|
Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
|
Labor Studies Journal, Vol. 32, No. 1,
41-59 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0160449X06298888
© 2007 United Association for Labor Education
Fighting MarketizationAn Analysis of Municipal Manual Labor in the United Kingdom and the United States
Whyeda Gill-McLure
University of Derby, Great Britain
As public-service unions and workers struggle against privatization, they must emphasize that their labor is distinctive because it produces use-values composed of concrete, unquantifiable labor. Use-value production responds to social needs and permits the development of a "public service ethos." Market mechanisms are continually eroding public-service labor and welfare services in an effort to reduce their value to that of a commodity. Case study evidence presented here shows that such marketization causes job loss, casualization, intensification, and loss of worker morale. Workers and unions have fought hard to overcome the worst effects of contracting out by cooperating with other unions, with sympathetic managers, and with the local community. To keep their service from deteriorating, they can argue that municipal labor is distinctive. The article relates the findings and arguments to municipal manual labor in the United States.
Key Words: municipal services • neoliberal reforms • privatization • deterioration of service • commodification of labor • municipal labor • labor unions • labor/ community coalitions to fight privatization
References
- Adler, Moshe. 1999. Been there, done that! The privatization of street cleaning in nineteenth century New York. New Labor Forum (spring/summer): 88—99.
- Allen, V.L. 1966. Militant trade unionism: A re-analysis of industrial action in an inflationary situation. London: Merlin.
- Audit Commission. 1989. Preparing for compulsory competitive competition. London: HMSO.
- Bacon, Nick, and Paul Blyton. 2001. Management practices and employee attitudes: A longitudinal study spanning fifty years. Sociological Review 49 (2): 254—74.[CrossRef]
- Bacon, Robert, and Walter Eltis. 1978. Britain's economic problems: Too few producers. New York: Macmillan.
- Ballard, Michael, and Mildred E. Warner . 2000. Taking the high road: Local government restructuring and the quest for quality. Accessed June 29, 2006, at http://www.crp.cornell.edu/projects/restructuring .
- Braverman, Harry. 1974. Labour and monopoly capital: The degradation of work in the twentieth century. New York: Monthly Review.
- Chomsky, Noam. 1999. Profit over people: Neoliberalism and the global order . New York: Seven Stories.
- Cochrane, Allan. 2004. Modernisation, managerialism and the culture wars: Reshaping the local welfare state in England. Local Government Studies 30 (4): 481—96.[CrossRef]
- Delp, Linda, and Katie Quan. 2002. Homecare worker organizing in California: An analysis of a successful strategy. Labor Studies Journal 27 (1): 1—23.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Dix, Bernard, and Stephen Williams . 1987. Serving the public—Building the union: The history of NUPE. In The forerunners 1889—1928 , vol. 1. London: Lawrence & Wishart.
- Duncan, Simon, and Mark Goodwin. 1988. The local state and uneven development: Behind the local government crisis. Cambridge, UK: Polity .
- Dunleavy, Patrick. 1991. Democracy, bureaucracy and public choice. Harvester: Wheatsheaf.
- Escott, Karen, and Dexter Whitfield . 1995. The gender impact of CCT in local government. Manchester Equal Opportunities Commission .
- Flynn, Norman. 2002. Public sector management. London: Pearson Education.
- Foster, Deborah. 1993. Industrial relations in local government—The impact of privatisation. Political Quarterly 64 (1): 49—59.[CrossRef]
- Gill, Whyeda. 1994. Decentralisation and devolution in local government: Pressures and obstacles. Industrial Relations Journal 25 (3): 210—22.
- Gill-McLure, Whyeda. 2001. Toward a political economy of local government industrial relations: A study of union and management resistance to compulsory competitive tendering 1979—2000. PhD thesis, Keele University , Keele, UK.
- Gill-McLure,Whyeda, Mike Ironside, and Roger Seifert. 2003. The consequences for the management of conflict of the reform of English local government finance and structure . Critical Perspectives on Accounting 14:255—72.[CrossRef]
- Harvie, David. 2006. Value production and struggle in the classroom? Teachers within, against, and beyond capital. Capital and Class 88 (spring): 1—32.
