Alan Fox and the managerial “unitary” frame of reference in unionised companies: context, roots, elaboration and international applicability

PurposeThis study investigates the origins and elaboration of the managerial “unitary” frame of reference associated with Alan Fox, focusing on unionised firms: the industrial relations context, intellectual roots, elaboration, adaptation by other writers, and international applicability.Design/methodology/approachTracing the above requirements through contemporaneous sources.FindingsFox’s designation of the unitary frame needs to be understood in its 1960s’ context, particularly the promotion of “productivity bargaining”, and its furthering through management training and education. Fox’s specific contribution is identified. Subsequent UK writers have underplayed the importance of the legal dimension of managerial authority, especially relevant in the US context, while other extra-economic factors bolster the managerial unitary frame in authoritarian societies such as China.Originality/valueThe use of Fox's neglected 1960s’ writings; tracking how Fox developed the unitary frame concept and how it was funnelled into the narrow parameters of non-unionism by subsequent writers; identifying its applicability beyond the UK (with the USA as a historical example and China as a contemporary one)

Class, Youth and Dirty Jobs: The Working-Class and Post-War Britain in Pete Townshend's Quadrophenia

FOS

The Industrial Relations of In Place of Strife (1969): The Search for Sanctions through the Prism of Key Industrial Disputes

The 1969 White Paper In Place of Strife was the Labour government’s response to the 1968 Donovan Report. Its most contested proposals were three penal clauses, where fines could be imposed: against unions for refusing to ballot in certain official strikes or if they struck against a ruling in inter-union recognition disputes; and against workers for refusing to return to work when a ‘conciliation pause’ was ordered in certain unconstitutional strikes (in breach of a disputes procedure).Peter Dorey’s political account Comrades in Conflict (2019) provides an opportunity to explore the industrial relations aspects of the White Paper. First, the proposed sanctions are explored in an analysis of the Donovan Report and government discussions. Second, key industrial disputes, which shaped the White Paper and the decision to present an interim bill, are examined. Third, the impracticability of fines on unconstitutional strikers prompted the exploration of legislative alternatives. The opposition of the Trades Union Congress is assessed

The changing pattern of UK strikes, 1964-2014

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the changing strike activity in the UK over the last 50 years.Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on a wide literature on UK strikes and an extensive trawl of newspaper sources. It is divided into four main sections. The first two summarise, inturn, the changing amount and locus of strike activity between 1964 and 2014. The third discusses the changing relationship and balance between official and unofficial strikes. The last covers the role ofthe courts and legislation on strikes, highlighting some key moments in this turbulent history.Findings – The period 1964-2014 can be divided into three sub-periods: high-strike activity until 1979; a transition period of “coercive pacification” in the 1980s; and unprecedentedly low-strike activity since the early 1990s. Unions were more combative against the legislative changes of the 1980s than they are normally given credit for.Research limitations/implications – Given its broad scope, this paper cannot claim to be comprehensive.Originality/value – This is a rare study of the changing nature of UK strikes over such a long time period.Keywords UK, Collective bargaining, Trade unions, Strikes, Ballots, InjunctionsPaper type General revie

Craft unionism and industrial change : a study of the National Union of Vehicle Builders until 1939

This thesis is about how the members of a long-established multi-craft union, originating in the coachmaking trade, coped with the massive changes in the means of transport, culminating in the dominance of mass production motor car firms. Part I explores changes in the nineteenth and early twentieth century with the rise of railways and motor cars. In both, some coachmaking skills were made redundant, while others were very necessary. The rise of the motor industry, far from destroying coachmaking unionism, wrenched it out of a long period of stagnation. Part II focusses on the interwar period, which witnessed major changes in car body production. Brush painting and varnishing was. replaced by cellulose spraying; wooden framed bodies were replaced by all-steel ones; assembly lines came into use, and the division of labour greatly increased, with large numbers of semi-skilled workers employed in the biggest firms. Analysis of the main technical changes, and the changing state of the car industry, shows that, despite massive unemployment among its members, and a membership decline of over one third, in the early 1930s, the RUVB did not suffer "technological unemployment". Although there was a material basis for craft unionism in much of the car body industry in the 1920s, and in the rest of vehicle building during the whole interwar period, the union still tried to organise semi-skilled workers. But when an "Industrial Section" was created in 1931, it was a response to the union's financial crisis caused by unemployment payments, and no serious recruitment of mass production operatives took place. The contrasting experiences in Coventry and Oxford in the 1920s and 1930s are analysed in detail. The study is not a conventional head office-based union history, instead favouring case studies of the organisation of work, technical developments, industrial structure, and local union organisation

