ABSTRACT
Industrial relations after World War II in manufacturing are generally viewed as containing a brief period of initial turbulence followed by an extended stretch, beginning in the late 1940s, of relative stability, during which time a “web of rules and regulations” and a set of “mutual understandings” are seen as guiding the actions of employers and organized workers towards the maintenance of industrial peace through the receipt of mutual prosperity. To the extent shopfloor governance is considered in conventional accounts of the period, it is treated in one of two ways: (1) shopfloor conditions are viewed as subject to joint labor-management regulation through the “web of rules and regulations” encompassed in collective-bargaining agreements and grievance procedures (e.g., Brody 1992); or (2) shopfloor conditions are seen as being the sole terrain of management under a “mutual understanding” or “accord” in which workers abdicate control of the shopfloor in exchange for wage increases tied to productivity growth, employment security, and improvements in fringe benefits (e.g., Bowles, Gordon, and Weisskopf 1983).
