The struggle for control: Technology and organized labor in Gulf Coast refineries, 1913--1973

This dissertation studied the impact of technological and managerial innovation on labor relations in oil refining. Traditionally, management sought to dominate labor relations and maintain complete control over work in the refineries. They did this by using sophisticated welfare policies that placated the concerns of workers while still maintaining complete control over the refineries. During the Depression, however, workers lost faith in these programs and created an industrial union, the Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union (OCAW), to gain a greater degree of control over their own destiny. The OCAW relied on its ability to strike and shut down refineries to gain equality with management and force concessions.;While the OCAW challenged their authority, the oil companies continued to develop new technology and new organizational techniques. The companies developed these innovations in order to increase efficiency and further the continuous flow of product through the refineries. Although these changes were not designed with the purpose of diminishing the power of organized labor in mind, they did allow management to operate struck plants with a skeleton work force. As a result, by the early 1960s the OCAW had lost its ability to strike.;The dissertation concludes by examining the OCAW's attempts to use the government and public opinion to regain leverage lost when the strike became ineffective. Specifically, this study looked at the union's attempt to rally support behind making refineries safer and more environmentally healthy. The study concluded that coalitions that the union formed to do this were too unstable to make up for the leverage lost by the inability to strike.