Conference paper

Labor Unions, Industrial Action, and Politics

Marino Regini

Abstract

After two decades of weakness, in the seventies labor unions deeply transformed industrial relations and became the emergent actor in Italian politics. From 1969 to the early seventies, they fostered rank-and-file mobilization, decentralization of decisions, radical demands and forms of conflict; they also tried to bargain social reforms with the government. Later on, they slowly re-centralized their structure and bargaining, and tried to exchange moderation in demands with control over investments and influence over economic policies. Unions’ changing behavior must be seen as an adjustment to different resources available and to different constraints upon their action. But these is a substantial continuity in the strategic goals they have been pursuing in the post-WWII period. These are: public/social control of the economy; ability to influence the political system; ability to gain or maintain general class representation.

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

156039

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/156039

Publication date:

31.12.1979.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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