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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 contribu-
tions 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’, workplace-
based, 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 criti-
cism within this book is not that politics, ideals, ideas and ideology

1
2 Ramparts of Resistance

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 com-
mitment 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 organ-
isation and resistance irrespective of the preexisting consciousness
of those involved. And it is rank-and-file workers and union mem-
bers 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 build-
ing labourers – are workers themselves. Occupying as they do a terri-
tory 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 democ-
racy. 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 inde-
pendence and workplace union democracy. The dominance of
reformist ideology in even the most militant sections of the move-
ment 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
4 Ramparts of Resistance

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 resis-
tance which may otherwise be diluted by rank-and-file members’ sus-
ceptibility 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 member-
led, participative, direct democracy and its formal, bureaucratically
structured ‘representative’ counterpart. The notion of direct democ-
racy 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, com-
bine 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 resis-
tance, the ‘ramparts’ which continue to pose a frontier against the
undiluted demands of capital. The wider solidarity and unity so val-
ued, 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 work-
place-based struggles immediately affect ‘the community’ and work
to enlarge, rather than restrict, the horizons of working-class con-
sciousness. 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 net-
works. 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 movement-
wide 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 impli-
cation 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 dis-
mally 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 eco-
nomic 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 organ-
isational 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 cer-
tainly 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
6 Ramparts of Resistance

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 ASE x, 55


9/11, 11 September 2001 136–7 Asian workers 33, 41
Activists 2–3, 5–6, 9, 12, 15–16, ASLEF x, 97, 123, 141
19, 34, 37–40, 43, 45, 57, 60, Association for Union
66–8, 71, 73, 79, 86, 89–93, Democracy x, 40
98–9, 105–8, 113–17, 120, ASTMS x, 12, 168–9
123–5, 129, 131–2, 136, 150, Awkward Squad 141–2, 156
157, 159, 164, 170, 177,
179–84, 200, 203, 209–17, Bakery workers 48
220–1 Ballots
Action Coalition of Strikers and national 76–7
Supporters (ACOSS) 115–16 secret, postal 54, 95, 167, 199
ACTSS x, 12 strike 77–8, 82, 129, 141
AEEU/AEU/AUEW x, 31, 34, 94, BALPA x, 123
96, 118, 141, 157 Base, membership 3, 6, 13, 23, 32,
AFGE x, 14, 137 79, 130, 151–2, 154, 160–70,
AFL-CIO x, 66, 107–10, 116, 180–1, 201, 213
132–7, 154–7, 200–2 Base and superstructure 191
African-American workers 109, Bank staff 2, 128
115, 143 Becker, George 113
Agency 152, 170, 204 Benn, Bennism 27, 31, 34,
Aggression, corporate see also 42–4, 48
strategy 5, 35, 67, 84, 86, 100, Betrayal, leadership viii, 14, 32,
104, 114, 182 91, 114, 158, 160, 177, 182,
Airline workers 123, 128, 137, 140, 197, 211, 220
217, 219 Betrayal, sense of 88, 92, 114, 117
Alternative Economic Strategy 44, ‘Big Three’ (Chrysler, Ford, GM)
181, 220 103
Alternative, political 33, 42–3, Black Lung Association 24–5
185–6, 189, 199, 221 Black workers 12, 13, 18, 56
Alternative Work Schedules Blair, Tony 102, 126–7, 131,
110, 114 134–5, 139–41, 145, 149
Ambulance workers 49, 98, 107 ‘Blame the members’ syndrome
Amicus x, 141, 145, 156 162, 167–8, 180
Anti-unionism 35, 45, 63, 73, Bottom-up organising see also
84–5, 95, 136, 139, 143–4, ground-up 153, 158, 203
153, 208 Bridgestone–Firestone 112–13
Anti-union legislation 1, 18–19, British Leyland (BL) x, 33, 58, 60,
27, 32, 37, 54–5, 102, 121, 71, 93, 177–81
131, 136, 139, 141, 143–4, Cowley plant 33, 60, 177–81
150, 153, 167 Longbridge plant 60–1
Apathy, of membership 130, 168 Broad Lefts 165–6
242 Ramparts of Resistance