Deregulation and institutional conversion in the Greek hotel industry: an employment relations model in transition

Before the debt crisis of 2010 forced Greece into almost permanent austerity, its hotel workers enjoyed wages and conditions (through a sector collective agreement) similar to those in other economic sectors. This was against the international trend where low wages and poor conditions were standard. Sweeping deregulation by Greek governments has brought much of the hotel industry into line with other countries. The sec-tor agreement, now covering a much smaller proportion of the workforce, survived but has experienced ‘institutional conversion’, delivering a much poorer outcome. De-spite buoyant tourism, institutional deregulation and derogation have delivered the employers’ major objective of matching the workforce to the fluctuating demand for labour

The changing pattern of UK strikes, 1964-2014

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the changing strike activity in the UK over the last 50 years.Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on a wide literature on UK strikes and an extensive trawl of newspaper sources. It is divided into four main sections. The first two summarise, inturn, the changing amount and locus of strike activity between 1964 and 2014. The third discusses the changing relationship and balance between official and unofficial strikes. The last covers the role ofthe courts and legislation on strikes, highlighting some key moments in this turbulent history.Findings – The period 1964-2014 can be divided into three sub-periods: high-strike activity until 1979; a transition period of “coercive pacification” in the 1980s; and unprecedentedly low-strike activity since the early 1990s. Unions were more combative against the legislative changes of the 1980s than they are normally given credit for.Research limitations/implications – Given its broad scope, this paper cannot claim to be comprehensive.Originality/value – This is a rare study of the changing nature of UK strikes over such a long time period.Keywords UK, Collective bargaining, Trade unions, Strikes, Ballots, InjunctionsPaper type General revie

Grand entretien avec Dave Lyddon et Martin Kuhlmann" réalisé par Sophie Béroud, Delphine Corteel et Jérôme Pélisse

 entretien réalisé par Sophie Béroud, Delphine Corteel et Jérôme Pélisse, paru dans Les Mondes du travail, nᵒ 30, pp. 3-18, 2023Entretien réalisé par Sophie Béroud, Delphine Corteel et Jérôme Pélisse, paru dans Les Mondes du travail, nᵒ 30, pp. 3-18, 2023https://lesmondesdutravail.net/n30-dossier-travail-negociations-conflits-quelles-recompositions

Grand entretien avec Dave Lyddon et Martin Kuhlmann" réalisé par Sophie Béroud, Delphine Corteel et Jérôme Pélisse

 entretien réalisé par Sophie Béroud, Delphine Corteel et Jérôme Pélisse, paru dans Les Mondes du travail, nᵒ 30, pp. 3-18, 2023Entretien réalisé par Sophie Béroud, Delphine Corteel et Jérôme Pélisse, paru dans Les Mondes du travail, nᵒ 30, pp. 3-18, 2023https://lesmondesdutravail.net/n30-dossier-travail-negociations-conflits-quelles-recompositions

Grand entretien avec Dave Lyddon et Martin Kuhlmann" réalisé par Sophie Béroud, Delphine Corteel et Jérôme Pélisse

 entretien réalisé par Sophie Béroud, Delphine Corteel et Jérôme Pélisse, paru dans Les Mondes du travail, nᵒ 30, pp. 3-18, 2023Entretien réalisé par Sophie Béroud, Delphine Corteel et Jérôme Pélisse, paru dans Les Mondes du travail, nᵒ 30, pp. 3-18, 2023https://lesmondesdutravail.net/n30-dossier-travail-negociations-conflits-quelles-recompositions