Table Of ContentINDUSTRIAL 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.
