The Study of Workshop Groups in a Trade Union

Abstract

In Japan trade unions tended to insist that their objective was to challange the management and to aid making socialist society. But recently, as it is often point out, trade unions had a growing tendency to form co-operative relationship with the manegement, and they seem to have lost a desire for the solidarity of the laboring classes. Why did traide unions' function change ? In this paper, my point of view is that the key of this problem is on the shop stewards' function (workshop officers' function). Since they are key men who have a role and status to connect the supervisions, full time officers of the trade union and trade union members. Their behavior will make a type of them “Triad” system. The writer chose H. Trade Union (a principal trade union of the electric industry) and two of into workshop groups A and B as models of his study. In workshop A the post of stewards is held by supervisions. Though they are trade union officers, they act as the men of management, and they make the trade union function co-operate with the management function. Management requires them to do so. If they don't obey, they lose their status as supervisions. In workshop A the trade unioh is easier to become active, because a manager supports shop stewards, than in workshop B, where shop stewards oppose the manager. Workshop A tends to be a main group and it leads other groups. As a result, this trade union fosters the tendency to co-operative relationship. Our case study in H. Trade Union verified for the validity of our assumption. Finally several assumptions are shown for further research.