British Trade Unions and Industrial Politics

British Trade Unions and Industrial Politics PDF Author: John Mcllroy
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429842961
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
First published in 1999, this volume describes the political climate and state of trade unions after the second world war in Britain. Detailing the transition of individuals who had survived in the war or had taken part in the war effort to going back a civilian life in 1945. Following the rise of the Labour party in Britain until 1964.

British Conservatism and Trade Unionism, 1945–1964

British Conservatism and Trade Unionism, 1945–1964 PDF Author: Peter Dorey
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131717206X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
For most of the twentieth century, the Conservative Party engaged in an ongoing struggle to curb the power of the trade unions, culminating in the radical legislation of the Thatcher governments. Yet, as this book shows, for a brief period between the end of the Second World War and the election of Harold Wilson's Labour government in 1964, the Conservative Party adopted a remarkably constructive and conciliatory approach to the trade unions, dubbed 'voluntarism'. During this time the party leadership made strenuous efforts to avoid, as far as was politically possible, confrontation with, or legislation against, the trade unions, even when this incurred the wrath of some Conservative backbenchers and the Party's mass membership. In explaining why the Conservative leadership sought to avoid conflict with the trade unions, this study considers the economic circumstances of the period in question, the political environment, electoral considerations, the perspective adopted by the Conservative leadership in comprehending industrial relations and explaining conflict in the workplace, and the personalities of both the Conservative leadership and the key figures in the trade unions. Making extensive use of primary and archival sources it explains why the 1945-64 period was unique in the Conservative Party's approach to Britain's trade unions. By 1964, though, even hitherto Conservative defenders of voluntarism were acknowledging that some form of official inquiry into the conduct and operation of trade British unionism, as a prelude to legislation, was necessary, thereby signifying that the heyday of 'voluntarism' and cordial relations between senior Conservatives and the trade unions was coming to an end.

British Trade Unions and Industrial Politics

British Trade Unions and Industrial Politics PDF Author: John Mcllroy
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429842961
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
First published in 1999, this volume describes the political climate and state of trade unions after the second world war in Britain. Detailing the transition of individuals who had survived in the war or had taken part in the war effort to going back a civilian life in 1945. Following the rise of the Labour party in Britain until 1964.

The Post-war Compromise

The Post-war Compromise PDF Author: Nina Fishman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780850366013
Category : Industrial relations
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This multifaceted collection of essays, written from several disciplines, focuses on trade unionism in Britain in the 1950s. Scene-setting essays provide broad perspectives on trade union organizing and the general postwar industrial environment. Case studies consider specialized topics such as union relations with the Labour Party, international movement politics, productivity during the period, major strikes, and key groups of workers.

British Trade Unions and Industrial Politics: The post-war compromise, 1945-64

British Trade Unions and Industrial Politics: The post-war compromise, 1945-64 PDF Author: Alan Campbell
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
The first of two volumes focusing on the politics of British trade unionism since World War II, considering not only the movement's relations with the state but also factionalism, the dynamics of industrial struggle, and the allegiances of union activists. Historians, scholars of politics and industrial relations, and others present 11 studies, many from a September 1997 conference in Warwick augmented with commissioned essays, include overviews, a survey, and case studies. The second volume is subtitled The High Tide of Trade Unionism, 1940-1979. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

British Trade Unions and Industrial Politics

British Trade Unions and Industrial Politics PDF Author: John McIlroy
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429842996
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 470

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Book Description
First published in 1999 , this book discusses trade unionism in Britain from 1964 to 1979. Detailing political change in British politics from union strikes to Thatcherism in the late 1970s and the implications that had on trade unions and industrial politics.

Ethical Socialism and the Trade Unions

Ethical Socialism and the Trade Unions PDF Author: John Kelly
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136955259
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 569

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Book Description
Allan Flanders was one of the leading British industrial relations academics and his ideas exerted a major influence on government labor policy in the 1960s and 1970s. But as well as being an Oxford academic with a strong interest in theory and labor reform, he was also a lifelong political activist. Originally trained in German revolutionary ethical socialism in the early 1930s, he was the founder and joint editor of Socialist Commentary, the leading outlet for ‘revisionist’ social democratic thinking in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s. He was also the leading figure in the influential 1950s ‘think tank’ Socialist Union and played a key part in the bitter factional struggles inside the Labour Party. The main argument of the book is that Flanders’ ethical socialist ideas constituted both his strength and his weakness. Their rigor, clarity and sweep enabled him to exert a major influence over government attempts to negotiate labor reforms with the trade unions. Yet he proved unable to explain the failure of the reforms amidst rising levels of industrial conflict, as his intellectual rigor turned into ideological rigidity. The failure of negotiated reform led to Margaret Thatcher’s neo-liberal assault on trade union power in the 1980s.

