Between Craft and Class: Skilled Workers and Factory Politics in the United States and Britain, 1890-1922.

Between Craft and Class: Skilled Workers and Factory Politics in the United States and Britain, 1890-1922.

Between Craft and Class Provides an incisive new look at workers’ response to the momentous economic changes surrounding them in the early years of the twentieth century. In this work, Jeffrey Haydu focusses on the reaction of skilled metalworkers to new production methods which threatened time honored craft traditions. He finds that the workers' responses to the industrial change varied-some defended the status quo, while others agreed to trade customary rules for the economic rewards. Under some conditions class protest arose, as workers of diverse skills and trades joined to demand a greater voice in the management of Industry. The difference between craft and class explores how broadly based movements for workers' control developed during this critical period, and why they ultimately failed. Haydu argues that the actions of workers cannot be explained solely by examining workers' interests or their rhetoric. Instead, one must look at the specific conditions that led to collective actions. He isolates several key forces that had an impact on struggles for the workers’ control, including the characteristics of the labor process, the dynamics of industrial relations, and the nature of rank-and-file organizations, Movements for workers’ control developed on the basis of local and shop floor organizations which combined workers of different skills and supported action in defiance of union and employer policies. Such organizations emerged to meet practical needs, but they also created a favorable terrain for mobilizing a democratic challenge to manage authority.

University of California

University of California

1988

PDF

English

1890-1922

Paper