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Under factory occupation (also: factory occupation ) refers to a form of struggle of workers or increasing form of strikes , in which the means of production to be taken symbolically or actually by the employees in possession.

There are two different forms:

  • Sit ( sit-in ): The workers not only deny collective work but also remain permanently in the workplace or on strike operation to any other use of the means of production or access to block them. This eliminates the possibility of a strike break or relocation of production. Daily meetings are customary to provide mutual information and reinforcement of the workforce's willingness to fight. In the 1930s, the sit-in became a weapon of choice for American rubber and automotive workers; General Motors in particular experienced a series of sit-ins at the time. The most famous recent historical example is the occupation of the Gdańsk Lenin Shipyard in the autumn of 1980, during which 16,000 workers went on strike for months for economic and political reforms. Two examples from Germany: During the so-called “Turkish strike ” at Ford in Cologne in 1973 , a spontaneous protest against layoffs and the hustle and bustle of work, the strikers stayed at the plant and held their strike meetings there. The protest against layoffs by 150 workers from the Seibel and Sons cement works in Erwitte in 1975 expanded into a week-long occupation that also kept the courts busy .
  • Continuation of production (work-in): The employees occupy the company and continue production on their own. An example of this is the occupation of the British shipyard Upper Clyde Shipbuilders when it announced its liquidation in 1971 and the workers, in protest, continued their work on the ships independently in order to mobilize government or other funding to continue the shipyard. The occupation of the LIP watch factory in Besançon in 1974 met with a great response in France and neighboring countries , during which the workforce continued to run production on its own in resistance to the threat of layoffs and the switch from branded watches to mass-produced goods and built up its own sales network.

Examples

In 1920 there were factory occupations in Italy , in which one million workers took part.

See also

Industrial conflict

literature

  • Jeremy Brecher: Strikes and workers revolts. American Labor Movement 1877 to 1970 . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1975.
  • Michael Brockhaus / Wolfgang Schäfer: Company occupation. The short dream of solidarity . Sovec, Göttingen 1990. ISBN 3-923147-27-9 .
  • Ken Coates: Work-ins, Sit-ins and Industrial Democracy . Spokesman, Nottingham 1981.
  • Rainer Duhm: Factory occupation in Erwitte . In: Frankfurter Hefte 2/1976.
  • Bodo Morawe : Active strike in France or class struggle at LIP . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1974.
  • Rainer Thomann: Occupations as an effective weapon in the union struggle. A study of recent examples . Zurich 2009. ( meeting )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jeremy Brecher: Strikes and Labor Revolts. American labor movement 1877 to 1970, Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1975, subsection “Sit-In”, pp. 159–192.
  2. ^ (Above) Strike at Ford Cologne, Rosa Luxemburg Verlag, Cologne 1973.
  3. ↑ Rainer Duhm / Erhard Maus: "We keep the company occupied", in: Rainer Duhm / Harald Wieser (eds.): Crisis and Counter-Defense, Rotbuch, Berlin 1975, pp. 64–79.
  4. ↑ Ken Coates: Work-ins, Sit-ins and Industrial Democracy, Spokesman, Nottingham 1981, pp. 21-48.
  5. ↑ Vito Avantario: The Agnellis. The secret rulers of Italy. Campus 2002, p. 217.