Fighting for Partnership: Labor and Politics in Unified Germany / Edition 1

by Lowell Turner

Overview

West Germany from 1949 to 1990 was a story of virtually unparalleled political and economic success. This economic miracle incorporated a well-functioning political democracy, expanded to include a "social partnership" system of economic representation. Then the Wall came down. Economic crisis in the East—industrial collapse, massive layoffs, a demoralized workforce—triggered gloomy predictions. Was this the beginning of the end for the widely admired "German model"?

Lowell Turner has extensively researched the German transformation in the 1990s. Indeed, in 1993 he was at the factory gates at Siemens in Rostock for the first major strike in post-Cold War eastern Germany. In that strike, and in a series of other incisively analyzed workplace and job developments in eastern Germany, he shows the remarkable resilience and flexibility of the German social partnership and the contribution of its institutions to unification. His controversial and, to some, radical findings will stimulate debate at home and abroad.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801484834
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	06/01/1998
Series:	Cornell Studies in Political Economy
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.62(d)
Lexile:	1600L (what's this?)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Lowell Turner is Associate Professor in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University. His published work includes Democracy at Work: Changing World Markets and the Future of Labor Unions and Negotiating the New Germany: Can Social Partnership Survive? both from Cornell.

What People are Saying About This

Jeffrey Anderson

Lowell Turner enjoyed unparalleled access to employer associations, trade unions, and individual firms in the new Länder after 1990. Out of this unique data base he weaves a nuanced account of the economic and political challenges confronting these actors at a time of extreme upheaval and uncertainty.

Wolfgang Streeck

Very well written and highly readable, Fighting for Partnership is the first book-length attempt to analyze the role of industrial relations in the unification of Germany and to account for the impact of unification on the German industrial relations system. It also updates the state of the knowledge on German industrial relations as a whole, including West Germany, in the 1990s. This book will be must-reading for students of German politics and industrial relations.

Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal

An innovative, detailed analysis... A very stimulating (and optimistic) account... This book should become required reading for all students interested in the political economy of Germany.

Editorial Reviews

A charmingly readable page-turner about labor relations in the former East Germany.... Turner's study is one of the best labor history books this reviewer has read in recent years.... Recommended for anyone with an interest in German studies and for students of contemporary history and social sciences.

Choice

A charmingly readable page-turner about labor relations in the former East Germany.... Turner's study is one of the best labor history books this reviewer has read in recent years.... Recommended for anyone with an interest in German studies and for students of contemporary history and social sciences.

-- "Choice"

A seasoned observer of Germany's contemporary industrial scene, Lowell Turner's vivid and up-beat book rightly emphasizes a remarkable achievement which has failed to win the international recognition it deserves.

-- "Financial Times"

Highly readable.

-- "Canadian Journal of Political Science"

Provides an argument that industrial relations in eastern Germany has demonstrated remarkable resilience and flexibility and has sustained the transferred German model of social partnership. Turner uses the concept of social partnership in terms of the relationship between labour and management, and specifically the collective bargaining relationship between organised employers and trade unions within the German co-determination framework.

--Karl Koch "German Politics"

From the Publisher

"Very well written and highly readable, Fighting for Partnership is the first book-length attempt to analyze the role of industrial relations in the unification of Germany and to account for the impact of unification on the German industrial relations system. It also updates the state of the knowledge on German industrial relations as a whole, including West Germany, in the 1990s. This book will be must-reading for students of German politics and industrial relations."

Wolfgang Streeck

"Lowell Turner enjoyed unparalleled access to employer associations, trade unions, and individual firms in the new Länder after 1990. Out of this unique data base he weaves a nuanced account of the economic and political challenges confronting these actors at a time of extreme upheaval and uncertainty."

Jeffrey Anderson

"An innovative, detailed analysis... A very stimulating (and optimistic) account... This book should become required reading for all students interested in the political economy of Germany."

Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal

A seasoned observer of Germany's contemporary industrial scene, Lowell Turner's vivid and up-beat book rightly emphasizes a remarkable achievement which has failed to win the international recognition it deserves.

Financial Times

Provides an argument that industrial relations in eastern Germany has demonstrated remarkable resilience and flexibility and has sustained the transferred German model of social partnership. Turner uses the concept of social partnership in terms of the relationship between labour and management, and specifically the collective bargaining relationship between organised employers and trade unions within the German co-determination framework.

German Politics - Karl Koch

Highly readable.

Canadian Journal of Political Science

"A seasoned observer of Germany's contemporary industrial scene, Lowell Turner's vivid and up-beat book rightly emphasizes a remarkable achievement which has failed to win the international recognition it deserves."

Financial Times