Building workers 20, 22–3, 41, 66 Collectivism 47, 163, 167,


Bureaucracy, bureaucratisation 2, 194–5, 199
5, 10, 18, 23, 25, 27, 35, 38, 45, Combine Committees 43–4,
58, 60, 71, 73, 151–2, 158–9, 166, 210
160–6, 171, 178, 183, 207 Competitiveness see also ‘viability
Bureaucracy Thesis 40, 158–9, 162 argument’, whipsawing 47,
‘Bureaucratic militancy’ 70–1, 74, 124
201–2, 220 Concessions 45–6, 63–4, 67–8,
Bush, George W. 137–9 86–7, 88–90, 98–9, 125
Business Roundtable 35, 46, 63 Confidence, of working class 11,
26, 36, 183, 218
C2s 85, 188–9 Conservative workers 18, 20, 87,
Californian grocery workers’ strike 92, 117, 188
144, 146 Constant Improvement (Kaizan)
Callaghan, James 34, 50 94, 103, 105
Camp Solidarity 98 Convenors 43, 48, 61, 71, 117,
Carey, Ron 106, 124, 153 169, 178–9, 182
Carter, Jimmy 35, 37, 45, 63, 64 Coordination of struggles, etc
Casino workers 144–6, 219 18–19, 25, 27, 107
Caterpillar Tractors (UK) 75, Cross-class organisation 16, 44,
95–6, 208 210–2
Caterpillar Tractors (US) 111–14, Crow, Bob 141–2
123 CWA x, 99
‘Charade’ of organisation 94–5, 104 CWU xi, 106, 141, 156
Charleston Five 135–6
Chicano workers 98, 146 Decentralisation, of bargaining
Chrysler, Chrysler Bailout 18, 37, 102, 107, 170
46, 64, 93, 103, 191 Democracy
Civil service workers 14, 49, 56, industrial 31, 42, 44, 47
73, 136–7, 141 trade union 2–4, 11, 38, 40, 95,
Class 110, 124, 149–73, 199,
Ruling 6, 11, 46, 57, 76, 100, 219–21
145, 146, 187, 205, 219, 220 Department of Homeland
middle 49, 119 Security 137
working 20–2, 30, 36, 43, 45, 52, Deregulation 35, 46, 63, 102
55–6, 72, 76, 83, 86–7, 92, 96, Detroit Newspaper strike 114–17
119, 126, 131, 135, 159–60, Deunionisation see also union-
170, 181, 183, 188, 192, busting 45, 63
196–7, 202–21 Dockers, longshoremen 19, 21–3,
Class conflict, struggle 2–4, 11, 19, 37, 48, 61, 75, 80–1, 97, 121–2,
25, 30, 36, 42, 44, 46–7, 99, 131, 135–6, 138–9, 150,
145, 160, 172–4, 177, 186–7, 205, 207
190, 196–7, 209, 213, 220–1 Dodge Revolutionary Union
Class consciousness 5, 159, 169, Movement (DRUM) 13
174–97, 205 Donovan Report see also Royal
Clinton, Bill 102, 107, 118 Commission 10, 13, 40, 161
Closure, of plants etc 26–7, 33, 44, Downturn 1974–79 4, 30, 33, 47,
57, 62, 71, 76–9, 82, 96, 119, 175, 212
120–1, 179, 195 Dual power 48, 50, 143, 178
Index 243

