Journal Article

Trade Unions and the Technological Intelligentsia in France: A Contribution to the Historical Development of Organizational Forms in the Trade Unions of Technological and Managerial Personnel

Malsch, Thomas, Stuck, Heiner

1976

Overview

A history & detailed analysis of the French labor movement in general, & the evolution of labor unions for white-collar workers in particular, is presented. The white-collar Confederation generale des cadres & the 3 blue-collar industrial labor confederations, the Confederation generale du travail, the Confederation francaise democratique du travail (CFDT), & the CGT-FO (Force ouvriere) contain substantial numbers of office workers. The last three have been engaged in a debate on the new Wc (engineers, supervisors, scientists) & its unique labor problems. The historical recapitulation of this development is divided into the periods 1920-1939, 1940-1950, & the 1960s. While the union representation of the technological intelligentsia in the 1950s was in the same stagnation that affected the rest of the French workers, unions in the 1960s began to break away from the traditional \"Catholic welfare\" concepts, toward concepts of democratic socialism. In organizing white-collar cadres, both the CFDT & the CGT had to solve the conflict between autonomy & integration. While the CGT came to increasingly recognize that technological & supervisory personnel required a relatively autonomous representation, the CFDT succeeded in integrating such personnel separate from that of the blue-collar work force. The problem of separate vs integrated representation was solved by permitting \"double membership,\" which is now accepted by both unions. S. Whittle.

• Subject: France/French / Manage/Managed/Manages/ Managing/ Management / Organization/Organizations/ Organizational/ Organize/ Organizers/ Organized/ Organizing / Trade / Union/Unions/Unionism / White-collar