Search Results

This chapter turns to intra-sectoral differences in union strategy and structure, an important aspect of the Strategy-Structure-Institutions (SSI) Framework explained in Chapter 1. The chapter compares the historical evolution of Nissan Roren and that of the Toyota Roren case presented in Chapter 4. Compared to Toyota Roren, Nissan Roren formulated a clearer strategy of organizing smaller suppliers in an earlier period (in the late 1950s). Consequently, Nissan's roren was much more centralized, with respect to union finance, personnel, and collective bargaining until pressure from the 1990s to decentralize and diversify.

This chapter examines the impact of unions' structure and strategy on specific labour outcomes. In particular, the results of Shunto wage bargaining rounds are analysed for specific roren federations at Toyota, Nissan, and Matsushita. There is systematic evidence that the dispersion in settlements has increased over time in all cases. The chapter also examines how increasingly diverse working conditions were introduced, with specific reference to the Matsushita Group and the NTT Group. In both cases, there is a clear trade-off between retaining lifetime employment and retaining income security.

This chapter establishes the original contribution of the book by addressing why this research is necessary, where it sits within the existing literature and how this research has been conducted. Firstly, this chapter illustrates the timeliness of the book with reference to women’s renewed activism against sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the film and television industries and in the trade union movement. Secondly, this chapter explains the rationale for its focus and establishes the three central themes which underpin the book’s analysis of the relationship between women and trade unions in the British film and television industries: the operation of a gendered union structure, women’s union activism, and the relationship between class and gender in the labour movement. Thirdly, this chapter surveys existing literature in the fields of Women’s Labour History, Industrial Relations Scholarship and Women’s Film and Television History. Fourthly, this chapter details the methodological approach of this project, which combines archival research with oral history. Finally, this chapter outlines the structure of the book.

This chapter examines the relationship between women and the Association of Cine-Technicians (ACT) in the first three decades of the union’s history, between 1933 and 1959, to argue that a profoundly gendered union structure was institutionalised during the ACT’s establishment and formative years. Firstly, this chapter examines the process of unionisation within the British film industry to demonstrate that men’s interests were prioritised and women’s interests were excluded by this process. Secondly, this chapter reflects upon the consolidation of the ACT’s power in the film industry and its gendered union structure during the Second World War. It argues that the ACT introduced agreements and adopted organisational practices which safeguarded men’s jobs in response to the influx of women workers into the film industry during the war. Thirdly, it examines debates around which technicians should be represented among ACT’s membership in the post-war period, including the union’s response to the growth of the commercial television industry in the 1950s. This chapter also surveys women’s activity in the ACT between 1933 and 1959 to consider the evidence for a feminist consciousness among women activists in the decades between Britain’s first and second-wave feminist movements.

The final chapter draws together the key conclusions advanced within this book in relation to its three central themes: the operation of the gendered union structure, women’s union activism, and the relationship between class and gender in the labour movement. Firstly, it argues that a gendered union structure was institutionalised from the union’s establishment and maintained through a belief system that women’s issues were not trade union issues. Secondly, it argues that separate self-organisation was essential to women’s activity within the gendered union structure as it provided an essential space and voice for women to discuss their gender-specific concerns, develop consciousness and skills and formulate policy. It further emphasises the importance of external feminist allies to women’s union activity. Thirdly, it argues that class differences between middle-class women in film and television production and working-class women in the laboratories informed the direction of women’s activity at its height during the 1970s and 1980s. This chapter then surveys the central arguments advanced in each chapter to illustrate these core conclusions. It concludes with a consideration of the practical implications of this research for campaigns against gender discrimination within the British labour movement and the film and television industries.