Focusing On Rank And File

Contents

Acknowledgements

viii

Abbreviations and Acronyms

x

Introduction: Focusing on the Rank and File

1

Part I What Happened 1 The Upsurge: 1968–74

9

2 ‘How Little It Asked’ (The Working Class): 1974–79

30

3 Gone With the Wind: Thatcher, Reagan and the Early 1980s

53

4 Against the Stream: 1984–89

75

5 The Workers’ TINA: Class Warfare in the 1990s

101

6 Into the 2000s: Seattle … and September

124

Part II

What to Make of It All

7 Unions and Unions

149

8 Punctuation Marks: A Story of Class Consciousness

174

9 Transitions and Transformations: Which Side Are You On?

198

Notes

222

Index

241

vii

Introduction: Focusing on the Rank and File

… But when it is a question of making a precise study of strikes, combinations and other forms in which the proletarians carry out before our eyes their organisation as a class, some are seized with real fear and others display a transcendental disdain. Karl Marx, The Poverty of Philosophy, Progress Publishers 1973, p.151 This is a book with an ambitious aim: to reverse the focus of debate on rebuilding the labour movement. While many recent contributions to that debate emphasise a grass roots orientation, most continue to centre on a set of programmatic injunctions as to what ‘the unions’ ought to do, rather than focusing on what they – or rather their members – are actually doing. By contrast, this book suggests putting workplace-based rank-and-file organisation and resistance at the head of strategic discussion, rather than leaving it as a largely neglected footnote.

FOCUSING ON THE RANK AND FILE The trade union history covered here, from the 1968–74 upsurge to the present, tells its own story of the class power of rank-and-file struggle – whether in defiance of anti-union legislation, in defence of jobs, or simply in the day-to-day trench warfare of workplace resistance. It illustrates the uncomfortable truth that the main threat to ruling-class demands and strategies has come, time after time, not from lofty political protest but from ‘raw’, workplacebased, rank-and-file resistance. A consistent criticism of such resistance is that it is ‘economistic’ – it lacks the broader political awareness and commitment to social ideals that would be necessary to transform the system, or at least to turn the trade union movement around. The answer to that criticism within this book is not that politics, ideals, ideas and ideology 1

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don’t matter. It is that the shortest road to political awareness, for workers without the luxury of a formal political education, is via the experience of struggle. Experience itself is not sufficient for a fully informed, sophisticated critique of the system and a strategic commitment to its transformation. But immersion in the raw politics of class conflict – rarely sought by those involved, but a life-changing experience for many – is surely a powerful starting point. That conflict is itself most likely to be rooted in the concrete issues and concerns which most directly affect rank-and-file workers; and these are experienced, resisted and organised around most often within the workplace. A central focus of this book is recognition of the workplace as a central source of trade union renewal and class struggle. As the site of the central contradictions of capitalist relations of production, the workplace generates the need for organisation and resistance irrespective of the preexisting consciousness of those involved. And it is rank-and-file workers and union members who form the troops and the cadre of that resistance.

The activist layer This signals the importance of the workplace union structures within which workgroup leaders both represent their members and, in most cases, share their work experience, pay and conditions. Rank-and-file activists – whether bank clerks, car workers, healthcare aides or building labourers – are workers themselves. Occupying as they do a territory between the exploitation-driven concerns of the workplace membership and the institutional concerns of the bureaucracy, these activists are uniquely placed to maintain independence from the demands of capital, and to develop an overview of the shared impact of production relations on different sections of the workforce. Their close, everyday links with the membership enforce an attention to the workplace issues most likely to mobilise workers and maintain the dynamic of direct, member-led democracy. A central argument of this book is that this layer of activists holds the key to the objective most of us seek: trade union renewal. But this is an argument based on the understanding that the recurrence of mobilisation and struggle within the movement is not the main problem. Episodes of rank-and-file resurgence will take place without needing to be conjured up by visions of social movement unionism; impelled by economic necessity rather than idealistic aspiration, grass-roots resistance is almost always forthcoming at different times, in different sections, even in the most discouraging circumstances. What this resurgence requires is not external calls to

Introduction

3

action – the contradictions of capitalism will do the job for us – but a conscious strategy of developing and sustaining such forms of resistance as they arise and where they are. The class-conscious, committed layer of rank-and-file activists already existing in the movement is the force with the best potential for doing that.

