Craig Phelan

LABOR HISTORY SYMPOSIUM

THOMAS A. KOCHAN Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT Press, 2005 ISBN: 0262112922 In Restoring the American Dream, Thomas Kochan, one of Americas foremost industrial relations scholars, addresses the pa...

Trade unions, democratic waves, and structural adjustment: the case of francophone West Africa

This article assesses the consequences of political reform and structural adjustment programmes on trade union development in the countries of francophone West Africa. It addresses the key questions of how and to what extent the democratic upsurge of the 1990s has impacted trade unionism and how structural adjustment has reshaped the industrial relations landscape. It surveys recent developments such as the increasing influence of international labour organisations, the growth of social dialogue in the region, trade union proliferation and the new focus on organising informal-sector workers. The article concludes that, despite the decline in trade union density, the present climate represents opportunities as well as dilemmas for continued trade union vigour.

Labour History symposium: Roland Erne, European unions

In this erudite and cautiously optimistic book, Roland Erne, a leading authority on contemporary trade union developments in Europe, challenges the widely held view that there is no realistic prospect for overcoming the European Union’s democratic deficit. Based on a series of important case studies of corporate mergers and wage bargaining, European Unions is both highly original and compelling. Erne’s intent is to assess the conditions under which trade unions combine to adopt and implement strategies that have a democratizing effect on EU governance. A must-read for all interested in the fate of European trade unionism, European Unions is here discussed by some of the foremost scholars of that subject.

Labor History Symposium: Rohini Hensman, Workers, Unions and Global Capitalism: Lessons from India

Noted labour economist Richard Freeman has estimated that over the past generation or so, the global labour force has more than doubled due largely to the entry of Chinese, Indian and former Soviet bloc workers into the global economy. Workers had of course always existed in these places, but it was only in the 1980s and 1990s that their economies were thrust into the global system of production and consumption. While these countries contributed precious little capital to that system, they added approximately 1.47 billion new workers to the global labour pool, and this has placed such unprecedented pressure on labour markets throughout the world that Freeman regards it as a major ‘turning point in economic history’. As a result, advanced countries will see real wages and employment grow more slowly than in the past for the foreseeable future. Developing countries will lose manufacturing jobs and will see a shift in labour to the informal sector, with an accompanying increase in poverty. And rising inequality in India and China will create ‘dangers of social unrest’. Freeman is certainly not alone in calling attention to the seismic shift in the global capital-labour ratio brought about by economic developments in China and India, and he is hardly the sole voice calling for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to adopt ‘a new model of globalization and new policies that put upfront the well-being of workers around the world’. Considering their historical importance, it is surprising how little we know about these 1.47 billion new entrants to the global labour pool. What rights do working people have in these countries? What labour laws and industrial relations systems exist there? What do we know of their trade union histories? How have these workers and their institutions been impacted by having been thrust into the global system of production? How have they resisted the inevitable dislocations of globalization? And what can we learn from studying their collective histories and current strategies? We are beginning to learn about Chinese workers and their organizations, particularly the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU). Although often dismissed as a sham because it is state controlled, the ACFTU has enormous potential as a source of change because of its sheer size. With nearly 170 million

Plus ça change: trade unions, the military and politics in Burkina Faso, 1966 and 2014

Abstract This article examines the first and the most recent coups d’état in Burkina Faso, focusing on the pivotal role played by trade unions in both January 1966 and October 2014. Both events reveal the potency of trade unionism in the country, and both illustrate the political bind in which the country finds itself. The political history of Burkina Faso represents an ever-shifting, intractable passion play between a political elite with a strong tendency towards authoritarian rule, a military that sees itself as the bulwark of political stability and a powerful trade union movement capable of toppling governments but incapable of redeeming the nation’s political life. The similarities between the two coups d’état are remarkable and demonstrate the extent to which the politics of the country are locked in a cycle from which it apparently cannot escape. Through its role as the vanguard of civil society, trade unionism has rid the country of political ogres, but it has failed to fundamentally alter the nature of political power. As a result, Burkina Faso remains mired in crushing poverty, riven by high levels of corruption and economic inequality, and under the thrall of neoliberal structural adjustment that has proven unable to promote meaningful growth. Both coups therefore reveal the surprising strength of trade unionism as well as its limitations.

