Capitalism and the Political Economy of Work Time by Hermann Christoph

Author:Hermann, Christoph
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781317596332
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

However, the Flint sit-down strike was still a major breakthrough for the union movement. With similar successes in other companies, UAW membership soared by more than ten times between 1936 and 1937.93 Overall, American unions won five million new members between 1933 and 1937, at least half of them during just a few months in 1937. And another four million workers joined the trade union movement during the Second World War.94 The war in several regards helped to consolidate the still fragile system of industrial relations: the War Labor Board (WLB) encouraged employers to bargain with unions, partly by offering them large government contracts. Such a contract, no doubt, played an important role in convincing Ford to accept the striking UAW as a bargaining partner in 1941. At the same time, the WLB pressed unions to accept management prerogatives – including the right to order overtime – which they had challenged in the violent struggles of the 1930s.

The Great Depression arrived in France later than in other countries. By 1931, however, the economy had dropped into severe recession. Before long the dire economic situation turned into a political upheaval. In the wake of a series of bankruptcies and plant closures, anger and frustration resulted in mass factory occupations, strikes, and mass rallies. The protest movement led to the election of a left wing government in 1936. The head of the Front Populaire, Léon Blum, had promised to “solve the crisis of unemployment by judiciously redistributing the available work among all the workers.”95 The new government kept its promise and reduced work time to 40 hours a week in 1936. At the same time the new legislation also introduced two weeks of paid vacation.96 Steve Jefferys argues that while reflecting the temporary weakness of French employers, the 40-hour law was “essentially politically driven rather than the outcome of workers’ demands.” Work time, according to Jefferys, was “no major rallying [issue] for French workers devastated by the loss of 1.3 million industrial jobs between 1931 and 1936.”97 But politicians and trade union leaders such as the president of the CGT, Léon Johaux, promoted the 40-hour week precisely as a remedy for mounting unemployment. The law mentioned the struggle against unemployment and the necessity that workers profit from technological progress; it also made reference to the international 40-hour convention of 1935, and concluded that “this law is claimed by the world of workers.”98

Work time fell quickly in light of the new regulation. In early 1937, 3.5 million industrial workers had already reduced their work time to 40 hours per week; and by September 1938, “it was in theory nearly universal.”99 Employment in establishments with more than 100 workers immediately increased by more than 10 percent, while average yearly work hours fell by 400 hours between 1935 and 1937.100 The law was implemented through a series of decrees adopted for each industry through detailed timetables, “ruling out any variation in the schedule and any individual arrangement.”101 The approach is reminiscent of the industry codes adopted during the NRA in the United States.

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