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NEWS & EVENTS
Professor James W. Stitt Publishes Book on
British Industrial History
(April 2006). Published by Praeger,
Joint
Industrial Councils in British History: Inception, Adopt ion,
and Utilization, 1917-1939 is a study of how a WWI proposal
for "permanent improvement" in labor-management relations came about,
why the target industries ignored it, and how it found a purpose in
the second-tier industries, for which it was not originally intended.
The press, social reformers, academics, and various business interests
touted JICs as the beginning of worker control of industry, while
skilled trade unions saw them as a plot to harm workers' interests.
Their eventual modest use was directed to needs within individual
industrial enterprises and not to more global missions, such as the
remaking of British industry in general. But successful JICs undertook
serious issues that management and unions needed to address, such as
wage rates, retirement plans for workers, and safety-related concerns.
Moreover, the level of labor-management understanding in JIC
industries improved to the point that these industries suffered no
strikes in the inter-war period; the conditions of employment for the
workers improved; and productivity increased.
Dr. Stitt's research interests concern industrial
productivity and efficiency in Britain between WWI and WWII, with a
focus on labor and management cooperation for common purposes and the
related political and social issues associated with business change.
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