Inaug.-diss.--Zürich.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 1972. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 257-283). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

This report is a study of the development of strategies of political conflict surrounding the Mexican Student Movement of 1968. It analyzes strategies of the students' organization of the National Strike Committee and the Government Party of Revolutionary Institutions (P.R.I.), in order to understand why violent repression was applied by the government to suppress the student group. The understanding of repression is undertaken in a review of the development of governmental structures and the history of conflict in Mexico beginning in 1910. In looking through the history of Mexico and examining the student movement, the report weaves together three theories: 1) the conflict of different political groups in history; 2) the development of a one-party system of government; and 3) the routinized use of repression in political conflict since the Mexican Revolution of 1910. In review of the historical development of the P.R.I., the study indicates that the early period in the 1930's contained an opportunity for a viable political democracy with a control and orderly conflict between interest group on the left and right. The push to a centralized government came from Cárdenas who was sympathetic to the needs of the peasants and workers and whose administration worked on their behalf. But following the leadership of Cárdenas, the presidential successors, Avila Camacho and Alemán, used the Central Party, and by strengthening its control, suppressed labor and peasant movements. It is at this time that the legacy of violence in policy matters is introduced — a strategy of repression in modern Mexican politics. Evidence on the composition of the P.R.I. points to a structure in which control of the government flows, from the top down in a unidirectional manner with little or no influence from the workers, peasants or small businessmen. Representation in the party does not bring with it the ability to participate in the decision making, nor does the populist ideology of the party mean that the masses are able to influence the leadership of the government. This being the case, the problem for the government becomes one of persuasion and control. A chronological account of the events of 1968 reveal that the strategy of the student movement, was that of calling for a public debate with the government in order to provide a means of restoring the influence of the masses of the people upon public officials, and the strategy of the government was to applied physical force through the police and the army in order to avoid a public debate and to quickly eliminate the student movement. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

Thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Zululand, 2002. / The main focus of the study will be based on strike action. Strikes cannot exist without conflict. This reflects that "strike action" and "conflict" are two related concepts. Labour disruptions have been the single most important contributing factor to the record low production figures in the mining industry in the last five years. Prior to the 1994 elections, most strikes were politically inspired and therefore little attention was paid to the needs of the workers. However, management have since realised the importance of seeing to the needs of the workers. A worker who is satisfied with the job and working conditions is less likely to strike than one who is not satisfied. The importance of labour and specifically labour relations has been realised. Labour relations cannot be regarded in isolation. There are a number of external factors which influence labour relations and have to be brought into consideration when reviewing the labour relations climate. The study device certain general guidelines for management to follow when handling strike situations. Amongst the more important findings was the fact that there must be a greater awareness of worker needs, values and objectives. The best way to handle strikes is to prevent them from occurring in the first place. To do this management need to proactively investigate and manage the grievances of the workers. The diversity of cultures in the mining industry contributes to labour unrest in various ways. Workers become frustrated by what some groups consider as the norm. Furthermore, in chapter five research methodology. The questionnaires was distributed to respondents in Spitzkop coal mining industry. Stratified sampling technique was also applied in this research to minimize loss of data from respondents and economize in terms of spending money. This method only uses the readily available respondents (stratum form). In data analysis frequency and chi-square statistics was used to demonstrate management and worker responses and attitudes to the strike. Management need to have a formalised strike plan, which would contribute towards more efficient handling of strikes. Management should be proactive in their approach to strikes, rather than reactive. Part of this proactive process by management is the constant monitoring of working conditions to see what further types of improvements can be introduces to minimize adverse effects of strike. There should be good communication between management and workers at all times. Open communication is strengthened by worker involvement in decision-making.

No description available.

No description available.

This study broadly assesses the role played by political factors in the widespread union crises that occurred in many Western capitalist democracies during the 1980s. Specifically examined are the effects of state labor law policies on union strike effectiveness in Great Britain and the United States. Three case studies of union strikes in Great Britain reveal that the Thatcher administration's legislative restructuring of industrial relations had a significant impact in exacerbating the crisis of British unions as the 1980s progressed. Three case studies of union strikes in the United States reveal that the Reagan administration's interpretive restructuring of an existing statutory framework played a relatively insignificant role in the crisis of American unions during the 1980s. Overall, because of political and institutional variations across the two countries, the organized labor movements in Great Britain and the United States could be characterized as undergoing qualitatively distinct crises during the 1980s. This finding has implications for broader theoretical arguments regarding an inevitable convergence of union decline across Western capitalist democracies. / Ph. D.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1970. / Typewritten.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1970. / Also available in print.

