Shop stewards' leadership, left-wing activism and collective workplace union organisation

Darlington, Ralph

doi:10.1177/030981680207600104

Cited by 60 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…It has been argued that the process of collectivisation is strongly influenced by the actions of leaders (Darlington, , ; Metochi, ). Contextual changes in the political and economic sphere shape the direction of campaigns, particularly those of long duration.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organising non‐standard workers: union recruitment in the Irish care sector

Murphy

Turner

2014

Industrial Relations Journal

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organising non‐standard workers: union recruitment in the Irish care sector

Murphy

Turner

2014

Industrial Relations Journal

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“…This is despite their apparent incompatibility. The 'organising' model rests on the self-activity of workers and contesting managerial legitimacy (Gall, 2001) generating a continuous struggle at the 'frontier of control' sustained by a class conflict ideology (Darlington, 2002). Conversely, the partnership model's ideological starting point is co-operation with employers via a pragmatic acceptance of corporate objectives and managerial legitimacy (Heery, 2002).…”

Section: Embryonic Customer-oriented Trade Unionismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Customer oriented militants? A critique of the `customer oriented bureaucracy' theory on front-line service worker collectivism

Brook

2007

Work, Employment and Society

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This critique challenges the Customer Oriented Bureaucracy (COB) theory's argument that the experience of customer service is pivotal to the formation of front-line service worker collectivism. COB's rejection of the major tenets of Marxist analysis, thereby denying the exploitative and class nature of service work, results in Korczynski theorising front-line worker collectivism as based only on the shared experience of doing customer service rather than as workers per se. As a neo-Weberian theory, COB argues 'consumer capitalism's' ideology of 'customer sovereignty' is a contemporary ideological 'iron cage' of value rationalisation in a unified, contradictory relationship with bureaucratic rationalisation. COB theory, consequently, allows only for a trade unionism that is limited to contesting the terms of customer service rather than challenging the deepening commodification of social relations.

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“…In other words, then rank-and-file were never mere puppets in a strike, they were themselves an active agency, highlighting the need to consider the extent to which members play an agitational role and influence stewards' behaviour. 74 On the other hand, it is equally important we recognise the central leadership and 'agitational' role in strike activity that is often played by shop stewards; in particular the fact they are in a unique position to influence members by raising issues they think important and proposing strategies to win improvements in wages and conditions. As Lane remarked:…”

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confidence: 99%

Agitator ‘Theory’ of Strikes Re-evaluated

Darlington¹

2006

Labor History

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There has been a renewed emphasis amongst a small layer of British and North American academics on the importance of local union leadership to building and sustaining collective workplace union organization and activity. 1 The pioneering insights into the crucial role played by shop stewards and other union activists revealed within some of the classic sociologically-inspired empirically-based workplace studies of the 1970s 2 have been revisited and further developed by more recent studies, some of which have attempted to bring the contribution of mobilization theory (derived from the sociological literature on social movements)into the mainstream of industrial relations analysis. 3 Within this literature a handful of researchers have focused particular attention on the much-neglected role that left-wing political activists can place in shaping collective activity and mobilization at the workplace in both historical and contemporary settings. 4 This article attempts to pick up the threads of a number of elements within this literature by specifically re-evaluating the so-called 'agitator theory' of strikes.If for many people, including some historians, explanations for the Russian revolution of October 1917 can be reduced to the work of a handful of determined Bolsheviks, then, equally for some, agitators can appear to be the main explanation for strikes. In a 1968 pamphlet entitled The Agitators: Extremist Activities in BritishIndustry the Economic League insisted the notion that 'every strike has a cause' was misleading and one-sided because it threw no light on either why workers believed a problem was a grievance or why grievances led to strikes; in fact, grievances themselves were rarely self-evident, they usually needed pointing out, fomenting, exacerbating and ultimately exploiting. Furthermore, 'subversives' were adept at manufacturing discontents and engineering conflict. In other words, imaginary grievances rather, than real genuine ones, were stirred up by agitators in a manipulative fashion. Often it was lack of adequate information and knowledge on the shop-floor which gave rise to discontents, fears and misunderstandings that then provided the opportunity for rumour-mongering and gross misrepresentation, a key ingredient upon which agitators thrived. It should not be underestimated, it was argued, the ability of such extremists to disturb waters that would otherwise be calm. It was no coincidence they were almost invariably to be found in positions of influence at places of work which gained a reputation as 'trouble spots'. And it was for this reason that, despite the apparent strike-prone nature of particular industries, only -8 -certain dock areas, factories and building sites were involved in strike activity while workers elsewhere, operating under almost exactly similar circumstances, were content to have their problems settled by peaceful negotiations. 24In the process agitators did not seek to remedy grievances but to exploit them; feeding off the fears, frustrations and anger of people at...

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Shop stewards' leadership, left-wing activism and collective workplace union organisation

Cited by 60 publications

References 36 publications

Organising non‐standard workers: union recruitment in the Irish care sector

Organising non‐standard workers: union recruitment in the Irish care sector

Customer oriented militants? A critique of the `customer oriented bureaucracy' theory on front-line service worker collectivism

Agitator ‘Theory’ of Strikes Re-evaluated

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