THE CRUCIAL CONSIDERATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS This reversal of perspective requires, if anything, an even sharper focus on issues of ideology and consciousness. Working-class struggle and organisation are weakened, in this analysis, not by the absence of ‘broader’ political principles per se, but by a different kind of absence: the absence of explicit awareness on the part of many of the most militant activists of the need for independence from the objectives of capital, and attention to member-led democracy. It is these two central principles which lie at the heart of the rank-and-file perspective advocated in this book. Contrary to much of the thinking in this area, ruling-class ideology does not maintain an impenetrable lid on the consciousness of ‘ordinary’ workers; whatever the subjective awareness of those involved, the stability of the system is continually undermined by ragged, unpredictable, contradictory eruptions of struggle. Strike after strike described in this book explodes from some previously unconsidered ‘last straw’ of exploitation and repression; striker after striker describes the massive transformation in consciousness, the reversal of perspective and awareness generated by such materially based conflicts. Yet the development of this exciting potential into long-term, consistent movement building requires conscious awareness, on the part of the activists at its heart, of the crucial need for class independence and workplace union democracy. The dominance of reformist ideology in even the most militant sections of the movement acts as a block to that awareness. Part of the purpose of this book is to highlight the implications of reformism, and to suggest how it might be countered not by grand schemes and visions but by a straightforward attention to the class needs of the movement’s basic constituency – its rank-and-file membership.

UNION AS INSTITUTION, UNION AS MOVEMENT The question of internal trade union democracy is pivotal to this analysis. Maintaining a connection with the membership base is the

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most effective barrier to the only-too-common slide of militant activist into obstructive bureaucrat. Correspondingly, membership education and mobilisation are essential to maintaining class-independent resistance which may otherwise be diluted by rank-and-file members’ susceptibility to management threats and persuasions. Both arguments for union democracy relate to a key distinction made in this book between ‘unions and unions’: union-as-institution, enshrined in formal, official structures prioritising institutional survival, and union-as-movement, an organisational form rooted in the class needs and demands of the rank and file. The distinction between these two separate and often directly contradictory facets of trade unionism parallels a second distinction between memberled, participative, direct democracy and its formal, bureaucratically structured ‘representative’ counterpart. The notion of direct democracy emphasises the link between the issues members actually care about – pay, work, job security – and collective membership involvement and action. In this approach, trade union democracy becomes a crucial component of union effectiveness, rather than an abstract ideal; rank-and-file membership involvement is recognised as a central and indispensable force in rebuilding the strength of the movement.

RAMPARTS This focus on rank-and-file union organisation and its roots in issues-based ‘direct democracy’ draws attention to the distinctive organisational forms built by workplace representatives, which work horizontally across sectors, industries and the class as a whole, rather than vertically within separate unions. These forms include workplace-based multi-union joint shop steward committees, combine committees, and rank-and-file union reform caucuses; their delegate-based, essentially accountable structures echo the forms universally created in ‘spontaneous’ working-class struggles, from soviets to factory occupation committees. Whether in times of ‘upsurge’ or ‘downturn’, such networks are rooted in the ongoing bedrock of workplace organisation and resistance, the ‘ramparts’ which continue to pose a frontier against the undiluted demands of capital. The wider solidarity and unity so valued, rightly, by advocates of ‘social movement unionism’ has its roots here – in the everyday, unromantic, but necessarily collective struggles by workers against the demands of capital.

Introduction

5

This focus does not suggest the confinement of organisation and struggle to the narrow remit of the workplace; most major workplace-based struggles immediately affect ‘the community’ and work to enlarge, rather than restrict, the horizons of working-class consciousness. An everyday revelation for workers involved in such struggles is that only now do they see their experience in a wider context: ‘It’s happening all over the country but everyone thinks it’s just them’, as one American striker eloquently put it. One important way of increasing workers’ awareness that it’s not ‘just them’ is the development of classwide rank-and-file networks. This is not a new idea. In more promising times, activist involvement in left-based rank-and-file initiatives demonstrated workplace trade unionists’ serious interest in building movementwide links. Even now, the actually existing organisational forms described above themselves contain, at least potentially, the raw material for reactivating the movement. One central strategic implication identified in this book is the need to link rank-and-file activists together.

