Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables and Figures
- List of Authors and Editors
- Introduction: Labor in the Era of Globalization
- PART ONE POLITICAL ECONOMY AND LABOR MARKET INSTITUTIONS
- PART TWO INSTITUTIONS AND FIRM AND WORKER BEHAVIOR
- PART THREE CONTEMPORARY LABOR–MANAGEMENT RELATIONS
- 7 The New Treaty of Detroit: Are VEBAs Labor's Way Forward?
- 8 Symphony Musicians and Symphony Orchestras
- 9 Wage Effects of Works Councils and Collective Agreements in Germany
- 10 Apprentice Strikes, Pay Structure, and Training in the Twentieth-Century UK Metalworking Industry
- PART FOUR PUBLIC POLICY AND U.S. LABOR-MARKET STRUCTURE
- Index
- References
10 - Apprentice Strikes, Pay Structure, and Training in the Twentieth-Century UK Metalworking Industry
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
By
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables and Figures
- List of Authors and Editors
- Introduction: Labor in the Era of Globalization
- PART ONE POLITICAL ECONOMY AND LABOR MARKET INSTITUTIONS
- PART TWO INSTITUTIONS AND FIRM AND WORKER BEHAVIOR
- PART THREE CONTEMPORARY LABOR–MANAGEMENT RELATIONS
- 7 The New Treaty of Detroit: Are VEBAs Labor's Way Forward?
- 8 Symphony Musicians and Symphony Orchestras
- 9 Wage Effects of Works Councils and Collective Agreements in Germany
- 10 Apprentice Strikes, Pay Structure, and Training in the Twentieth-Century UK Metalworking Industry
- PART FOUR PUBLIC POLICY AND U.S. LABOR-MARKET STRUCTURE
- Index
- References
Summary
“… inappropriate wage structures contribute to labor shortages … compressed wage differentials depress the incentive not only of workers to take training in higher skills, but of management to offer such training.”
(Ulman 1968: 372)INTRODUCTION
A noteworthy feature of the history of both vocational training and industrial relations in the United Kingdom is the high strike propensity of apprentices (i.e., young people engaged in work-based learning for craft occupations) in the metalworking industry during the middle of the last century. Between 1937 and 1964, seven actions launched by apprentices were sufficiently large and protracted to be termed strike movements, in that they spread across various districts, drew in many thousands of young people, and lasted for several weeks. In all cases, the apprentices acted largely autonomously, primarily in pursuit of higher pay for young males, the employment category that they dominated. The strikes were exceptional in that, although they had antecedents, they were largely confined to metalworking, and they had few counterparts in other sectors and countries with apprenticeship training, including the United States.
Although some of the apprentice disputes have been discussed by social historians, they have been largely ignored in the literature on industrial relations, industrial training and vocational education. One reason for their neglect may be that their interpretation is not straightforward. From an economics–industrial-relations standpoint, the strikes may be viewed as just another category of industrial dispute, involving standard reciprocal threats of economic damage.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Labor in the Era of Globalization , pp. 317 - 350Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009
References
, and (1999a). “Beyond Becker: Training in Imperfect Labor Markets.” Economic Journal 109: F112–F142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and (1999b). “The Structure of Wages and Investment in General Training.” Journal of Political Economy 107, 3: 539–572.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1964). Human Capital. New York: National Bureau of Economic Research/University of Chicago.Google Scholar
, , and (2007). “Workplace Industrial Relations in Britain, 1980–2004.” Industrial Relations Journal 38, 4: 285–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1972). Funktionswandel des Streiks im Spätkapitalismus: am Beispiel des Lehrlingsstreikrechts. Frankfurt: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag.Google Scholar
, and (1993). “Trade Unions, Relative Wages, and the Employment of Young Workers.” European Journal of Political Economy 9: 333–355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2004). “Industrial Relations and the Economy.” In and (eds.), The Cambridge Economic History of Britain (Volume 3, Chapter 15). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
, , , , and (1997). The Individualisation of Employment Contracts in Britain. Relations Research Series 4. London: Department of Trade and Industry.Google Scholar
, and (1978). “The Changing Nature of National Wage Agreements.” Scottish Journal of Political Economy 25, 2: 119–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and (1984). “Pay Determination in Britain in the 1980s: The Anatomy of Decentralization.” Oxford Review of Economic Policy 7, 1: 44–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1967). Industrial Relations in the British Printing Industry: The Quest for Security. London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
(1998). “Berkeley Graduate Student Strike.” Available at www.econ161.berkeley.edu/Comments/berkeley_strike.html.
(2004). Twenty-First Century Apprenticeships: End to End Review of the Delivery of Modern Apprenticeships. London: Department for Education and Skills.Google Scholar
(1968). Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers' Associations. Report, Cmnd 3623. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
, , and (1983). Strikes in Post-War Britain: A Study of Stoppages of Work due to Industrial Disputes, 1946–73. London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
(1991). “Industrial Conflict: Themes and Issues in Recent Research.” British Journal of Industrial Relations 30, 3: 361–404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1989). “Why Apprenticeship Persisted in Britain but Not in the United States.” Journal of Economic History 44, 2: 337–349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1943). “Record of Proceedings of Central and Special Conferences, 1943.” Modern Record Centre, University of Warwick.
