INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS A MARXIST INTRODUCTION By the same author THE WORKERS' UNION MARXISM AND THE SOCIOLOGY OF TRADE UNIONISM DISPUTES PROCEDURE IN ACTION STRIKES SOCIAL VALUES AND INDUSTRIAL-RELATIONS THE NEW WORKING CLASS ? ( ed. with Robert Price) INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS A Marxist Introduction RICHARD HYMAN M MACMILLAN © Richard Hyman 1975 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission First edition 1975 Reprinted 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984 Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LT O London and Basingstoke Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 978-0-333-18667-1 ISBN 978-1-349-15623-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-15623-8 for judy: partner and comrade Contents Preface IX Introduction 1 1 What is Industrial Relations? 9 2 Trade Union Structure 32 3 Union Policy and Union Democracy 64 4 Gapital and Industrial Relations 94 5 Ideology and the State 121 6 Rank-and-File Organisation and Action 150 7 Conflict and Accommodation : the Dialectics of Industrial Relations 185 Guide to Further Reading 205 Bibliography 211 Index 219 Preface Research and analysis in industrial relations usually start from the assumption that stable and orderly relationships between employers and workers are normal and self-evidently desirable. Much of the literature is explicitly designed to advise managers how to maintain a tractable labour force. The Marxist focus on class struggle and workers' self-activity is therefore alien to the most commonly disseminated perspectives on industrial relations. Understandably, the very concept of 'industrial relations' is regarded with suspicion by Marxists : 'the consecrated euphemism for the permanent conflict, now acute, now subdued, between capital and labour' (Miliband 1969: 80).* This has not inhibited some Marxists from criticising the mystification and apologetics displayed by much of the literature. But the critics themselves tend to accept their opponents' battleground, by confronting par ticular aspects of the current orthodoxy in a piecemeal and nega tive manner. None has attempted to set out an integrated alter native approach, rooted in more general Marxist theory. This then is the aim of the present book. The intention is to ~ketch an approach which grasps 'industrial relations' as an ele ment in a totality of social relations of production. Because of the focus on theory, the development of a framework for analysis, no attempt is made to provide a comprehensive survey of the em pirical detail of industrial relations or the views of other writers - though the text deals partially with both. My intellectual debts are twofold. Whatever understanding of Marxism I can claim I owe to the writings of Marx and Engels *References and quotations in the text give author and date of publi cation, together {where appropriate) with the page(s) cited. Details of publication are given in the Bibliography. X Preface themselves, of Lenin, Luxemburg, 'Trotsky, Lukacs, Gramsci and a host of others; to discussions with many fine comrades in the course of a number of years in the socialist movement; and to the lessons of workers themselves engaged in struggle. Most that I know about British industrial relations I have learned from teachers, colleagues, students and trade unionists. Since in this book I focus on many points of mutual disagreement, it is appro priate to record how much I owe to Hugh Clegg, whose com pendious knowledge and unrelenting critical eye have done much over the years to sharpen my own presentation of controversial interpretations. In writing this particular book I have benefited from the criticisms of a number of colleagues, many of whom are unsympathetic to its basic argument. In seeking to develop a Marxist perspective for the intro ductory reader I have been faced by two problems which I cannot claim to have resolved satisfactorily. The first is that Marxism is far from monolithic : but most of the differences of interpretation and subtleties of analysis have had to be neglected here. The second is conceptual. The categories which form the normal framework of academic analysis and everyday discourse (and not merely in industrial relations) are often superficial, and fail to permit adequate analysis of key social processes and relationships. For this reason, Marxists have developed concepts and terminology which are often strange and even uncomprehen sible to the uninitiated. Because of the introductory level of this book I have attempted to employ everyday language as far as possible; and for this reason, some Marxists may accuse me of oversimplification. The Guide to Further Reading at the end of the book points to more varied and more developed Marxist treatment of many of the issues covered in the text. May this book soon become redundant : first by stimulating more, and better, Marxist scholarship in industrial relations; second, and far more important, by the abolition of 'industrial relations' as it exists today through working-class struggle. R.H. Coventry, February 1975 Introduction Until quite recently, industrial relations was1 usually regarded as one of the least exciting areas of social analysis. It normally took some major breakdown between employers and unions-and these were far from common-before press and television showed much interest in the processes of collective bargaining. Leaving aside those professionally involved in industrial relations, serious students of the subject were few and far between, and often regarded with some puzzlement by their academic colleagues. In the last few years this situation has been transformed -for reasons some of which are discussed later. Whereas practitioners of industrial relations used to regret the neglect of their activities in the media, today they are more likely to complain of excessive attention. Relations between unions, employers and the state have been elevated to the status of a central social and political issue. University departments of industrial relations have bur geoned. In such courses as sociology and economics-at degree, diploma and even GCE level-growing attention is given to the subject. This book is intended to provide a short and readable introduction to industrial relations for the increasing numbers of such students. At the same time it is designed with the general reader in mind-and in particular for those whose activities in factory, shop or office provide the matter which others analyse and investigate. The aim of the book is explicitly theoretical. Perhaps this calls for an explanation, for 'theory' is something of a dirty word in this country. The English, wrote Tawney, 'are incurious as to 'Should it be 'industrial relations were'? It is doubtless grammatically odd, but when the concept 'industrial relations' is used to designate the area of study it is normally treated as singular rather than plural.