WHY WORKERS LOST THEIR POWER … A reasonable objection to invocations of ‘workers’ power’ or, indeed, the need for a rank-and-file movement based on such grass-roots struggles, is that the upsurge is no longer with us. The statistics on union density and strike incidence need no spelling out; it is dismally clear that the movement is in an era of extreme defeat. If workers ever had ‘power’, they seem to have lost it now. Why? Leaving aside relevant but restricted explanations of economic restructuring and political change, the answer seems to lie in the lack of recognition, by both union leaders and some of their most militant opponents, of the real value of what they held – sheer, gut-level, class-based resistance. If such resistance is ever easy, it was so in a period of postwar boom and full employment. Yet the organisational structures and movement dynamics it created could have been consolidated and developed, preserved to fight another day, used to study the lessons. Even at the height of the upsurge, and certainly in the brave mass struggles of the neoliberal era, these same lessons recur over and over: workers’ misplaced faith that the justice of their cause will prevail; capital’s no-holds-barred aggression and strategic superiority; the ever-present threat of bureaucracy and class collaboration. Despite attempts, no ongoing rank-and-file structure

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was built out of the struggles of the upsurge which could study and spread those lessons; perhaps they can be studied now.

… AND HOW TO GET IT BACK How to combat the ever more monstrous Goliath of capital with what seems an ever shrinking David? Again, by starting from the ground up. The continued presence of rank-and-file resistance and organisation provides the bedrock for a ‘critical mass’ of activists able and willing to revive the movement, while retaining links with the base. Both the history and the theory presented in this book point to the need to build an in-class rank-and-file movement prepared to provide grass-roots leadership in the event of another ‘upsurge’. Those who see such a prospect as unlikely may be reminded of the many previous periods of defeat and fatalism out of which apparently impossible resurgence has arisen – only to be once again conquered by the cycle of strategic confusion and bureaucratic compromise. This time, like the ruling class, we need to be ready. Encouraging a turn in the direction of such readiness is one of the central objectives of this book.

Index

57-second minute 103 9/11, 11 September 2001 136–7 Activists 2–3, 5–6, 9, 12, 15–16, 19, 34, 37–40, 43, 45, 57, 60, 66–8, 71, 73, 79, 86, 89–93, 98–9, 105–8, 113–17, 120, 123–5, 129, 131–2, 136, 150, 157, 159, 164, 170, 177, 179–84, 200, 203, 209–17, 220–1 Action Coalition of Strikers and Supporters (ACOSS) 115–16 ACTSS x, 12 AEEU/AEU/AUEW x, 31, 34, 94, 96, 118, 141, 157 AFGE x, 14, 137 AFL-CIO x, 66, 107–10, 116, 132–7, 154–7, 200–2 African-American workers 109, 115, 143 Agency 152, 170, 204 Aggression, corporate see also strategy 5, 35, 67, 84, 86, 100, 104, 114, 182 Airline workers 123, 128, 137, 140, 217, 219 Alternative Economic Strategy 44, 181, 220 Alternative, political 33, 42–3, 185–6, 189, 199, 221 Alternative Work Schedules 110, 114 Ambulance workers 49, 98, 107 Amicus x, 141, 145, 156 Anti-unionism 35, 45, 63, 73, 84–5, 95, 136, 139, 143–4, 153, 208 Anti-union legislation 1, 18–19, 27, 32, 37, 54–5, 102, 121, 131, 136, 139, 141, 143–4, 150, 153, 167 Apathy, of membership 130, 168