Earnings Hayes, Billy 141–2


fall in 21, 30–1, 49, 64 Healey, Denis 50
rise of 10, 76 Health and safety 18, 23, 36,
Economism 1, 7–9, 11, 42–3, 169, 123, 218
175, 196, 202–6 Health workers 2, 12, 28, 33, 56–7,
Edwardes, Michael 71, 179–80 103, 107
EETPU xi, 84, 94 Heath, Edward 21, 28–9, 54–5
Employee Involvement (EI) 46, 70, HERE xi, 136, 154
93–4, 124, 183 High-tech workers 136, 157
Engels, Friedrich 151 Hormel 75, 86–7
Engineering workers 22, 27, 56, Hours of work 33, 65, 88, 96,
118, 123, 128–9 102–3, 138, 168, 184, 218, 220
EPEA xi, 42 Human Resources Management
Equal pay 13, 33 (HRM) 103–4, 107–8
European Works Councils
108, 156 IAM xi, 66
Exploitation 2, 3, 13, 27, 145, IBEW xi, 99
160–1, 163, 184, 190, IBP meatpacking 142–3
193–7, 217 Ideology 1,3, 10, 13, 33, 46, 53,
62, 70, 73, 94, 110, 119, 124,
Farm Labor Organizing Committee 130, 137, 158–60, 162, 171,
(FLOC) xi, 143 174, 176–97, 199, 221
Fatalism 6, 121, 186 absence of 176, 186, 188
FBU xi, 140–1 ILA xi, 135
Firefighters 34, 128, 136, 140–2, ILWU xi, 122, 135, 138–9
145–6, 149 Immigrant workers 63, 106, 109,
Fitzsimmons, Frank 15–16, 38 118, 143, 152
Flexibility, flexible working 94, Incomes policy 11, 28–9,
96–7, 104, 108, 119, 127, 31–5, 159
131, 191 Independence, class 2–3, 159, 161,
Ford, Ford workers 13, 33, 47–8, 170, 207–8
58, 61, 71, 93–4, 98, 103, 128, Inside Strategy 68–9, 93, 111
183, 198–9, 210 Intellectuals 186
Fuel tax revolt 133–5 organic, traditional 210–13
radical 221
Gay and lesbian workers 133, Intensification of labour 17, 71,
215–18 94, 103, 170, 179, 185, 220
GCHQ 73 International Socialists 212, 214
General Motors (GM) xi, 13, Institutionalism 2–4, 38, 110,
16–18, 70, 92, 103–5, 108, 149–73, 202, 209–10
129, 189 ISTC xi, 57–62
Gilchrist, Andy 140
Globalisation, ‘Globaloney’ 101–2, Joint Shop Stewards’ Committees
122, 124, 131–2, 138, 216, 221 (JSSCs) 4, 27, 162, 166,
GMB xi, 118, 141, 156 130, 210
Gramsci, Antonio 187, 195, 212 Jointness, labour-management
Grunwick dispute 41–2, 44, cooperation 70, 92, 104, 108,
45, 167 114, 129–30, 155
Guyette, Jim viii, 87 Jones, Jack 32–4
244 Ramparts of Resistance

