From Workers’ Self-management in Socialism to Trade Unions Marginalization in “Wild Capitalism”: A Case Study of ArcelorMittal in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

This paper explores the largest steel producer in Bosnia and Herzegovina as it shifted from a state-owned company to a foreign-owned private company. The impact of the transition on industrial relations, effect of new management on employment conditions within the company and the changing role of trade unions is explored. The extent to which the findings can be considered a typical consequence of the inexorable encroachment of capitalism and privatisation across Eastern Europe is considered. The paper commences with brief summary of the historical and political context of the transitional economies. This is followed by a brief history of the steel industry in general, and in Yugoslavia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in particular, detailing the main features of industrial relations. The background to the specific case study is then presented, providing a short history of Mittal Steel and its restructuring challenges in the transitional post-communist period. This provides the foundation for the analysis, which explores the impact of privatisation on industrial relations in the company, looking in particular at the effect of new management and its culture, and the concomitant effects on employment contracts, working conditions and the changing role of trade unions. The paper concludes with a discussion of the extent to which the transformations can be explained by the various theories of post-communist capitalism.

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