- Hayek, Friedrich A. 1986. The moral imperative of the market. In The unfinished agenda: Essays on the political economy of government policy in honour of Arthur Seldon. London: Institute of Economic Affairs.
- Heseltine, Michael. 1987. Where there's a will. London: Hutchinson.
- Higgins, Paul, Phil James, and Ian Roper. 2005. The role of competition in best value: How far does it differ from CCT? Local Government Studies 31 (2): 219—35.
- Incomes Data Services. 1989. Public Service Digest, June 28.
- Ironside, Mike, and Roger Seifert. 1995. Industrial relations in schools. London : Routledge.
- ———. 2000. Facing up to Thatcherism: The history of NALGO 1973—93. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press .
- Jackson, P. 2001. Public sector added value: Can bureaucracy deliver? Public Administration 79 (1): 5—28.[CrossRef]
- Johnston, Paul. 1994. Success while others fail: Social movement unionism and the public workplace. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
- Kessler, Ian. 1982. Steward organisation amongst manual workers. PhD thesis, University of Warwick, UK.
- Kotz, David, and Martin Wolfson. 2004. Déjà vu all over again: The "new" economy in historical perspective. Labor Studies Journal 28 (4): 25—43.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Labour Research Department. 2006. Learning the lesson of better school dinners. February. London: Labour Research Department.
- Marx, Karl. 1867. Capital, vol. 1. Repr., London: Dent, 1967.
- Mill, John Stuart. 1848. Principles of political economy. Repr., London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, 1867.
- Niskanen,William. 1971. Bureaucracy and representative government. Chicago: Aldine-Atherton.
- Norman, Richard, and Robert Gregory. 2003. Paradoxes and pendulum swings: Performance management in New Zealand's public sector. Australian Journal of Public Administration 62 (4): 35—49.[CrossRef]
- Ormerod, Paul. 1991. Incomes policy. In Labour's economic policies , 1974—1979, ed. Michael Artis and David Cobham. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.
- Rainnie, Al. 1994. Fighting the tender trap: UNISON and compulsory tendering. Hertfordshire County, UK: UNISON.
- Ryan, Neal. 1999. A comparison of contracting in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The International Journal of Public Sector Management 12 (2): 91—102.[CrossRef]
- Seifert, Roger. 2003. Modernisation Victorian-style. Red Pepper , January, 16—17.
- Shaw, George Bernard. 1889. Essays in Fabian socialism. Repr., London: Constable and Co., 1949.
- Sinclair, Jackie, Mike Ironside, and Roger Seifert. 1996. Classroom struggle? Market orientated reforms and their impact on the teacher labour process. Work, Employment & Society 10 (4): 641—61.[Abstract]
- Stiglitz, Joseph E. 1988. Economics of the public sector. London : Norton & Company.
- Taylor, Frederick. 1911. Scientific management. New York: Harper & Bros.
- Thomson, Andrew William J., and Philip Beaumont . 1978. Public sector bargaining: A study of relative gain. Farnborough: Saxon House.
- Thorold Rogers, James E. 1888. The economic interpretation of history, vol. 2. Repr., London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1905.
- Unison. 2002. Best value and the two tier workforce. http://www.unison.org.uk .
- Walsh, Kieron, Nicholas Deakin, Paula Smith, Peter Spurgeon, and Neil Thomas. 1997. Contracting for change: Contracts in health, social care and other local government services. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
- Warner, Mildred, and Amir Hefetz. 2002. Privatization and the market role of local government: Small growth in contracting underscores dominance of service provision by public employees. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute. Accessed June 29, 2006, at http://www.empinet.org.
- Widdecombe, David. 1986. The conduct of local authority business. Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO). Cmnd. 9797.
- Winchester, David. 1983. Industrial relations in the public sector. In Industrial relations in Britain, ed. George Bain. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell .
- Wootton, Barbara. 1962. The social foundations of wage policy. London: Unwin University Books.
- Worthen, Helena, Steve Edwards, and Diane Stokes. 2002. An activist AFSCME local confronts welfare reform. Labor Studies Journal 27 (1): 25—43.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
 CiteULike  Connotea  Del.icio.us  Digg  Reddit  Technorati What's this?
|
