Syndicalisme maritime. Organisations et mobilisations des marins de commerce en France, 19e-21e siècles

Abstract

Regulated professions since the end of the 17th century, merchant seamen did not remain aloof from the unions from the 1870s onwards. The reformism of the early years gave way to massive recourse to local or national strikes and membership of the Confédération Générale du Travail. Until the middle of the 20th century, union action took place within a strictly national framework, with the State and the shipowners, very often allied, facing the seamen. Social advances were followed by defeats, accentuated by the extreme fragmentation that characterized the trade union landscape. From 1950 onwards, trade union pluralism became a permanent feature. Another scale of struggle, a global one, appeared with the reduction of the French merchant fleet in the aftermath of decolonization and the development of ships under flags of convenience. The need for transnational trade union organizations to improve the working conditions, safety and employment of seafarers, without distinction of nationality, became glaringly obvious and remains relevant today

Keywords

• strike
• globalization
• merchant navy
• unionism
• flag of convenience