Justice for Janitors 109, 202 Miners (UK) 19–21, 28–9, 57,
Just-In-Time working (JIT) 98, 103, 75–83, 119–21, 134, 205,
105, 110, 129, 130 207–8, 217
Miners (US) 23–5, 36–7, 47, 98–9
Kirkland, Lane 66, 109 Miners For Democracy (MFD)
24–5, 37
Labor Notes viii, 40, 124, 130, Monks, John 123
213–15 ‘Moralism’, of workers 5, 60, 62,
Labour governments 10, 11, 29, 83, 91–2, 206–7
31–5, 44, 47–50, 76, 102, MSF x, xi, 118, 141
126–7, 158, 179, 199 Murdoch, Rupert 84–5, 145
Labourism 158–9 Murray, Len 50, 72, 80
Labour process 64, 92, 161,
193–5 NACODS xi, 82–3, 207
Latina, Latino workers 142–3, 216 Nader, Ralph 90
Lean Production 73, 92, 101–7, NALC xi, 93
110, 130, 140, 183, 191 NALGO xi, xiii, 12, 168–9
Left, the 41, 43–5, 78, 133, 181–2, National Health Service (NHS)
204, 214, 218 56–7, 107
Lenin, V.I. 195–7, 198 National Joint Negotiating
Liaison Committee for the Committees (NJNCs) xii, 71
Defence of Trade Unions National Labor Relations Act/Board
(LCDTU) 212 35, 116
LIUNA xi, 154–5 NCU xi, xii, 166
Liverpool dockers’ dispute 121–2, Neoliberalism 5, 45, 50, 53, 63, 82,
150, 207 88, 101–12, 129, 152
Local 14 (IPIU) 87–92 New Directions (TWU) 164–5
Local government workers 12, 97, New Directions (UAW) 93
122, 139, 168 ‘New Realism’ 73, 183
London Underground workers 97, New United Motors Manufacturing
123, 128, 130, 142, 146 Inc. (NUMMI) 103
Lorry drivers 47–50, 60, 80 New Unity Partnership 154
Lucas Plan 43–4 New Voices (AFL-CIO) 109,
Luxemberg, Rosa 187, 195, 210 200–2, 219
NGA xii, 72, 84, 94
Major, John 102 Nissan car plant 94, 140
Management-by-stress 92, 103 Non-union workers 11, 20, 65, 80,
Martinez, Maria 143 108, 111, 135, 156
Marx, Karl 64, 96, 151, 174, 186, North American Free Trade
187, 191–4, 209 Agreement (NAFTA)
Mass meetings 95, 166–7 101, 137
McCluskie, Sam 97 NUPE xii, xiii, 12, 94, 167, 169
McGahey, Mick 78 NUR xii, 97
Media 9, 14, 17–18, 21, 49, 58, 78, NUS xii, 97
81, 84, 95, 123, 129, 136, 139, NUT xii, 12
145, 190–1, 199
Mercury Communications Occupations 4, 23, 26–7, 32–3, 56,
dispute 56 95–6, 129, 171, 208
Michels, Robert 158 Oil tanker drivers 48, 79, 133, 139
Index 245

Organising (recruitment) 109–10, Protest politics 1, 41, 119, 169,


142–3, 151–2, 153–8 206, 218
Organisational forms (unofficial) Public sector 12, 28, 32, 36, 45, 47,
4–5, 149, 166, 209 49–50, 74, 93, 102, 106, 140,
Organizing Institute (AFL-CIO) 155, 169
109 Public Sector Alliance 57
Outsourcing 88, 106
Overview 2, 177, 184, 207–8 Quality of Working Life (QWL)
46–7, 94, 104, 107, 124,
P–9 (UFCW local) viii, 75, 85–87, 183, 189
91, 99 Quality, workers’ concern with
Partnership 101, 108–10, 112, 127, 194–5
155–6, 158, 179, 190, 201–3
Part-time workers 63, 106, 114, Racism 13, 18, 115, 128, 136,
125–6, 155 215–18
PATCO xii, 65–67, 217 Radicalism 31, 41–5, 142, 160,
PCS xii, 141 169, 171–2, 181–2, 184–5, 197,
Pentonville Five 19, 21–3, 205 203–4, 209–10, 214–15, 216,
Permanent replacement workers see 218, 220–1
also ‘scabs’ 63, 86, 88, 99 Rail workers 23, 57, 76, 80, 97, 99,
Phelps Dodge strike 67, 68 120, 123, 128, 139
Pickets, picketing 19–21, 22, 24, Reagan Democrats 131, 188
37, 41, 58–61, 72, 75–6, 78–9, Reagan, Ronald 62–3, 65, 102
81, 83–5, 89, 95, 115, 118, Reaganomics 53
121, 135 Recession 30, 35, 63, 70, 138
Piecework 10, 161–3, 178, 190, Reform caucuses (US) 4, 16, 37,
196–7 164, 210
Pilkington’s Glass Company Reformism 3, 160, 176–7,
13, 207 183–4, 197
Pittston 75, 99, 109 Resurgence 2, 6, 34, 123, 198–9,
POEU xi, xii, 56, 72 204, 221
Politics, of trade unionism 1–5, 11, Retail workers 144, 155
13–14, 15, 16, 43, 87, 134, Revolt from below (US) 23
169–73, 175, 181–3, 186, 189, Ridley Report 54, 61, 78
196–7, 198–9, 205, 213, 217–21 RMT xii 123, 141–2
Postmodernism 190–2 Rogers, Ray 69
Postal workers Rover (BL) 69,
UK 19, 41, 103, 106–7, 123, 128, ‘New Deal’ 104, 108–9
139, 141–2 Royal Commission on Trade Unions
US 13–15, 93, 103, 155 and Employers’ Associations
Power workers 34, 79, 120 1968 10 see also Donovan
Printers 22, 72, 75, 80, 84–5, 118, Report
183, 189
Prior, James 50 Sadlowski, Ed 39
Privatisation 56, 102, 107, 119, Saltley Gates 19–20, 75, 204
127, 128, 130, 141, 170 Saturn (GM) 92, 108, 129–30
Profit, profitability 10, 16, 30, 64, Scabs see also unorganised
70, 102, 123, 143, 179, 182–3, workers 67, 68, 80, 89, 112,
193, 195, 197 117–18
246 Ramparts of Resistance