This thesis examines strike activity in the United States from 1881 to 1972. Although part of its aim is simply to describe and analyse trends of activity, its main concern is sociological: the explication and testing of the theory of the institutionalisation of industrial conflict. Since official statistics on strikes are the basic data employed, chapter one considers the problems with the use of such statistics. Phenomenologists criticise the use of all official data, on the grounds that there is no 'true' distribution of social phenomena independent from the reality of everyday life, and that official figures are merely records of bureaucratic procedures. But, unlike crime statistics, strike figures measure a true distribution of activity. They simply record how often labour-management disputes develop into collective and complete stoppages of work; the strike is a category used in everyday life and its meaning as a tactical weapon in disputes is clear. Although the strike, as a 'stoppage of work to express a grievance or enforce a demand', cannot be defined independently from actors' meanings and intentions, this intentionality aspect is not a crucial problem: given the strike's role in the employment relationship, the inferring of intentions is not difficult. The main problems are practical; for example, it is hard to know where one strike ends and another begins. Such problems can be by-passed, however, if we concentrate on trends in activity. Since the different American recording agencies have used very similar definitions and procedures, their data are statistically reliable, especially for workers involved and 'days lost' in strikes. Their validity is more questionable, but, since we are concerned with trends and not with strike statistics as indices of the absolute amount of conflict at one time, we may proceed to use the official data, although considerable caution will be required regarding information on such things as the 'causes' of strikes. Chapter two examines the theory of the institutionalisation of industrial conflict. Its 'conventional' version, developed to its fullest extent by industrial relations writers of the 1950s, argues that institutions will grow up to channel and thus to control conflicts of these institutions, collective bargaining is the most important. As unions and management learn to co-operate, strikes become tactical weapons in the bargaining process and lose any wider political significance; not only are they institutionally controlled, but their frequency and intensity fall as institutional means are found for the resolution of conflict. One strand of the conventional view stresses the importance of industrialisation for the amount of conflict; in the 'early' period activity will be high because of the disruption caused by rapid industrial change, but subsequently workers will become accustomed to industry, and conflict will become less intense. This view is taken up by Shorter and Tilly in their book Strikes in France 1830-1968. They set out to chart the course of strikes from 'early' to 'modern' forms of protest and, although they criticise previous writings on the effect of industrialisation, can be taken as giving a distinct variant of the institutional isat ion theory. They stress the political role of the strike and thus widen the scope of the theory; and, in arguing for a transformation of the strike into a political demonstration instead of an economic battle, they follow the broad lines of the theory. Finally, a 'radical' version of the theory is identified. This grew up in response to the conventional line and argues that institutionalisation has not taken place on equal terms; there is a fundamental inequality of power in capitalist societies which has meant that the trade unions have been incorporated into the system on terms set by employers and the government. Workers have become enmeshed in a system over which they have little real control. This set of theories, being concerned with long-term trends in labour relations, is clearly suitable for testing against strike data. The central prediction is that the frequenty and duration of activity will decline as instituionalisation progresses, and strikes will also become more 'predictable' and 'orderly'. A weaker argument is that the effect of institutionalisation on industrial conflict will be contingent on economic circumstancesj we must therefore examine economic influences on strikes and whether any change in their impact can be attributed to instituional developments. It is also necessary to examine trends within industries and regions, to see if trends at a more detailed level than that revealed by the aggregate statistics support the instituionalisation theory. Chapter three tests the theory against the data on strike trends for 1881-1972. The notable feature of American strikes has been their failure to change 'shape': their frequency, size and duration have remained remarkably constant. This basic finding sets the framework within which all other results must be examined. Thus the observed rise in union involvement in strikes fits the theory's predictions, but does not counteract the fundamental weakness of the view that the amount of conflict will decline. Trends in the issues in strikes show the expected increase in strikes for union recognition during the 1930s, when collective bargaining was being established nationally, but these recognition strikes have not disappeared subsequently. Within industries, one would expect activity to peak when bargaining was being established, but to decline thereafter; but an examination of long-term trends in several sectors showed that such a pattern was unusual. Similarly, regional trends in activity do not fit the institutional isat ion model. Thus, changes in activity cannot be explained by either of the processes identified by the 'conventional' theory, namely collective bargaining and industrialisation. Neither is it possible to suggest that trends towards institutionalisation will be limited to particular industries or regions. Chapter four investigates the more subtle argument that the nature of economic and other influences on strike activity will be affected by the degree of institutionalisation. Thus the period 1946-72, during which institutionalised relations have been established, is compared with two earlier periods, representing the years of rapid industrialisation (1881-1910) and the period when bargaining was not institutionalised (1900-39). Using a multiple regression framework, the overall explanatory power of the economic determinants of strike activity does not vary markedly between these periods; but there is some evidence to suggest that the direction of the influence of particular variables has changed. The fact that a change occurred fits the institutionalisation model, but the precise direction of the change cannot be explained by it. Strike activity has been broadly influenced by economic conditions, but this link has not been direct; strikes are associated not with the current unemployment rate but with measures of the height and depth of previous business cycles. A general, and not an immediate, influence is at work. Shorter and Tilly expect that the degree of working class organisation will be the crucial variable intervening between economic conditions and strikes, and that strikes up to the New Deal should reflect political and not economic influences. Detailed examination of several models of strike activity suggests that these expectations are unfounded; the influence of union density on strikes has been relatively weak, and political and economic variables have not operated in the predicted directions.