ASE x, 55 Asian workers 33, 41 ASLEF x, 97, 123, 141 Association for Union Democracy x, 40 ASTMS x, 12, 168–9 Awkward Squad 141–2, 156 Bakery workers 48 Ballots national 76–7 secret, postal 54, 95, 167, 199 strike 77–8, 82, 129, 141 BALPA x, 123 Base, membership 3, 6, 13, 23, 32, 79, 130, 151–2, 154, 160–70, 180–1, 201, 213 Base and superstructure 191 Bank staff 2, 128 Becker, George 113 Benn, Bennism 27, 31, 34, 42–4, 48 Betrayal, leadership viii, 14, 32, 91, 114, 158, 160, 177, 182, 197, 211, 220 Betrayal, sense of 88, 92, 114, 117 ‘Big Three’ (Chrysler, Ford, GM) 103 Black Lung Association 24–5 Black workers 12, 13, 18, 56 Blair, Tony 102, 126–7, 131, 134–5, 139–41, 145, 149 ‘Blame the members’ syndrome 162, 167–8, 180 Bottom-up organising see also ground-up 153, 158, 203 Bridgestone–Firestone 112–13 British Leyland (BL) x, 33, 58, 60, 71, 93, 177–81 Cowley plant 33, 60, 177–81 Longbridge plant 60–1 Broad Lefts 165–6

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Building workers 20, 22–3, 41, 66 Bureaucracy, bureaucratisation 2, 5, 10, 18, 23, 25, 27, 35, 38, 45, 58, 60, 71, 73, 151–2, 158–9, 160–6, 171, 178, 183, 207 Bureaucracy Thesis 40, 158–9, 162 ‘Bureaucratic militancy’ 201–2, 220 Bush, George W. 137–9 Business Roundtable 35, 46, 63 C2s 85, 188–9 Californian grocery workers’ strike 144, 146 Callaghan, James 34, 50 Camp Solidarity 98 Carey, Ron 106, 124, 153 Carter, Jimmy 35, 37, 45, 63, 64 Casino workers 144–6, 219 Caterpillar Tractors (UK) 75, 95–6, 208 Caterpillar Tractors (US) 111–14, 123 ‘Charade’ of organisation 94–5, 104 Charleston Five 135–6 Chicano workers 98, 146 Chrysler, Chrysler Bailout 18, 37, 46, 64, 93, 103, 191 Civil service workers 14, 49, 56, 73, 136–7, 141 Class Ruling 6, 11, 46, 57, 76, 100, 145, 146, 187, 205, 219, 220 middle 49, 119 working 20–2, 30, 36, 43, 45, 52, 55–6, 72, 76, 83, 86–7, 92, 96, 119, 126, 131, 135, 159–60, 170, 181, 183, 188, 192, 196–7, 202–21 Class conflict, struggle 2–4, 11, 19, 25, 30, 36, 42, 44, 46–7, 99, 145, 160, 172–4, 177, 186–7, 190, 196–7, 209, 213, 220–1 Class consciousness 5, 159, 169, 174–97, 205 Clinton, Bill 102, 107, 118 Closure, of plants etc 26–7, 33, 44, 57, 62, 71, 76–9, 82, 96, 119, 120–1, 179, 195

Collectivism 47, 163, 167, 194–5, 199 Combine Committees 43–4, 166, 210 Competitiveness see also ‘viability argument’, whipsawing 47, 70–1, 74, 124 Concessions 45–6, 63–4, 67–8, 86–7, 88–90, 98–9, 125 Confidence, of working class 11, 26, 36, 183, 218 Conservative workers 18, 20, 87, 92, 117, 188 Constant Improvement (Kaizan) 94, 103, 105 Convenors 43, 48, 61, 71, 117, 169, 178–9, 182 Coordination of struggles, etc 18–19, 25, 27, 107 Cross-class organisation 16, 44, 210–2 Crow, Bob 141–2 CWA x, 99 CWU xi, 106, 141, 156 Decentralisation, of bargaining 102, 107, 170 Democracy industrial 31, 42, 44, 47 trade union 2–4, 11, 38, 40, 95, 110, 124, 149–73, 199, 219–21 Department of Homeland Security 137 Deregulation 35, 46, 63, 102 Detroit Newspaper strike 114–17 Deunionisation see also unionbusting 45, 63 Dockers, longshoremen 19, 21–3, 37, 48, 61, 75, 80–1, 97, 121–2, 131, 135–6, 138–9, 150, 205, 207 Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM) 13 Donovan Report see also Royal Commission 10, 13, 40, 161 Downturn 1974–79 4, 30, 33, 47, 175, 212 Dual power 48, 50, 143, 178

