Stable Labor Research Articles

Sierra Leonean Mining Migrants, Their Composition and Origins

Since I930 mining in Sierra Leone has been one of the principal sources of industrial wage labour and the company mines have drawn workers from every part of the country. With minor exceptions there is no formal recruitment of labour. Record cards held by the companies afford details of their labour forces, which allow an examination of the distances migrated according to workers' compositional characteristics-such as marital status, job type, literacy and previous employmenttogether with their specific origin which can be designated either urban or rural. Unlike other locations in Africa there is little difference between the origins of single and married men, and the substantial number of married workers gives rise to stable labour forces. However, in terms of job skill and literacy, both amongst married and single workers, there are striking differences in the mean distances moved to find employment. Illiterate unskilled workers with no previous job experience form a localized component, generally from rural locations, with a strong bias towards a particular ethnic group. In contrast, skilled literate workers with previous experience come from farther afield, and especially from towns. By virtue of their education and work experience this group exhibits a higher degree of mobility, related to movements amongst the larger urban centres. Analysis of origins and migration histories suggest that the concept of step-wise migration needs treating with some caution, and an alternative descriptive model is proposed which seems more appropriate to labour migration in Sierra Leone. THE MINING INDUSTRY-EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES AND MIGRATION THE development of the mining industry in Sierra Leone has been responsible for radical changes in population distribution since its inception in 1930. This has been effected at two different levels. First, through company mining financed by Euro-American capital, and after I950 by the growth and organization of native diamond mining. Foreign owned companies, partly state controlled since I97I, are engaged in mining diamonds (SLST, now DIMINCO), iron ore (DELCO), bauxite (SIEROMCO) and rutile (Sherbro Minerals). All mining operations in Sierra Leone use opencast methods, and the actual locations are shown in Figure i. Both company and native mining have led to permanent migration, the emergence of new towns and expansion of existing ones, although native diamond mining has a strong element of seasonality with population moving between farm and diggings (K. Swindell, 1966). The number of workers in those chiefdoms declared open for diamond mining fluctuates between 30 ooo in the dry season and i8 ooo during the rains. The permanent labour force of the companies amounts to some 6000. If these numbers seem relatively small it must be remembered that Sierra Leone has a population of just over two million and is about the size of Scotland. In addition, those in wage earning or salaried employment number approximately one in six of the working male population over ten years of age. Consequently the importance of mining employment is underlined by the general shortage of wage earning opportunities. Sierra Leone is still predominantly an agricultural country, and any enquiry into migration or mining should be viewed against a 'backdrop' of small farmers cultivating food staples for their own use, together with the exchange of surpluses and the sale of some cash crops. Opportunities for wage and salaried employment are strongly orientated towards the government services, the expatriate commercial companies, and the mines. Much temporary employment is

Labour Supply in Early Industrialization: the Case of the Bombay Textile Industry

The problems of labor supply to the Bombay textile industry are examined. In spite of evidence of excess labor supply, there was an undercurrent of complaint of labor shortage, high wages, and high labor cost per unit of output. The notion that labor was migrant and thus not committed to the industrial sector is not supported by the data, nor is the hypothesis that strong institutional influences caused the paradox of excess labor supply and high wages with consequent labor difficulties. The preference employers have for a stable and committed labor force suggests that demand price would be greater than that for nonstable labor. This does not explain the establishment of the wages for such labor at a level higher than the supply price of the general of nonstable labor. This outcome is conceivable if, along with its high demand price, the supply price of stable labor was also higher, a situation that might occur if the bulk of the stable labor was composed of migrants who settled in Bombay while the nonstable labor was composed of migrants who merely visited the city. The hypothesis of a gap in the supply prices of settled and visiting migrants appears substantiated by the data.

The Politics of ‘Affluent’ and ‘Traditional’ Workers in Britain: an Aggregate Data Analysis

In their study of the ‘affluent worker’ in Luton,1 Goldthorpe and his colleagues reached a number of important conclusions about the political behaviour of the ‘traditional’ and ‘new’ working class in post-war Britain. They rejected the belief, commonly held by the late 1950s, that a growing proportion of manual workers was beginning to support the Conservative Party as a result of attaining a middle class level of income and material possessions (the ‘embourgeoisement’ theory). In their sample, which was elaborately designed to ensure the most favourable conditions for confirmation of the embourgeoisement theory, they found (i) that the level of stable Labour support was higher than the national average for manual workers; (ii) that there was no evidence of any gradual, long-term shift of support towards the Conservatives or away from Labour; and (iii) that the small minority of Conservatives was distinguished not by a higher than average standard of living, but by a relatively large number of white collar workers among their kin. The notion that there was a necessary connection, among manual workers, between growing material prosperity and increased support for the Conservative Party was therefore decisively rejected.

On Reorganization of Labor Instruction in School Workshops

The system of labor instruction in school workshops is undoubtedly one of the most important factors determining the quality of pupils' training for productive work. However, the experience of three years of work of many school workshops has shown that the object-operational system adopted by them suffers from substantial shortcomings. Instead of learning how to master the stable labor skills, necessary for future labor activity, pupils were kept busy here with manufacturing all kinds of articles. Moreover, the time assigned for labor in workshops was completely inadequate. As a result, the level of the training of pupils for labor in the sphere of material production was proved to be much lower than it could have been, had labor instruction been differently organized.

Prospects for Soviet Farm Output and Labor

BY way of summary let it be said that for seven years up to and including I960 which are considered here, net farm output per capita of total population may possibly increase, perhaps by as much as I5 per cent or even 20 per cent. This conclusion is arrived at on basis of policies laid down in Malenkov's speech in August I953,' Khrushchev's speech in September I953,2 Party decision on Measures of Further Development of Agriculture of U.S.S.R., 3 and three further decrees of government and Party.4 But if government takes seriously its promises, demands, or both, of fulfilling the task to create an abundance of food for population and raw materials for light industry within next 2-3 years, 5 it is heading toward a great disappointment. With considerably more attention than formerly given to labor-saving devices, enlarged farm output might possibly be produced with a moderately smaller labor force than that currently available. To be on safe side, roughly stable labor requirements in agriculture are best assumption in calculating reserves of labor which may be available for nonagricultural pursuits. The total supply of labor newly available each year for all requirements will be large in I954-57 but will drop to almost zero in subsequent several years. On basis of present policies it may be anticipated that amount of labor in agriculture will be increasing in first four years of period under review, but part of additionally accumulated farm labor will have to be released in last three years of period. This would leave some labor reserves to be drawn from agriculture after I960 (the lean years for agricultural labor supply would not end at this arbitrarily selected date). The change from years with rising labor force in agriculture to years with declining labor force is likely to affect farm output, but it would be difficult to estimate intensity of this effect.

Can We Eliminate Labor Unrest?

EMPLOYERS who want a stable labor force almost invariably prefer married men. Married men are steadier, they say. They are less capricious, their ears are not so keen to catch rumors of better jobs elsewhere or so ready to listen to the trouble-making agitator. The first answer to the question concerning the elimination of labor unrest is suggested by this preference of the employers. If you want to anchor the worker, pay him a living wage, not an individual living wage, but enough to keep him and his family in health and decency and comfort, enough to enable him to feed and clothe his children well and to give them a thoroughgoing education. The government has announced that the minimum comfort wage for an average American family is $1,400. A national minimum wage of $1,400 would be a good beginning toward the elimination of labor unrest.