Scargill, Arthur 19–21, 76–9, 82, Steelworkers 23, 25, 36, 37, 38,
118, 119–20, 134 57–62, 76–7, 80, 132, 150, 155,
Seafarers 23, 34, 41, 48, 75, 96–7 163, 183
Seattle, Battle of 131–3, 150, 217 Steelworkers Fight Back 25, 38–9
Secondary action see also solidarity, Stern, Andy 109, 154
sympathy action 85, 122 Stockport Messenger dispute 56,
SEIU xii, 109, 154, 200–3, 219 72, 84
Service Strikes
sector 63, 74, 126, 170, 194 incidence, statistics 5, 9–10, 30,
workers 12, 140, 143 36, 52, 128–9
Serwotka, Mark 141 unoffficial/unconstitutional 10,
Sexism, sexuality 188, 215–18 32–3, 37, 97, 129, 141, 199
Shah, Eddie 72, 84 see also wildcat strikes
Shifts 110, 112–13, 128, 130, 140 visibility 50, 59, 61, 118
Shop stewards 10–11, 12, 22, 26–7, Strike committees 50, 59, 61, 118
40, 43–4, 60, 70, 93–4, 96, 104, Summer of Discontent 18, 123
156–7, 159–62, 166, 177–83, Sweeney, John 109–10, 154, 200–2
190, 210–12, 217 Symbolic protest, solidarity 41–2,
Simpson, Derek 141, 145, 156 66, 70, 85, 87, 112, 117–23
Single-union (‘sweetheart’) union Sympathy action 59, 66, 81, 141,
deals 94, 156 see also secondary action,
Sirs, Bill 58–9, 77 solidarity
Sit-ins 23, 26–7, 33, 178, 189, see Syndicalism 50
also occupations
Skilled workers 33, 44, 159 Taft Hartley Act 37, 63, 139
Socialism 42–3, 171–3, 181–3, Teachers 12, 32, 49, 128, 137, 139
185–6, 188, 196–7, 214, 219–20 Team briefings 93, 107
Social Contract (UK) 31–5, 51, 56, Team Concept 63, 70, 73–4, 93,
107, 158 103, 124, 183, 189
Social contract (with capital) Teamsters for a Decent Contract
201–3, 220 (TDC) 37–8
Social movement unionism 2, 5, Teamsters for a Democratic Union
200, 202–4, 206, 209, 212, 220 (TDU) 16, 25, 38, 106, 124,
SOGAT xii, 84–5 133, 164, 213
Solidarity 4, 19, 20, 21, 29, 37, 41, Teamster Union Rank and File
46, 48, 55, 56, 59–62, 66, (TURF) 25
79–80, 90, 98, 106, 117–21, Teamsters 13, 15, 16, 23, 36–8,
134, 135, 139, 150, 205, 219 124–6, 132, 143, 144, 154–5,
Solidarity committees 68, 69 164, 217
Solidarity consciousness, unionism Teamsters and Turtles 132, 150
47, 68, 85, 91–2, 99–100, 183, Telecommunications workers
206, 211–12 55–6, 96, 99, 123
Solidarity Day 66, 116 TGWU x, xii, 12, 20, 21–2, 32, 34,
Solidarnosc 73 48, 60–1, 80, 81, 94, 97, 105,
Soviets 4, 50, 210 121, 134, 150, 156, 183
Special Patrol Group (SPG) Thatcher, Margaret 19, 21, 28,
58, 76 50–1, 53–7, 62, 71, 73, 75, 77,
Staley dispute 111–13, 123 79, 81–3, 102, 121, 127, 139,
Steel strike (UK) 57–62, 65, 80 207–8, 220–1
Index 247

