Paradise Lost Revisited: GM and the UAW in Historical Perspective

Purpose Analysis of historic relationship between GM and Union of Automobile Workers (UAW) from 1936 through the moment of bankruptcy of GM in 2009. How can this historic relationship be explained from the viewpoint of evolving labor and industrial relations in the US? Design/methodology/approach Historical and comparative analyses. Secondary analysis. Findings Over time the relationship has been a dynamic and flexible one. In the first decades the most important objective of the UAW was the recognition of the union by GM. From the second half of the 1940s until the 1970s the main attention of both parties shifted towards a dynamic wage policy. Finally, from the 1970s onwards the safeguarding of job security became the main objective of the UAW, whereas GM tried to maximize its room of maneuver to transform its Fordist production system into a more flexible one. Research limitations/implications The present study provides a starting point for further in-depth research towards the historic relationship between GM & the UAW. Originality/value Longitudinal approach of development of labor-management relationship between two opposite parties in differing economic and technological contexts

Avant-garde Welfare Capitalism: Corporate Welfare Work and Enlightened Capitalism in Great Britain, the US, Germany and France (1880-1930)

This research paper deals with welfare work in four industrializing countries, Great Britain, the USA, Germany and France, in the half century of flowering enlightened paternalistic capitalism between 1880 and 1930. Welfare work in this context is defined as, sometimes overly, paternalistic labour policy of enlightened entrepreneurs often encompassing workman’s housing programs, pensions, saving programs, educational programs, sports facilities, medical services, worker participation, generous remuneration forms, and shorter working times. The question is raised if nowadays flex-capitalism in the context of shrinking collective welfare states can learn lessons from past experience with welfare work. By redefining paternalistic welfare work in modernistic terms as well as by reweighting company, personal and state responsibilities a new future-proof trade-off as regards welfare work might be realised

New Deal Labor Reforms and their Aftermath: The Flawed Evolution of the American Labor-Management Model as Regards Center Firms, 1945-1980

Between 1945-1980, there existed a social compact between the three main parties involved. However, from the onset one or more of the three parties contested this social compact almost permanently. As a result, about 1980 the social compact had been eroded significantly and seemed no longer viable. This doesn’t justify the conclusion drawn by different experts that the New Deal and its aftermath until 1980 should be considered as unique and as an exception in the history of American labor and industrial relations. Rather, it can be contended that if the New Deal had in time adopted more elements of the preceding factory system and welfare capitalism of large firms a less exceptional and also more linear and gradual evolution of the post-war American system of labor and industrial relations would have been more likely

Search for eccentric black hole coalescences during the third observing run of LIGO and Virgo

Despite the growing number of confident binary black hole coalescences observed through gravitational waves so far, the astrophysical origin of these binaries remains uncertain. Orbital eccentricity is one of the clearest tracers of binary formation channels. Identifying binary eccentricity, however, remains challenging due to the limited availability of gravitational waveforms that include effects of eccentricity. Here, we present observational results for a waveform-independent search sensitive to eccentric black hole coalescences, covering the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. We identified no new high-significance candidates beyond those that were already identified with searches focusing on quasi-circular binaries. We determine the sensitivity of our search to high-mass (total mass M>70 M⊙) binaries covering eccentricities up to 0.3 at 15 Hz orbital frequency, and use this to compare model predictions to search results. Assuming all detections are indeed quasi-circular, for our fiducial population model, we place an upper limit for the merger rate density of high-mass binaries with eccentricities 0<e≤0.3 at 0.33 Gpc−3 yr−1 at 90\% confidence level

Search for gravitational-lensing signatures in the full third observing run of the LIGO-Virgo network

Gravitational lensing by massive objects along the line of sight to the source causes distortions of gravitational wave-signals; such distortions may reveal information about fundamental physics, cosmology and astrophysics. In this work, we have extended the search for lensing signatures to all binary black hole events from the third observing run of the LIGO--Virgo network. We search for repeated signals from strong lensing by 1) performing targeted searches for subthreshold signals, 2) calculating the degree of overlap amongst the intrinsic parameters and sky location of pairs of signals, 3) comparing the similarities of the spectrograms amongst pairs of signals, and 4) performing dual-signal Bayesian analysis that takes into account selection effects and astrophysical knowledge. We also search for distortions to the gravitational waveform caused by 1) frequency-independent phase shifts in strongly lensed images, and 2) frequency-dependent modulation of the amplitude and phase due to point masses. None of these searches yields significant evidence for lensing. Finally, we use the non-detection of gravitational-wave lensing to constrain the lensing rate based on the latest merger-rate estimates and the fraction of dark matter composed of compact objects