Index Earnings fall in 21, 30–1, 49, 64 rise of 10, 76 Economism 1, 7–9, 11, 42–3, 169, 175, 196, 202–6 Edwardes, Michael 71, 179–80 EETPU xi, 84, 94 Employee Involvement (EI) 46, 70, 93–4, 124, 183 Engels, Friedrich 151 Engineering workers 22, 27, 56, 118, 123, 128–9 EPEA xi, 42 Equal pay 13, 33 European Works Councils 108, 156 Exploitation 2, 3, 13, 27, 145, 160–1, 163, 184, 190, 193–7, 217 Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) xi, 143 Fatalism 6, 121, 186 FBU xi, 140–1 Firefighters 34, 128, 136, 140–2, 145–6, 149 Fitzsimmons, Frank 15–16, 38 Flexibility, flexible working 94, 96–7, 104, 108, 119, 127, 131, 191 Ford, Ford workers 13, 33, 47–8, 58, 61, 71, 93–4, 98, 103, 128, 183, 198–9, 210 Fuel tax revolt 133–5 Gay and lesbian workers 133, 215–18 GCHQ 73 General Motors (GM) xi, 13, 16–18, 70, 92, 103–5, 108, 129, 189 Gilchrist, Andy 140 Globalisation, ‘Globaloney’ 101–2, 122, 124, 131–2, 138, 216, 221 GMB xi, 118, 141, 156 Gramsci, Antonio 187, 195, 212 Grunwick dispute 41–2, 44, 45, 167 Guyette, Jim viii, 87

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Hayes, Billy 141–2 Healey, Denis 50 Health and safety 18, 23, 36, 123, 218 Health workers 2, 12, 28, 33, 56–7, 103, 107 Heath, Edward 21, 28–9, 54–5 HERE xi, 136, 154 High-tech workers 136, 157 Hormel 75, 86–7 Hours of work 33, 65, 88, 96, 102–3, 138, 168, 184, 218, 220 Human Resources Management (HRM) 103–4, 107–8 IAM xi, 66 IBEW xi, 99 IBP meatpacking 142–3 Ideology 1,3, 10, 13, 33, 46, 53, 62, 70, 73, 94, 110, 119, 124, 130, 137, 158–60, 162, 171, 174, 176–97, 199, 221 absence of 176, 186, 188 ILA xi, 135 ILWU xi, 122, 135, 138–9 Immigrant workers 63, 106, 109, 118, 143, 152 Incomes policy 11, 28–9, 31–5, 159 Independence, class 2–3, 159, 161, 170, 207–8 Inside Strategy 68–9, 93, 111 Intellectuals 186 organic, traditional 210–13 radical 221 Intensification of labour 17, 71, 94, 103, 170, 179, 185, 220 International Socialists 212, 214 Institutionalism 2–4, 38, 110, 149–73, 202, 209–10 ISTC xi, 57–62 Joint Shop Stewards’ Committees (JSSCs) 4, 27, 162, 166, 130, 210 Jointness, labour-management cooperation 70, 92, 104, 108, 114, 129–30, 155 Jones, Jack 32–4

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Justice for Janitors 109, 202 Just-In-Time working (JIT) 98, 103, 105, 110, 129, 130 Kirkland, Lane

66, 109

Labor Notes viii, 40, 124, 130, 213–15 Labour governments 10, 11, 29, 31–5, 44, 47–50, 76, 102, 126–7, 158, 179, 199 Labourism 158–9 Labour process 64, 92, 161, 193–5 Latina, Latino workers 142–3, 216 Lean Production 73, 92, 101–7, 110, 130, 140, 183, 191 Left, the 41, 43–5, 78, 133, 181–2, 204, 214, 218 Lenin, V.I. 195–7, 198 Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions (LCDTU) 212 LIUNA xi, 154–5 Liverpool dockers’ dispute 121–2, 150, 207 Local 14 (IPIU) 87–92 Local government workers 12, 97, 122, 139, 168 London Underground workers 97, 123, 128, 130, 142, 146 Lorry drivers 47–50, 60, 80 Lucas Plan 43–4 Luxemberg, Rosa 187, 195, 210 Major, John 102 Management-by-stress 92, 103 Martinez, Maria 143 Marx, Karl 64, 96, 151, 174, 186, 187, 191–4, 209 Mass meetings 95, 166–7 McCluskie, Sam 97 McGahey, Mick 78 Media 9, 14, 17–18, 21, 49, 58, 78, 81, 84, 95, 123, 129, 136, 139, 145, 190–1, 199 Mercury Communications dispute 56 Michels, Robert 158

