Belgian labour in World War II
Strategies of survival, organisations and labour relations
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12529615 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Dirk Luyten (corresponding author), Rik Hemmerijckx |
| Year | 2000 |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 207-227 |
| Publication date | 2000-08-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | European Review of History Revue européenne d histoire (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1350-7486 • E-ISSN: 1469-8293 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/713666748 |
| OpenAlex | W2045017240 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 7 |
A system of collective bargaining at sector level emerged in Belgium after the First World War. The commissions paritaires, in which unions and employers were equally represented, became the centres of power of the pillarised Belgian trade union movement. This system of industrial relations was challenged during the general strike of 1936. Some employers tried to compete with the unions by creating factory councils, yellow unions and 'mutual societies' at company level. The strategic aim was to remove the centre of labour relations from sector to factory level. This tendency was reinforced during the Second World War. Pre-war trade unions were abolished, employers tried to take over the role of the unions by creating all kinds of social provisions at company level. The factory became a basic element of the survival strategy of the workers. Moreover, from 1941 a clandestine and more radical trade union movement, which opposed the pre-war pillarised trade unionism, emerged. These clandestine unions were organised at factory level. In their view, the factory and not the sector had to become the locus of industrial relations after the war. The organisational framework that was established between 1944 and 1952 was a synthesis of the pre-war model of industrial relations and newly established councils at company level
Collective bargaining · Economics · Economy · Factory (object-oriented programming · First world war · Labor relations · Labour economics · Political science · Spanish Civil War · Trade union · World War II · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Law · Industrial Relations
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |