Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1997 04:23:30 +0100 (MET)
From: Harald Beyer-Arnesen <haraldba-AT-sn.no>
Subject: Re: CONTINGENCY WORK


Thanks for Steve and Curtis for initiating this valuable discussion. 
I don't really have time to participate at the moment, I have some 
writing in Norwegian I have to finish which I've put off for 
too long, and know when I begin entering into these debates my 
mind gets wandering - but I thought I would mention a method of 
self-imposing higher wages called "register" the Swedish syndicalist 
within SAC (and also the smaller Norwegian sister organization NSF) 
applied during the period when they still refused to enter into any 
binding contracts with the employers.
        This method, used mostly within the syndicalist strongholds 
of construction, mining and lumbering, was a two-step process; first 
the gathering of information on the going wages, and then the 
self-imposing of a minimum wage under which no worker should let 
himself be hired. Before taking a job workers went to the SAC 
"hiring-halls" to find out the the minimum wage. Step by step SAC
self-imposed a higher rate. Between 1916-1920 this method managed to 
raise the wages within building and construction work with 316 percent, 
compared to the 240 percent average for Swedish workers, and this 
without entering into contracts with the employers. Actually SAC saw 
this method as a way to gradually completely take control over the 
industry and eliminate all surplus value.
        This was all for now.
        
                                                Harald 
 
  in solidarity,
  Harald Beyer-Arnesen
  haraldba-AT-sn.no



     --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---