Abstract
Research with union officials, employers and union members, male and female, informs this chapter. The changing labour process is analysed. Evidence for a shift away from traditional print employment to what has become more of a communications sector is provided, along with survey evidence of the extreme gendered occupational segregation in the industry. The nature of flexibility is examined, demonstrating that, although it increased, it has not breached the gender divide. Instead, employers have segmented men’s jobs, reducing the numbers claiming the highest pay and misdirecting male trade unionists’ attention towards gendered protectionism at the expense of cross-gender solidarity. Consequently, employers have gained greater control of the labour process to the detriment of all workers in the industry and reinforcing women’s low pay.
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Notes
- 1.
This figure was established using the GPMU membership data, BPIF data and official statistics.
- 2.
This was especially true for the significant number of men who were apprenticeship-trained. However, the later research seemed to support the move from industry-specific to firm-specific skills today.
- 3.
Double keystroking referred to the process whereby customers produced material on disk and typesetters re-typed it rather than just formatting it as a way of preserving jobs.
- 4.
See Glossary.
- 5.
This was one of the machines that was used in offices and which skilled printers failed to hold on to, although they belatedly tried to get them categorised as printers work by the TUC and failed.
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Dawson, T. (2018). Gender or Skill? The Continuation of Segregated Work. In: Gender, Class and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58594-3_5
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