Post-Fordism And Contemporary Work Movement In West Europe

The worker movement in west Europe become frustrated and has been on the wane since1970s. It was proved by the declined times of strike and participation of workers, as well as the decreasing union density. But there is few systematical research about the reason of the occurrence. The view in this paper is that the changing of product pattern from Fordism to post-Fordism is a important-maybe the most important-element that made the worker movement frustrated.Three main views were suggested in this paper. Firstly, the history of worker movement in the Europe was reviewed systematically. It was found that the development of worker movement was established on the base of the development of capitalism producing, and it was changing as capitalism changing. Therefore, the research of worker movement should be linked closely to capitalism producing, and especially, to the workers’ work condition. So it is indispensable to analysis the post-Fordism in west Europe before we research the worker movement. Secondly, the character of post-Fordism and its influence on worker movement was analyzed in view of micro. It was found that the typical patterns of post-Fordism, including the Lean Manufacturing, the outsourcing and the cluster manufacturing has changed the condition and position of working class in the area such as their organization, their bargain ability, the quantity of traditional factory workers, the constitution workers in terms of gender and work type, and through this, many difficulties for worker movement was created. While, the capitalist gained from the exceeding amount of workers and their competing. However, post-Fordism is an advanced product pattern, so it is impossible for the government to refrain its development for the workers benefits. Because of this, the policy of many governments has been turning right since1980s, it made the environment tougher. Thirdly, workers’response to the new environment was also checked and was found unsuccessful in the paper. Unions, which were found confusing, inconsistent and with low satisfactory levels when they are trying to innovation, is a typical example. The confusing of worker organizations also aggravated worker class’s frustrated and harmed situation.In the end of the paper, some suggestion for the worker movement in Europe was proposed, suggesting worker movement will show its strong power easily once workers had strengthen their organization and adjusted their fight strategy, and the work movement will be thriving in no time.