Thatcherism 50–2, 53–7, 62, 73, Unemployment 30, 33, 35, 47, 63,
75, 84, 85, 96, 97, 119, 159, 68, 94, 172, 182
188–9 Unfair labor practices 116
Thornett, Alan 34, 178 Union-as-institution 3–4, 149,
Timex strike 118, 123 151–2, 166, 209
Todd, Ron 97 Union-as-movement 3–4, 149,
Toledo Area Solidarity Committee 166, 173
(TASC) 68 Union-busting 45–6, 73, 113
Top-down organising 110, 153, Union effectiveness 4, 160, 166–7,
155, 157 201, 217
Total Quality Management (TQM) Union form 152
104 Union mergers 155, 158
Trades Councils 41–2, 120 Union recognition 35, 45, 56, 73,
Trade Union Act 1984 95, 167 94, 118, 127, 131, 153, 155,
Trade union democracy 3–4, 11, 157, 201
40, 149, 166–9, see also Union Summer 109
democracy Unison xiii, 123, 142, 156
Trade union density 5, 12, 40, United National Caucus (UAW)
152–4, 200 25, 38
Trade union growth 151–4, 156, Unorganised workers see non-union
198, 200 workers
Trade Union News viii, 214 UPIU xiii, 88–91
Trade union power 9, 10, 19, 21, Upper Clyde Shipbuilders (UCS)
51, 54, 139 23, 26
Trade union renewal 2, 130, UPS dispute 124–6, 138
169–70, 172, 200, 211–12, 219 Upsurge 1968–74
Trades Union Congress (TUC) 12, UPW xi, xiii, 41
22, 28, 31, 41, 50, 55–6, 61, URW xiii, 112–13
72–3, 80, 94–5, 108–9, 119–21, USDAW xiii, 123
123, 127, 134, 156 USWA xiii, 38–9, 113, 150, 155
Transitional demands 218
Transnationals Information Velasquez, Baldemar 143
Exchange (TIE) 213–14
Trotsky, Leon 158, 195–6, 218 Wage drift 10
Trust (by workers in capital) 89, Wal-Mart 138, 144, 153
96, 117, 176 Wapping dispute 84–5, 95
TSSA xii, 97 ‘War Zone’ (Illinois) 110–14
Tucker, Jerry 68–9, 93, 111 Waterworkers 49, 57
Twin-track representation 108 Watsonville Canning 75, 98–9
Two-tier pay agreements Weir, Stanley 163
112–14, 144 Wembley Principles 55, 72
TWU xii, 164 Whipsawing 46
White workers, white working class
UAW xiii, 16–18, 25, 38, 46–7, 68, 92, 184–6, 188–9, 216
70, 92–3, 104, 111–13, 115, White-collar workers 12, 97, 142,
129–30, 155, 164 168–9
UFCW xiii, 86–7, 144, 154 Wildcat strikes 13–18, 24–5,
UMWA xiii, 23–5, 36, 39, 36–8
99, 109 Wilson, Harold 199
248 Ramparts of Resistance

Winter of Discontent 35, 40, 45, Workers’ plans 43–4


47–52, 54, 131, 134, 145 Workers’ power 5, 51, 100,
Women Against Pit Closures 198, 220
(WAPC) 120, 205 Work-in (UCS) 26
Women workers 12–13, 26, 33, 37, Working poor 63
56, 63, 67, 83, 98, 109, 118, Workplace Industrial Relations
139–40, 142, 178, 207, 215–17 Survey (WIRS) 102, 128
Work groups 161 World Trade Organisation (WTO)
Worker cooperatives 27, 42 101, 124, 132
Worker participation 43, 179
Workers’ control 44, 69, 220 Yablonski, Jock 24

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