This module will examine enduring sources of conflict in relations between unions, employers and the state in France, as well as attempts to overcome them. It will focus thematically on issues of party-union relations, work organisation, negotiation, the role of the State and contemporary conflict. The module will conclude with an examination of the current state and future of the labour movement under current conditions of globalisation and Europeanisation.

• Understand the contemporary factors affecting the French labour movement in its broader context.

• Demonstrate a capacity for analysing and evaluating complex arguments concerning the French labour movement.

• Demonstrate a high level of critical awareness, and the ability to argue and rebut a case, justifying your own viewpoint, with regard to the French labour movement.
• Show ability to present arguments in a structured, logical and coherent manner with regard to the French labour movement.
• Demonstrate basic word-processing skills.

There will be lectures and seminars up to approximately 20 hours over the semester, all of which are obligatory.  Students are required to deliver one seminar presentations, in which they will have to justify their views and argue their case under criticism from their peers. All students are expected to prepare for all tutorials. The tutor will provide with guidance critical feedback your performance.

Academic: intellectually-advanced skills centred on the ability to build a convincing argument, using a variety of sources relevant to the themes and topics of the module content.

Subject-specific: ability to read and assess, and to engage critically with historical, political and political economy texts. Ability to understand how economic development, politics and the French labour movement interact.

Generic: transferable skills of information gathering; critical thinking; evaluation of materials; intercultural awareness; oral presentation skills; time management; high-level written communication and word-processing/visual presentation skills.

Essay (2000 words) - 30%: Choice of several titles. 

Exam (2 hours) - 60%

Coursework essays are to enable students to demonstrate that they understand an argument or debate in detail. They will demonstrate that they can summarise the key positions, can critically engage with ideas and concepts that are central to the module, and can apply core empirical knowledge to the arguments to produce a well-structured, analytical and coherently argued essay in response to a given question.

Oral presentations will enable students to develop oral presentation and public speaking skills, including synthesising an argument in a short presentation, constructing a coherent argument, critically engaging with ideas and concepts, using empirical evidence to support an argument and responding to questions and feedback from peers and the tutor.

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR REASSESSMENT IN THIS MODULE:

In the event of failing the module, the student will be re-assessed by 2000 word essay to be submitted during the resit examination period (100% of the module mark).

Week I          Introduction

Week 2         Lecture: The Origins of Trade Unions

Week 3         Lecture: Labour Politics and the Third Republic

                     Seminar: Why did workers not have faith in Republican political institutions?

Week 4         Lecture: Revolutionary Syndicalism

                    Seminar: Why did French trade unions opt for a revolutionary strategy?

Week 5        Lecture: The decline of Revolutionary Syndicalism and Division in the Labour Movement

                      Seminar: To what extent does the 1914 – 1921 period represent a turning point for the labour movement?

Week 6         Reading Week

Week 7         Lecture: From the 1920s to the Popular Front

                      Seminar: Did a French system of industrial relations exist before World War Two?

Week 8         Lecture: The Post-war Boom Years

                      Seminar: Does the Fordist compromise suggest a decline in labour militancy in France?

Week 9         Lecture: Labour and Politics: an exclusionary post-war settlement?

                      Seminar: How successful were attempts to integrate labour into French capitalism in the post-war period?

Week 10       Lecture: May 1968

                      Seminar: May 1968: a consequence of ‘labour exclusion’?

                     Week 11       Lecture: The 1970s and 1980s: Trade Unions in Crisis

            Seminar: How did the end of the Fordist compromise affect the French labour movement?

Jeffreys, S. (2003) Liberté Egalité and Franternité at Work: Changing French Employment Relations and Management, Palgrave, Basingstoke.

Landier, H. and Labbé, D. (1998) Les organisations syndicales en France: des origines aux difficultés actuelles, Editions Liaisons, Paris.

Parsons, N. (2005) French Industrial Relations in the New World Economy, London Routledge.

Parsons, N.  (2013) ‘France’ in C. Frege and J. Kelly (eds), Comparative Employment   

                        Relations in the Global Economy. London: Routledge.

van Ruysseveldt, J. and Visser, J. (1996) ‘Contestation and State Intervention

Forever? Industrial Relataions in France’ in J. van Ruysseveldt and J. Visser (eds) Industrial Relations in Europe: Traditions and Transitions, London, Sage.

Andolfatto D. and Labbé, D. (2006) ‘La transformation des syndicats français: vers un nouveau “modéle social”?, Revue française de science politique, vol. 56, no. 2, pp. 281 -297.