Fear itself: the new deal and the origins of our time

The literature on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and its significance in shaping American political discourse and labour history is vast. The people, the programmes and the language of the New Deal had been considered from every conceivable angle. Or so it was thought. With the publication of Fear Itself, noted political scientist Ira Katznelson demonstrated how the New Deal was in need of a major interpretive overhaul. In this masterful analysis, Katznelson situates New Deal economic programmes in an international perspective. Roosevelt’s fear of Fascism and the possibility of war taken centre stage in the analysis, and New Deal programmes are examined alongside corporatist ones. The book is also noteworthy for shifting attention away from the presidency and towards Congress, where the reform impulse that inspired much of the New Deal faced resistance, especially from southern segregationists. The book has already received numerous awards, including the annual Labor History best book prize, and in the pages that follow we pay tribute to the book with a Labor History symposium.

Unions, central banks, and EMU: labour market institutions and monetary integration in Europe

Bob Hancké of the London School of Economics is one of the foremost authorities on the development of and the current problems faced by the European Monetary Union. He also knows a great deal about contemporary European trade unionism. His most recent book, Unions, Central Banks, and EMU, is a fascinating and significant comparative political economy analysis of the divergence between creditor and debtor states that has incapacitated the EMU. What makes this book so important for labour scholars is the centrality of trade unions and wage-setting systems in Hancké’s analysis. Before the launch of the Euro, when curbing inflation was the cornerstone of macro-economic policy, national central banks sought to keep powerful public sector unions in check by subordinating public sector wages to manufacturing wages in the export sector. When the Euro was introduced, and national central banks were no longer able to control trade unions through monetary policy, the links between wages in the public and manufacturing sector weakened. Those countries which did not have deeply embedded wage-setting systems experienced wage inflation and growing current account balances, which are at the heart of the crisis of EMU. Hancké’s book is a must-read for anyone concerned about the problems besetting the Eurozone and for anyone interested in the current status of trade unionism in both creditor and debtor European states. In what follows, four distinguished experts offer their views on the book and Bob Hancké responds.

Labor history symposium: the twenty-fifth anniversary of Christopher Tomlins, The State and the Unions

The bulk of this issue of Labor History is devoted to an in-depth symposium on one of the most influential books ever written on the American labor movement, Christopher Tomlins’ The State and the Unions. Since its publication in 1985, this book has received enormous attention from historians, legal scholars, and activists alike, and it is still cited often by those trying to identify precisely what is wrong with the labor movement today. In this book, which is a mixture of in-depth historical research, critical legal studies’ perspectives and sheer boldness of argument, Tomlins examines the long-term impact of the 1935 National Labor Relations Act on the fortunes of the American labor movement, arguing that the very law that protects trade unions is a major cause of its current malaise. Special thanks for this symposium go to Jean-Christian Vinel, who organized it.

Labor History symposium: David Witwer, Shadow of the Racketeer

David Witwer’s Shadow of the Racketeer is a powerful and detailed account of organized crime’s penetration into the labour movement in 1930s America. The focus of the narrative is a Hollywood studio intent on ensuring a pliant labour supply, payments to a Chicago mob, and crusading journalist Westbrook Pegler’s subsequent exposé of the scandal. As in his previous work, Witwer persuasively demonstrates how corruption and scandal helped undercut the labour movement, in this instance revealing how Pegler’s campaign set the stage for the 1947 Taft–Hartley Act. Shadow of the Racketeer was awarded Labor History’s prize for best book in 2010, and it is here examined closely by four prominent labour scholars.

Reviews: Featured Title

Sanford Jacoby is one of the leading practitioners of both business and labor history writing today. His latest book, The Embedded Corporation, examines human resource (HR) practices in large US and Japanese corporations to ascertain whether globalization is creating convergence among different varieties of capitalism. In recognition of the importance of this book, Labor History presents the following two reviews.