Miners (UK) 19–21, 28–9, 57, 75–83, 119–21, 134, 205, 207–8, 217 Miners (US) 23–5, 36–7, 47, 98–9 Miners For Democracy (MFD) 24–5, 37 Monks, John 123 ‘Moralism’, of workers 5, 60, 62, 83, 91–2, 206–7 MSF x, xi, 118, 141 Murdoch, Rupert 84–5, 145 Murray, Len 50, 72, 80 NACODS xi, 82–3, 207 Nader, Ralph 90 NALC xi, 93 NALGO xi, xiii, 12, 168–9 National Health Service (NHS) 56–7, 107 National Joint Negotiating Committees (NJNCs) xii, 71 National Labor Relations Act/Board 35, 116 NCU xi, xii, 166 Neoliberalism 5, 45, 50, 53, 63, 82, 88, 101–12, 129, 152 New Directions (TWU) 164–5 New Directions (UAW) 93 ‘New Realism’ 73, 183 New United Motors Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) 103 New Unity Partnership 154 New Voices (AFL-CIO) 109, 200–2, 219 NGA xii, 72, 84, 94 Nissan car plant 94, 140 Non-union workers 11, 20, 65, 80, 108, 111, 135, 156 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) 101, 137 NUPE xii, xiii, 12, 94, 167, 169 NUR xii, 97 NUS xii, 97 NUT xii, 12 Occupations 4, 23, 26–7, 32–3, 56, 95–6, 129, 171, 208 Oil tanker drivers 48, 79, 133, 139

Index Organising (recruitment) 109–10, 142–3, 151–2, 153–8 Organisational forms (unofficial) 4–5, 149, 166, 209 Organizing Institute (AFL-CIO) 109 Outsourcing 88, 106 Overview 2, 177, 184, 207–8 P–9 (UFCW local) viii, 75, 85–87, 91, 99 Partnership 101, 108–10, 112, 127, 155–6, 158, 179, 190, 201–3 Part-time workers 63, 106, 114, 125–6, 155 PATCO xii, 65–67, 217 PCS xii, 141 Pentonville Five 19, 21–3, 205 Permanent replacement workers see also ‘scabs’ 63, 86, 88, 99 Phelps Dodge strike 67, 68 Pickets, picketing 19–21, 22, 24, 37, 41, 58–61, 72, 75–6, 78–9, 81, 83–5, 89, 95, 115, 118, 121, 135 Piecework 10, 161–3, 178, 190, 196–7 Pilkington’s Glass Company 13, 207 Pittston 75, 99, 109 POEU xi, xii, 56, 72 Politics, of trade unionism 1–5, 11, 13–14, 15, 16, 43, 87, 134, 169–73, 175, 181–3, 186, 189, 196–7, 198–9, 205, 213, 217–21 Postmodernism 190–2 Postal workers UK 19, 41, 103, 106–7, 123, 128, 139, 141–2 US 13–15, 93, 103, 155 Power workers 34, 79, 120 Printers 22, 72, 75, 80, 84–5, 118, 183, 189 Prior, James 50 Privatisation 56, 102, 107, 119, 127, 128, 130, 141, 170 Profit, profitability 10, 16, 30, 64, 70, 102, 123, 143, 179, 182–3, 193, 195, 197