Bridgford, J and Morris, P. (1987) 'Labour confederations and Socialist govemment in France, 1981-1986' in W. Brierley (ed.) Trade Unions and the Economic Crisis of the 1990s, Gower, Aldershot, pp.46-63.

Daley, A. ‘The Hollowing Out of French Unions: Politics and Industrial Relations after 1981 in France’,  in A. Martin and G. Ross (eds) The Brave New World of European Labour: European Trade Unionism at eh Millennium, Berghahn, New York and Oxford.

Eyraud, F. and Tchobanian, R. (1985) "The Auroux Reforms and Company Level Industrial Relations in France", British Journal of lndustrial Relations, 23, pp.241-258.

Gallie, D. (1985) 'Les lois Auroux: the reform of French industrial relations?' in H. Machin and V. Wright (eds) Economic Policy and Policy-making under the Mitterrand Presidency, 1981-1984, pp.205-24.

Goetschy, J. and Linhart, D. (1990) La crise des syndicats en Europe occidentale, La

                        Documentation francaise, Paris.

Groux, G. (1989) "French Industrial relations", in J. Howorth and G. Ross (eds)

                        Contemporary France, Vol 3, Pinter, London, pp.52-70.

Groux, G. and Mouriaux, M. (1990) "Le cas francais", in G. Bibes and R. Mouriaux (eds) Les syndicats européens à l'épreuve, PFNSP, Paris.

Groux, G. (1994) "Industrial Relations in France: Union Crisis and the 'French Exception", Journal of Area Studies, 5, pp.80-90. Photocopy collection.

Groux, G. and Mouriaux, R. (1996) "The Dilemma of Unions without Members", in A. Daley (ed), The Mitterrand Era, London, Macmillan.

Groux, G. (1996) "From the Cold War to the Present Day; Labour Unions and the Crisis of 'Models"', in T. Chafer & B. Jenkins (eds) France: From the Cold War to the New World Order, London, Macmillan.

Howell C. (1996) "French Socialism and the Transformation of Industrial Relations", in A. Daley (ed) The Mitterrand Era, London, Macmillan.

Howell, C. (2009) ‘The Transformation of French Industrial relations: Labor representation and the State in a Post-Dirigiste Era’, Politics and Society, Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 229-56.

Jeffreys, S (1996) "Down But Not Out, French Unions after Chirac" Work, Employment and Society, Vol 10, No. 3, pp.509-527.

Kesselman, M. (1989) "The New Shape of Labour and Industrial Relations", in P. Godt (ed.), Policymakng in France from de Gaulle to Mitterrand, Pinter, London, pp. 165-175.

Milner, S. (1998) 'Industrial Relations in France: Towards a New Social Pact? in M. Maclean (ed.) The Mitterrand Years: Legacy and Evaluation, Macmillan London, pp. 169-184.

Milner, S. (2001), ‘Globalisation and employment in France: between flexibility and protection?’, Modern and Contemporary France, Vol. 9, No. 3 (special issue on ‘France and Globalisation’), 327-337.

Moss, B. (1988) "Industrial Law Reform in an Era of Retreat: The Auroux Laws in France", Work, Employment and Society, 2, 3, pp.317-334.

Parsons, N. (2015) ‘Legitimising Illegal Protest: The Permissive Ideational environment and “Bossnappings” in France, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 51 (2), 288-309, ISSN.

Parsons, N. (2012) ‘Worker Reactions to Crisis: Explaining “Bossnappings”’, French Politics, Culture and Society, 30 (1).

Parsons, N. ‘Left parties and trade unions in France’. French Politics 2015, 13, pp. 64-83.

Potel, J-Y. (1990) "France: la lutte fractricide", in G. Bibes and R. Mouriaux (eds) Les

                        syndicats européens à l'épreuve, PFNSP, Paris.

Rhodes. M. (1987) "Labour and industry", in S. Mazey and M. Newman (eds.), Mitterrand's France, Croom Helm, London, pp.56-80.

Ross, G. (1987) 'Labour and the Left in Power: Commissions, Omissions and Unintended

Consequences', in P. McCarthy (ed.) The French Socialists in Power 1981­1986, Greenwood Press, NY, Westport, Conneticut and London, pp. 107-28.

Segrestin, D. (1990) "Recent Changes in France", in G. Baglioni and C. Couch (eds.),

European Industrial Relations: The Challenge of Flexibility, Sage, London.

Smith, W. R. (1987) Crisis in the French Labour Movement, Macmillan London.

Wilson, F. (1985) 'Trade Unions and Economic Policy' in H. Machin and V. Wright (eds)

Economic Policy and Policy-making under the Mitterrand Presidency, 1981-­1984, pp.205-24.