Nowoczesne powieści przemysłowe a socjologia przemysłu. Porównanie między weimarskimi Niemcami i Włochami po II wojnie światowej

Od czasów rewolucji przemysłowej w Anglii w XVIII wieku powieść przemysłowa odgrywała znaczącą role w krajach uprzemysłowionych w uświadamianiu pracowników, polityków i opinii publicznej o rzeczywistych warunkach pracy w przemyśle i usługach. Dobrze znanymi przykładami są powieści przemysłowe pisarzy angielskich epoki wiktoriańskiej, Dickensa i Gaskell. W innych krajach powieść przemysłowa rozwinęła się również w dobrze znany gatunek związany z procesami uprzemysłowienia. We Francji, “naturalistyczne” powieści przemysłowe Zoli wywarły znaczący wpływ na politykę dotyczącą świata pracy w okresie Trzeciej Republiki. Na przełomie XIX i XX wieku, powieści przemysłowe zaczęły powstawać również w innych krajach uprzemysłowionych: przed I Wojną Światową w USA, w okresie międzywojennym w Niemczej i ZSRR, a po II Wojnie Światowej we Włoszech. Powieści te opierały się często na badaniach w oparciu o dane zastane oraz badania empiryczne w terenie. W tym sensie, powieści te są również przejawami pseudosocjologii lub socjologii ex ante, niedocenianymi niestety przez istniejącą socjologię przemysłu. W artykule ilustruję tą tezę, porównując i zestawiając ze sobą powieści przemysłowe napisane w dwóch ważnych krajach europejskich, w dwóch odmiennych okresach czasu, Niemczech okresu Republiki Weimarskiej w latach 20. XX wieku oraz powojennych Włoszech w latach 50. i wczesnych latach 60. XX wieku.Since the English Industrial Revolution in the 18th century the industrial novel has played a significant role in industrialized countries by making workers, politicians, policy makers and the general public aware of actual working conditions in industry and services. Also, these novels contributed positively to workers emancipation. Well-known examples are the industrial novels of the English Victorian writers Dickens and Gaskell. Also in other countries the industrial novel developed into a well-known literary genre linked with the process of industrialization. In France Zola’s “naturalist” industrial novels had a significant influence on labour policies at the time of the Third Republic. After the turn of the 19th century the industrial novel also became manifest in other industrialized countries: before World War I in the USA, by the Inter-bellum in Germany and the USSR, and after World War II in Italy. Often these novels were based on desk research or empirical research on-site. Therefore, these novels are also expressions of pseudo- or ex-ante sociology, regretfully underestimated in vested industrial sociology. By comparing and juxtaposing industrial novels written in two important European industrial countries in two different time periods, Weimar Germany in the 1920s, and post-war Italy in the 1950s and early 1960s, I will illustrate this

Avant-garde Welfare Capitalism: Corporate Welfare Work and Enlightened Capitalism in Great Britain, the US, Germany and France (1880-1930)

This research paper deals with welfare work in four industrializing countries, Great Britain, the USA, Germany and France, in the half century of flowering enlightened paternalistic capitalism between 1880 and 1930. Welfare work in this context is defined as, sometimes overly, paternalistic labour policy of enlightened entrepreneurs often encompassing workman’s housing programs, pensions, saving programs, educational programs, sports facilities, medical services, worker participation, generous remuneration forms, and shorter working times. The question is raised if nowadays flex-capitalism in the context of shrinking collective welfare states can learn lessons from past experience with welfare work. By redefining paternalistic welfare work in modernistic terms as well as by reweighting company, personal and state responsibilities a new future-proof trade-off as regards welfare work might be realised.deGier_Avant_gard_welfare_capitalism.pdf: 317 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Avant-garde Welfare Capitalism Corporate Welfare Work and Enlightened Capitalism in Great Britain, the United States of America, Germany and France (1880–1930)

This research paper deals with welfare work in four at the time industrializing countries, Great Britain, the USA, Germany and France, in the half century of flowering enlightened paternalistic capitalism between 1880 and 1930. Welfare work in this context is defined as, sometimes overly, paternalistic labour policy of enlightened entrepreneurs often encompassing workmans housing programs, pensions, saving programs, educational programs, sports facilities, medical services, worker participation, generous remuneration forms, and shorter working times. The question is raised if nowadays flex-capitalism in the context of shrinking collective welfare states can learn lessons from past experience with welfare work. By redefining paternalistic welfare work in adapted modernistic terms as well as by reweighting company, personal and state responsibilities a new future-proof trade-off as regards welfare work might be realised