, the Global South’s influence on shaping the global organisation as a whole is less evident. In addition, organisational changes brought about by global expansion raise concerns about bureaucratisation and oligarchy at the global level.

Skilled labour in colonial economies. Recruitment, education and employment in construction companies in German colonial West Africa, c. 1902–1912

Abstract: The article offers new insights into the business-historical perspective of German colonial railway construction in West Africa. Two archival case studies of German colonial railroad construction in Cameroon and Togo reveal the relationship and character of training and work in specific colonial contexts at the turn of the century. The case studies demonstrate that skills on construction sites went beyond mere questions of unskilled manual work or education. This article argues that, from a business-historical perspective, not only was the general (mass) availability of unskilled labour power crucial to infrastructural projects in the former German colonies, but also that was a substantial element of skill involved, ranging from literacy to the (technical) pre- and initial training of workers and craftsmen. Moreover, firms struggled to retain (semi-)skilled workers on construction sites for longer periods.

China’s employment policy since 1949: retrospect, present, and future directions

Abstract: China’s employment policy has been continuously improved,and the employment situation has undergone tremendouschanges. Based on the economic system and typical employmentpolicy since the founding of China in 1949, this paper dividesthe employment system into five stages: the period ofplanned economic system featuring ‘unified contracting anddistribution’ (1949-1977), the period of dual-track system featuring‘three-in-one combination’ (1978-1991), the period of promoting the‘re-employment project’ (1992-2001), the period of implementingactive employment policy (2002-2011), and the period of promotinghigher quality and fuller employment (2012-present). In these fivestages, while China has made great achievements in employmentwork, the pressure still exists and the quality of employmentremains the focus of attention. Can the development of employmentpolicy improve China’s labor market? To study the effectivenessof employment policy in each stage, this paper uses two keyindicators of the unemployment rate and structural deviationdegree, then it reflects the economic effect in each stage andconcludes that the coordination degree between employment andindustrial structure is improving, but it still has a long way to go.Finally, the paper puts forward solutions to the remaining problemsand points out the direction for future employment work.

‘“The most troubled time in our history”: the presidency of Douglas Fraser and the decline of the UAW.’

Abstract: ABSTRACT This article explores the presidency of Douglas Fraser, who led the United Automobile Workers, America’s largest industrial union, from 1977–83. Unlike long-serving leader Walter Reuther, Fraser has received little scholarly attention, yet he headed the union at a decisive time. Between 1979 and 1983, the industry experienced a severe economic downturn, setting the stage for long-term decline. By 1982, over one-third of U.S. autoworkers were jobless. In these years, the union also approved its first contracts containing concessions, giving up $4 billion overall. In following decades, givebacks were common. This article argues that the Fraser era was a crucial one, for both the UAW and American workers broadly, whose post-1980 experience was framed by declining union density and increased economic insecurity. The first account to use detailed archival records of Fraser's presidency, including personal correspondence, UAW executive board minutes, and inter-union files, it uncovers how the union’s fortunes changed dramatically during six decisive years. In many respects these years represented a turning point, straddling the era of bargaining gains – which occurred under Reuther and initially under Fraser – through to the concessions and layoffs of the early 1980s. This was, Fraser concluded, “the most troubled time in our history.”

The question of trade union unity in CCOO: antinomies and paradoxes

Abstract: ABSTRACT Trade union unity was a central idea around which the debate in the labor movement coalesced during the later stages of the Franco regime. The initial aim of this paper is to examine the positions and actions of the protagonists of the new workers’ movement, Comisiones Obreras, that emerged in the 1960s, and then to interpret its evolution from the following decade onwards. The aim is to identify the antinomies and paradoxes of the projects for the creation of a unitary trade union organization during the period. With the transition from dictatorship to democracy between 1975 and 1982, a plural model of trade union organization finally became consolidated in Spain.

The revolutionary left in Comisiones Obreras: an introduction

Abstract: This text introduces the readers of Labor History to the set of articles that make up the special issue entitled ‘Radical projects in the Comisiones Obreras (1958–1991)’. Through this collective work we aspire to outline the global dynamics that the revolutionary left developed in relation to Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) first as a socio-political movement, and later as a trade union confederation. In this way, we offer a general context to better understand the actions carried out by the militants of these organizations. In view of their decisions, we have classified this phenomenon into three major phases that allow us to understand the forgotten history of alternative projects within the trade union. The main lesson of this special issue is that the various strategies did not follow the same historical transformations and yielded different outcomes.

‘The boys’: work, identity and the constructing of class experience among immigrant boys from Asian and African Countries in Young Israel

Abstract: ABSTRACT The article seeks to recreate the inner world, and especially the work experience of Israeli boys who attended workshops in vocational schools, youth centers and boarding schools in the 1960s, most of them immigrants from Asian and African countries in an attempt to answer the following question: Did vocational work contribute to an initial formation of some kind of a working experience which could later constitute a basis for the construction of a working-class awareness? We shall try to answer this question with the help of original sources written by the boys themselves, in which they describe their experiences. An examination of these sources (problematic though they may be, and I will touch upon this question in the article) does not reveal traces of feelings of discrimination or deprivation, nor does it show an awareness of discriminatory tracking, at least from the boys' perspective. On the contrary, one can distinguish in these sources a process of building a professional, and perhaps class-related identity, not founded upon a sense of ethnic discrimination but rather upon the experience of learning and working in the workshops combined with other cultural experiences outside them.

ILO’s actions and workers’ voices against state terrorism in South America

Abstract: The article argues that the ILO’s Committee of Freedom of Association proceedings against dictatorships during the seventies, eighties and nineties in Latin America were a relevant site of conflict for the region’s dictatorships, even when they did not stop the military from attacking workers, unions and labour rights. By examining the most critical Cases opened in Geneva against Chile and Argentina between 1973–1990, the article explores the ILO’s actions, the implicated voices, and the effects of the Cases before and after the coups while reflecting on the importance (and limitations) of international trade unionism solidarities and international efforts during the period.

Labour relations in the online ride-hailing industry: evidence from China

Abstract: A new business model for ride-hailing was born due to the sharing economy. With the rapid development of the ride-hailing market, labour relations in the ride-hailing industry revealed numerous issues that need to be addressed immediately. With China as the context, this study seeks to answer four questions: How can labour rights be promoted and protected in the ride-hailing industry? How can labour remuneration be balanced? How can workers be safeguarded? How can labour disputes be avoided? Over 20 drivers from the online ride-hailing industry in China were interviewed for the study’s primary data. This information is processed using the grounded theory to produce a novel ‘Harmonious Labour Relations’ model (also known as the ‘HLR’ model or the ‘RRSD’ model). The model provides an explanatory framework to understand labour rights and interests, labour compensation, labour safety, and labour disputes in the online ride-hailing industry. Our findings offer significant implications for the government’s effort to regulate the ride-hailing market and manage ride-hailing businesses. Furthermore, our study paves the way for future research on labour and industrial relations in the global ride-hailing industry.