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Protest politics 1, 41, 119, 169, 206, 218 Public sector 12, 28, 32, 36, 45, 47, 49–50, 74, 93, 102, 106, 140, 155, 169 Public Sector Alliance 57 Quality of Working Life (QWL) 46–7, 94, 104, 107, 124, 183, 189 Quality, workers’ concern with 194–5 Racism 13, 18, 115, 128, 136, 215–18 Radicalism 31, 41–5, 142, 160, 169, 171–2, 181–2, 184–5, 197, 203–4, 209–10, 214–15, 216, 218, 220–1 Rail workers 23, 57, 76, 80, 97, 99, 120, 123, 128, 139 Reagan Democrats 131, 188 Reagan, Ronald 62–3, 65, 102 Reaganomics 53 Recession 30, 35, 63, 70, 138 Reform caucuses (US) 4, 16, 37, 164, 210 Reformism 3, 160, 176–7, 183–4, 197 Resurgence 2, 6, 34, 123, 198–9, 204, 221 Retail workers 144, 155 Revolt from below (US) 23 Ridley Report 54, 61, 78 RMT xii 123, 141–2 Rogers, Ray 69 Rover (BL) 69, ‘New Deal’ 104, 108–9 Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers’ Associations 1968 10 see also Donovan Report Sadlowski, Ed 39 Saltley Gates 19–20, 75, 204 Saturn (GM) 92, 108, 129–30 Scabs see also unorganised workers 67, 68, 80, 89, 112, 117–18

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Scargill, Arthur 19–21, 76–9, 82, 118, 119–20, 134 Seafarers 23, 34, 41, 48, 75, 96–7 Seattle, Battle of 131–3, 150, 217 Secondary action see also solidarity, sympathy action 85, 122 SEIU xii, 109, 154, 200–3, 219 Service sector 63, 74, 126, 170, 194 workers 12, 140, 143 Serwotka, Mark 141 Sexism, sexuality 188, 215–18 Shah, Eddie 72, 84 Shifts 110, 112–13, 128, 130, 140 Shop stewards 10–11, 12, 22, 26–7, 40, 43–4, 60, 70, 93–4, 96, 104, 156–7, 159–62, 166, 177–83, 190, 210–12, 217 Simpson, Derek 141, 145, 156 Single-union (‘sweetheart’) union deals 94, 156 Sirs, Bill 58–9, 77 Sit-ins 23, 26–7, 33, 178, 189, see also occupations Skilled workers 33, 44, 159 Socialism 42–3, 171–3, 181–3, 185–6, 188, 196–7, 214, 219–20 Social Contract (UK) 31–5, 51, 56, 107, 158 Social contract (with capital) 201–3, 220 Social movement unionism 2, 5, 200, 202–4, 206, 209, 212, 220 SOGAT xii, 84–5 Solidarity 4, 19, 20, 21, 29, 37, 41, 46, 48, 55, 56, 59–62, 66, 79–80, 90, 98, 106, 117–21, 134, 135, 139, 150, 205, 219 Solidarity committees 68, 69 Solidarity consciousness, unionism 47, 68, 85, 91–2, 99–100, 183, 206, 211–12 Solidarity Day 66, 116 Solidarnosc 73 Soviets 4, 50, 210 Special Patrol Group (SPG) 58, 76 Staley dispute 111–13, 123 Steel strike (UK) 57–62, 65, 80

Steelworkers 23, 25, 36, 37, 38, 57–62, 76–7, 80, 132, 150, 155, 163, 183 Steelworkers Fight Back 25, 38–9 Stern, Andy 109, 154 Stockport Messenger dispute 56, 72, 84 Strikes incidence, statistics 5, 9–10, 30, 36, 52, 128–9 unoffficial/unconstitutional 10, 32–3, 37, 97, 129, 141, 199 see also wildcat strikes visibility 50, 59, 61, 118 Strike committees 50, 59, 61, 118 Summer of Discontent 18, 123 Sweeney, John 109–10, 154, 200–2 Symbolic protest, solidarity 41–2, 66, 70, 85, 87, 112, 117–23 Sympathy action 59, 66, 81, 141, see also secondary action, solidarity Syndicalism 50 Taft Hartley Act 37, 63, 139 Teachers 12, 32, 49, 128, 137, 139 Team briefings 93, 107 Team Concept 63, 70, 73–4, 93, 103, 124, 183, 189 Teamsters for a Decent Contract (TDC) 37–8 Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) 16, 25, 38, 106, 124, 133, 164, 213 Teamster Union Rank and File (TURF) 25 Teamsters 13, 15, 16, 23, 36–8, 124–6, 132, 143, 144, 154–5, 164, 217 Teamsters and Turtles 132, 150 Telecommunications workers 55–6, 96, 99, 123 TGWU x, xii, 12, 20, 21–2, 32, 34, 48, 60–1, 80, 81, 94, 97, 105, 121, 134, 150, 156, 183 Thatcher, Margaret 19, 21, 28, 50–1, 53–7, 62, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81–3, 102, 121, 127, 139, 207–8, 220–1

