• Title/Summary/Keyword: boilermaker

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Employment Adjustment in the British Shipbuilding Industry(1860~1945) - Focusing on the Case of the Boilermakers' Society (영국 조선산업의 고용조정(1860~1945): 보일러제조공조합을 중심으로)

  • Shin, Wonchul
    • Korean Journal of Labor Studies
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    • v.24 no.2
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    • pp.321-365
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    • 2018

  • Though the British shipbuilding industry dominated the world market in the 19th century, it could not avoid the repetitive rise and fall of the unemployment following after the cyclical fluctuations. Without challenging the employers' rights to fire at will, the boilermakers maintained their own unemployment insurance in order to escape from the new poverty law system. In the beginning the craft union could continue their own unemployment insurance under the National Insurance Act of 1911, but it went into bankruptcy under the massive unemployment of the 1920s and the attacks of shipyard employers. The Act of 1911 was a step towards social solidarity in that it spread the risks beyond the occupational boundaries, applying unemployment insurance to unskilled and non-union workers, and the employer and the government also paid the premium. In the Great Depression, the shipyard trade unions demanded that the government should intervene in the shipbuilding market to provide jobs, but it was not accepted by the government. The government responded only to the another demand of the union for the maintenance, which could be achieved partially through the abnormal operation of the insurance system, abandoning the insurance principle. After all, unemployment in the shipbuilding industry was resolved only by the expansion of rearmaments and the outbreak of World War II. From the 19th century to the World War II, the craft unions did not challenge the employers' right to fire at will and did not attempt to regulate dismissal procedures or make any demands on dismissal compensations. During interwar periods rules and practices related with weak employment protection - one of the main features of the liberal employment adjustment institution - were prevalent in Britain. The principle of 'employment at will' could survive through the historical events such as the World War I, II as the operation of the unemployment insurance became the focus of the social conflicts.