White collars, blue smocks

The textile industry was and remains a vital industrial sector for Belgium, not least because of the many thousands of people who earned and continue to earn their daily bread there. This work examines these employers and employees and their respective organizations. Who were these textile employers? When and why did they organize? How did the work of the textile worker evolve? Why did various textile workers' organizations emerge?
Considerable attention is also paid to the relationship between workers and employers. This relationship changed profoundly over the course of Belgium's industrial development. Over the long period from 1800 to 1975, the book examines how these relationships evolved at the business, sectoral, and interprofessional levels.
Using testimonies, literary, union, and employer sources, it paints a picture of the mechanisms that led to social achievements such as reduced working hours, paid leave, paid holidays, and the abolition of child labor. In addition to the traditional elements – strikes, collective bargaining agreements, joint committees, or works councils – labor honors, company celebrations, buildings and infrastructure, work pressure, hygiene measures, etc., are also considered, thus creating a new, broad perspective on the social and labor history of Belgium.

Bart De Wilde
Ludion/AMSAB/Profortex, Ghent/Brussels, 1997, 403 p., ill., hardcover