, , and (1983). Unionism, Economic Stabilization, and Income Policies. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
(1995). “The Decline of Apprenticeship Training in Britain.” British Journal of Industrial Relations 26, 1: 32–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and (1975). “Engineering Earnings in Britain, 1914–68.” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A, 138, Part 1: 32–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1996). Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and (1973). Gewerkschaften und Klassenkampf: Kritisches Jahrbuch. Frankfurt: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag.Google Scholar
(1986). “Apprentice Training Costs in British Manufacturing Establishments: Some New Evidence.” British Journal of Industrial Relations 24, 3: 333–362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and (2003). “Graduate Student Unionization: Catalysts and Consequences.” Review of Higher Education 26, 2: 187–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and (1996). “Apprenticeship Training and Day Release in UK Engineering: Some Cross-Sectional Evidence.” British Journal of Industrial Relations 34, 2: 307–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1984). “Down with Lloyd George”: The Apprentices' Strike of 1912.” Scottish Labour History Society Journal 19: 22–36.Google Scholar
(1981). “Skill, Craft and Class: A Theoretical Critique and a Critical Case.” Sociology 15, 1: 56–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , and (1990). Scheming for Youth: A Study of YTS in the Enterprise Culture. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.Google Scholar
, and (1981). “The Effects of Minimum Wages on Human Capital Formation.” In (ed.), The Economics of Legal Minimum Wages (pp. 155–173). Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute.Google Scholar
, and (2009). “Does External Inspection Under-Rate Apprenticeship Training by Employers? Evidence from England.” Empirical Research in Vocational Education and Training 1, 1: 44–68.Google Scholar
(1960). Apprenticeship: An Enquiry into its Adequacy under Modern Conditions. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
(1975). “The Demand for Apprentice Recruits in the Engineering Industry, 1951–71.” Scottish Journal of Political Economy 22, 1: 1–24.Google Scholar
(1990), “Towards a Theory of British Economic Decline: The Case of Shipbuilding, 1890–1970.” Working Paper No. 148, Kellogg Institute, University of Notre Dame.
, , and (2003). “General Training by Firms, Apprentice Contracts and Public Policy.” European Economic Review 47: 197–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and (1991). “Initial Training, Labor Market Structure and Public Policy: Intermediate Skills in British and German Industry.” In (ed.), International Comparisons of Vocational Education and Training for Intermediate Skills (pp. 251–285). Lewes: Falmer Press.Google Scholar
(2000). “‘Every Factory our Fortress’: Communist Party Workplace Branches in a Time of Militancy, 1956–79.” Historical Studies in Industrial Relations 10: 9–139.Google Scholar
(1986). “From Industrial Serf to Wage Laborer: The 1937 Apprentice Revolt in Britain.” International Review of Social History 32, 1: 1–18.Google Scholar
(1983). “Alternative Models of Apprentice Recruitment with Special Reference to the British Engineering Industry.” Applied Economics 15, 1: 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and (2000). All Change at Work? British Employment Relations 1980–98. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
(1959). 15 to 18: Report of the Central Advisory Committee on Education (England). London: HMSO.Google Scholar
, and (2001). “Minimum Wages and Training Revisited.” Journal of Labor Economics 19, 3: 563–595.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1993). “The End of Institutional Industrial Relations.” Political Quarterly 64, 1: 6–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1987). “Trade Unionism and the Pay of Young Workers.” In (ed.), From School to Unemployment? The Labor Market for Young People. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
(1994). “Training Quality and Trainee Exploitation.” In , , and (eds.), Britain's Training Deficit (pp. 92–124). Avebury: Aldershot.Google Scholar
(1995). “Trade Union Policies towards the Youth Training Scheme: Patterns and Causes.” British Journal of Industrial Relations 33, 1: 1–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1999). “The Embedding of Apprenticeship in Industrial Relations: British Engineering, 1925–65.” In and (eds.), Apprenticeship: Towards a New Paradigm of Learning (pp. 41–60). London: Kogan Page.Google Scholar
(2000). “The Institutional Requirements of Apprenticeship: Evidence from Smaller EU Countries.” International Journal of Training and Development 4, 1: 42–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2004). “Apprentice Strikes in the Twentieth Century UK Engineering and Shipbuilding Industries.” Historical Studies in Industrial Relations 18: 1–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and (2007). “Large Employers and Apprenticeship Training in Britain.” British Journal of Industrial Relations 45, 1: 127–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and (2001). “Apprenticeship in the British ‘Training Market’.” National Institute Economic Review 178: 99–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1994). The Missing Stratum: Technical School Education, 1900–1990s. London: Athlone Press.Google Scholar
(1991). Training in a Cold Climate. Sussex: Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex.Google Scholar
(1950). Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration in Great Britain. London: George Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
(1994a). “A Theoretical Model of On-the-Job Training with Imperfect Competition.” Oxford Economic Papers 46, 4: 537–562.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1994b). “An Investment Model for the Supply of Training by Employers.” Economic Journal 104: 556–570.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1996). “Transferable Training and Poaching Externalities.” In and (eds.), Acquiring Skills (pp. 19–40). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2004). How Institutions Evolve: The Political Economics of Skills in Germany, Britain, the United States, and Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and (2005). Apprentice Pay: A Survey of Earnings by Sector. Research Report 674, Department for Education and Skills. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
(1968). “Collective Bargaining and Industrial Efficiency.” In (ed.), Britain's Economic Prospects(pp. 324–380). London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
(1974). “Connective Bargaining and Competitive Bargaining.” Scottish Journal of Political Economy 21, 2: 97–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and (1980). The Craftsman in Engineering. Research Report 8. Watford: Engineering Industry Training Board.Google Scholar
(1976). The Clouded Vision: The Student Movement in the United States in the 1960s. Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses.Google Scholar
(1973). The Power to Manage: A History of the Engineering Employers' Federation. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1983). “The Labor Strategies of British Engineering Employers, 1890–1922.” In and (eds.), Management Strategies and Industrial Relations (pp. 25–54). London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
(2008). “Re-forming Skills in British Engineering, 1900–40: A Contingent Failure.” Historical Studies in Industrial Relations 25/26: 19–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 1
- Cited by