労働者医療機関における労働争議の展開

新たな労働運動戦略を展望する

抄録

This article aims to establish a new perspective on the labor movement strategy through examining a case study of the labor dispute in the Workers' Medical Institution. One debater deals with the idea of “workers’ control,” whereby the labor union encroaches on the authority and takes over hegemony from manager. Another debater asserts the idea of “social economy” as opposed to hierarchical structures such as workers' collectives and NPOs. They recognize that these two approaches are closely related, but are not clear about how they can be connected. I believe these approaches are related in that the enterprise can be governed by the labor union democratically if it ultimately pursues encroachment on the on the authority. Actually, in a case study conducted in this article, the labor union which has strongly regulated management has established the NPO for nursing care work, as a result of the intense battle between the union and the management. By running the NPO, the union has not only managed to raise the necessary funds for the struggle and for the living expenses of union members, but also contributed to the development of the regional community through the nursing care jobs. This example suggests that if trade unions can consistently push a “workers' control” strategy, fused with a “social economy” strategy which has contents such as democracy and socially useful work, they can achieve meaningful results. The implications of this are that new labor movement strategies should look beyond the existing framework of labor-management relations.