University of California at Berkeley, Center for German and European Studies

Considerations on the Evolution of the French and American Industrial Societies
February l9-23, 1996
University of California Berkeley

Strikes, the Welfare State, and Union Strategies in the Postwar Period: What Can Be Learned From the French Experience?

Monique Borrel Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley

Working Paper 5.45

From the beginning of the industrial era to the present time, French social history has been characterized by recurrent strikes of great magnitude. Contrary to most postwar industrialized countries where large strikes ceased to play a key role in sociopolitical changes, the French case presents an important anomaly. This research demonstrates that strikes have been instrumental in reshaping French society since the early 1950s. First, strike waves and generalized disputes supported the rapid expansion of the Welfare State throughout the postwar period. They also prompted leftist parties and unions to achieve coordination in their strategies and to orchestrate national demonstration strikes, which resulted in the emergence of a leftist electoral majority. Besides, the 1968 strike waves and the leftist strategy to achieve political power supported the upward trend in unionization in the 1970s. Beginning in the early 1980s, this French pattern of strikes has resulted in a number of perverse effects that account for the crisis of the mid1990s. In that respect, the French experience supports the idea that advanced industrial societies cannot afford recurrent general strikes without damaging the very fabric of democracy and without jeopardizing their economic future.

The Strikes of 1995: A Crisis of the French Model?

Stephen Bornstein Dept. of Political Science, McGill University, Montreal Pierre-Eric Tixier Institut d'Études Politiques and Director, GlP-Mutations Industrielles, Paris

Working Paper 5.46

From late November through mid-December 1995, France experienced a wave of strikes that came close to shutting down the entire country. While this movement has similarities with the various earlier strike waves that have dotted the pages of recent French history - 1936, 1947, 1953, 1968, 1986 - it was also different from its precursors in puzzling and fascinating ways. In the present paper, we take as our point of departure what we see as four puzzles that emerge from a comparative examination of the strikes. After setting out these puzzles, we address each of them in turn, using them to help elucidate the logic of the strike movement and to tease out its implications for the nature and the future of social relations and political development in France. France's unique constellation of highly centralized policy networks, powerful traditions of industrial protest alongside weak and fragmented unions, and under-institutionalized industrial relations at all levels is even more ill-suited to the challenges of the coming years that it was to those of the recent past, and it appears likely to become increasingly costly as the pressures of global competition and the requirements of continued European integration intensify. Yet, there seems to be little chance that an alternative model can be developed soon.

An Impossible French Social Compromise? The Firm as the Basis of Social Regulation

Pierre-Eric Tixier Institut d'Études Politiques and Director, GlP-Mutations Industrielles, Paris

Working Paper 5.47

The situation in France today, in terms of social and labor relations, shows signs of unusual disarray. An index of this disarray is the current rate of unemployment, one of the highest in Europe. At the same time, France's workforce also has, in comparison to these same countries, the lowest rate of unionization. Might we conjecture that the extreme difficulties evident with regard to social regulation in France--difficulties made manifest by the recent conflicts of 1995--stem from the burden that the country's institutional framework places on attempts to formulate social compromises? The hypothesis we are advancing to account for such a situation is that three forms of attempted social compromise coexist. They are: a neo-corporatist model; a corporatist model based on unionization and defined trades or professions; and a more recent development--a new type--a micro-corporatist model. Each is visible in certain large French firms. None has proved totally successful. None has emerged as the dominant model. To analyze this confusing situation, we will examine three industrial firms, all historically tied to the State, where management has vigorously implemented policies designed to modernize the firm's system of labor relations. Such an approach can allow us to assess each of these models as a possible framework for the construction of a viable system of social regulation.

Win the Lottery or Organize: Economic Restructuring and Union Organizing in Silicon Valley

Chris Benner Dept. of City and Regional Planning University of California, Berkeley

Working Paper 5.48

Economic restructuring in Silicon Valley over the last twenty years has led to a highly bifurcated society, with little social mobility between low and high strata of the society. The occupational structure of the electronics industry itself and the divisions of labor between the high-technology industry and related services industries have produced a bifurcated labor market, with inequality largely structured on ethnic and gender lines. In this environment, traditional models of labor organizing in the electronics sector have been ineffective. Other models of organizing, however, provide more hope for marginalized workers. These newer models are more effective at linking organizing efforts in the community and the workplace, workplace occupational safety and health issues including broader issues of toxic dumping, as well as the breaking down of divisions between the public and private sphere, bringing greater public oversight of private sector hiring practices.

Organizing the Other Half of Teaching

Julia E. Koppich Dept. of Education, University of California, Berkeley

Working Paper 5.49

America's teacher unions today are at a crossroad. They face a period of simultaneous strength and vulnerability. Unions appear strong because they are the most stable and well organized constituency of the institution of education. However, teachers' unions, like education itself, face a clear challenge. The task for unions lies not in sustaining the existing institution of education but in helping to construct the new one. This paper describes a new labor relations design. Among the components of the new unionism is the creation of a new, flexible labor market for teachers. Teachers and their unions would organize around career security rather than job security. This reconceptualized labor relations system would require fundamental revision of the nature and substance of written labor-management agreements and all of these changes would be enshrined in a new labor law fitted to the new system.

Firm-Based Training in the United States: Implications for the Education and Training "System"

W. Norton Grubb Dept. of Education, University of California, Berkeley

Working Paper 5.50

During the past two decades, the various economic problems of the United States have stimulated a large debate about its causes and, therefore, its potential cures. While some of the causes may be beyond public manipulation, others seem amenable to intervention. Among them are the provision of education and training for employment. In one corner, a discussion has taken place about the amount and type of training that firms provide their workers. The general consensus is that American firms provide too little training. In another corner, there have been discussions about using firm-based training to reinvigorate the schooling system. However, the school-to-work "movement" faces a series of issues --including the issue of how to attract enough employers--that are similar to those of increasing the amount of firm-based training generally. This paper reviews some of the evidence about firmbased training in the United States, the reasons for its low level, and recent proposals to link firm-based training more closely with school-based learning.

Learning to Earn All Over Again: Current Issues in Vocational Education and Training in the United States

Norton Grubb Dept. of Education, University of California, Berkeley

Working Paper 5.51

The "system" of work-related education and training education those that consciously prepare individuals for relatively specific occupations that do not require a baccalaureate degree - has become increasingly complex and variegated. Some of these changes have taken place in response to the climate of urgency around education reform initiated by A Nation at Risk, a report with particularly urgent language. This paper reviews the major recent developments in the American educational system. It focuses on the three most important elements of the educational system that explicitly prepare individuals for the workplace at levels below the baccalaureate degree, i.e. vocational education at the secondary level, occupational education at the postsecondary level, in community colleges and technical institutes, and short-term job training programs. This paper also discusses the central dilemma of how it is possible to move toward reform of a complex education and training system within a political and economic atmosphere committed to individualism and laissez-faire.