Index Thatcherism 50–2, 53–7, 62, 73, 75, 84, 85, 96, 97, 119, 159, 188–9 Thornett, Alan 34, 178 Timex strike 118, 123 Todd, Ron 97 Toledo Area Solidarity Committee (TASC) 68 Top-down organising 110, 153, 155, 157 Total Quality Management (TQM) 104 Trades Councils 41–2, 120 Trade Union Act 1984 95, 167 Trade union democracy 3–4, 11, 40, 149, 166–9, see also democracy Trade union density 5, 12, 40, 152–4, 200 Trade union growth 151–4, 156, 198, 200 Trade Union News viii, 214 Trade union power 9, 10, 19, 21, 51, 54, 139 Trade union renewal 2, 130, 169–70, 172, 200, 211–12, 219 Trades Union Congress (TUC) 12, 22, 28, 31, 41, 50, 55–6, 61, 72–3, 80, 94–5, 108–9, 119–21, 123, 127, 134, 156 Transitional demands 218 Transnationals Information Exchange (TIE) 213–14 Trotsky, Leon 158, 195–6, 218 Trust (by workers in capital) 89, 96, 117, 176 TSSA xii, 97 Tucker, Jerry 68–9, 93, 111 Twin-track representation 108 Two-tier pay agreements 112–14, 144 TWU xii, 164 UAW xiii, 16–18, 25, 38, 46–7, 68, 70, 92–3, 104, 111–13, 115, 129–30, 155, 164 UFCW xiii, 86–7, 144, 154 UMWA xiii, 23–5, 36, 39, 99, 109

247

Unemployment 30, 33, 35, 47, 63, 68, 94, 172, 182 Unfair labor practices 116 Union-as-institution 3–4, 149, 151–2, 166, 209 Union-as-movement 3–4, 149, 166, 173 Union-busting 45–6, 73, 113 Union effectiveness 4, 160, 166–7, 201, 217 Union form 152 Union mergers 155, 158 Union recognition 35, 45, 56, 73, 94, 118, 127, 131, 153, 155, 157, 201 Union Summer 109 Unison xiii, 123, 142, 156 United National Caucus (UAW) 25, 38 Unorganised workers see non-union workers UPIU xiii, 88–91 Upper Clyde Shipbuilders (UCS) 23, 26 UPS dispute 124–6, 138 Upsurge 1968–74 UPW xi, xiii, 41 URW xiii, 112–13 USDAW xiii, 123 USWA xiii, 38–9, 113, 150, 155 Velasquez, Baldemar

143

Wage drift 10 Wal-Mart 138, 144, 153 Wapping dispute 84–5, 95 ‘War Zone’ (Illinois) 110–14 Waterworkers 49, 57 Watsonville Canning 75, 98–9 Weir, Stanley 163 Wembley Principles 55, 72 Whipsawing 46 White workers, white working class 92, 184–6, 188–9, 216 White-collar workers 12, 97, 142, 168–9 Wildcat strikes 13–18, 24–5, 36–8 Wilson, Harold 199

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Ramparts of Resistance

Winter of Discontent 35, 40, 45, 47–52, 54, 131, 134, 145 Women Against Pit Closures (WAPC) 120, 205 Women workers 12–13, 26, 33, 37, 56, 63, 67, 83, 98, 109, 118, 139–40, 142, 178, 207, 215–17 Work groups 161 Worker cooperatives 27, 42 Worker participation 43, 179 Workers’ control 44, 69, 220

Workers’ plans 43–4 Workers’ power 5, 51, 100, 198, 220 Work-in (UCS) 26 Working poor 63 Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (WIRS) 102, 128 World Trade Organisation (WTO) 101, 124, 132 Yablonski, Jock

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