Historicising the Women's Liberation Movement in the Western World

Historicising the Women's Liberation Movement in the Western World PDF Author: Laurel Forster
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351167677
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
The Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM) of the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s emerged out of a particular set of economic and social circumstances in which women were unequally treated in the home, the workplace and in culture and wider society. As part of the WLM, women collected together in disparate groups and contexts to express their dissatisfaction with their role and position in society, making their concerns apparent through consciousness-raising and activism. This important time in women’s history is revisited in this collection, which looks afresh at the diversity of the movement and the ways in which feminism of the time might be reconsidered and historicised. The contributions here cover a range of important issues, including feminist art, local activism, class distinction, racial politics, perceptions of motherhood, girls’ education, feminist print cultures, the recovery of feminist histories and feminist heritage, and they span personal and political concerns in Britain, Canada and the United States. Each contributor considers the impact of the WLM in a different context, reflecting the variety of issues faced by women and helping us to understand the problems of the second wave. This book broadens our understanding of the impact and the implication of the WLM, explores the dynamism of women’s activism and radicalism, and acknowledges the significance of this movement to ongoing contemporary feminisms. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Women’s History Review.

Assembling cultures

Assembling cultures PDF Author: Jack Saunders
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526133415
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
In British political discourse the idea that in the 1970s trade unions 'ran the country' has become a truism, a folk mythology invoked against the twin perils of socialism and strikes. But who exactly wielded power in Britain’s workplaces and on what terms? Assembling cultures takes a fine-grained look at factory activism in the motor industry between 1945 and 1982, using car manufacturing as a key case for unpicking important narratives around affluence, declinism and class. It traces the development of the militant car worker stereotype and looks at the real social relations that lay behind car manufacturing’s reputation for conflict. In doing so, this book reveals a changing, complex world of social practices, cultural norms and shared values and expectations. From relatively meagre interwar trade union traditions, during the post-war period car workers developed shop-floor organisations of considerable authority, enabling some to make new demands of their working lives, but constraining others in their more radical political aims. Assembling cultures documents in detail a historic process where, from the 1950s, groups and individuals set about creating and reproducing collective power and asks what that meant for their lives. This is a story of workers and their place in the power relations of post-war Britain. This book will be invaluable to lecturers and students studying the history, sociology and politics of post-war Britain, particularly those with an interest in power, rationality, class, labour, gender and race. The detailed analysis of just how solidarity, organisation and collective action were generated will also prove useful to trade union activists.

A Fair Day’s Wage for a Fair Day’s Work?

A Fair Day’s Wage for a Fair Day’s Work? PDF Author: Sheila Blackburn
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317188284
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 397

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Book Description
The nature of sweating and the origins of low pay legislation are of fundamental social, economic and moral importance. Although difficult to define, sweating, according to a select committee established to investigate the issue, was characterised by long hours, poor working conditions and above all by low pay. By the beginning of the twentieth century the government estimated that up to a third of the British workforce could be classed as sweated labour, and for the first time in a century began to think about introducing legislation to address the problem. Whilst historians have written much on unemployment, poverty relief and other such related social and industrial issues, relatively little work has been done on the causes, extent and character of sweated labour. That work which has been done has tended to focus on the tailoring trades in London and Leeds, and fails to give a broad overview of the phenomenon and how it developed and changed over time. In contrast, this volume adopts a broad national and long-run approach, providing a more holistic understanding of the subject. Rejecting the argument that sweating was merely a London or gender related problem, it paints a picture of a widespread and constantly shifting pattern of sweated labour across the country, that was to eventually persuade the government to introduce legislation in the form of the 1909 Trades Board Act. It was this act, intended to combat sweated labour, which was to form the cornerstone of low pay legislation, and the barrier to the introduction of a minimum wage, for the next 90 years.

Historical Dictionary of Organized Labor

Historical Dictionary of Organized Labor PDF Author: Sjaak van der Velden
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538134616
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 603

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Book Description
From the start of its existence organized labor has been the voice of workers to improve their economic, social, and political positions. Beginning with small and very often illegal groups of involved workers it grew to the million member organizations that now exist around the globe. It is studied from many different perspectives – historical, economic, sociological, and legal – but it fundamentally involves the struggle for workers’ rights, human rights and social justice. In an often hostile environment, organized labor has tried to make the world a fairer place. Even though it has only ever covered a minority of employees in most countries, its effects on their political, economic, and social systems have been generally positive. Despite growing repression of organized labor in recent years, membership numbers are still growing for the benefit of all employees, including the non-members. Historical Dictionary of Organized Labor: Fourth Edition makes the history of this important feature of life easily accessible. The reader is guided through a chronology, an introductory essay, 600 entries on the subject, appendixes with statistical material, and an extensive bibliography including Internet sites. This book gives a thorough introduction into past and present for historians, economists, sociologists, journalists, activists, labor union leaders, and anyone interested in the development of this important issue.