Abstracts
Abstract
This paper seeks to explore the history of miners’ struggles to represent their interests in health and safety in coalmines in a range of countries in the period between 1870 and 1925. It has two objectives, the first objective being to examine these struggles both in terms of what determined them and how effective they were. The second objective is to assess the significance of these struggles for current understandings of representative participation in Occupational Health and Safety (OHS).
Starting with late 19th century Australia, the research method involved search, retrieval and analysis of historical sources including newspaper accounts, recorded testimony to Commissions of Inquiry into mining incidents and disasters, records of the debates of the legislature on relevant regulatory reforms and records of trade union meetings, as well as the accounts of contemporary observers and published analysis.
Extending its inquiry to other countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, France and Belgium, the methods used for these countries were less focused on newspaper accounts and more reliant on the analysis of published historical records of national and international trade union congresses, and those of the legislatures of these countries, as well as theses and accounts in the research literature. In combination, these sources corroborate one another and provide rich qualitative data, the analysis of which has achieved both research objectives.
As well as filling an important gap in the literature on the development of worker involvement in OHS, this paper shows that coalminers’ struggles and strategies for workers to have a say in their health and safety, and the contexts that shaped them are both instructive and important in understanding current experiences.
Keywords:
- coalmining,
- history,
- minor,
- worker representation,
- health and safety
Résumé
Cet article cherche à cerner l’histoire des luttes des mineurs en matière de santé et de sécurité dans les mines de charbon de divers pays entre 1870 et 1925. Il a deux objectifs, le premier étant d’examiner ces luttes tant en termes de ce qui les a déterminées que de leur efficacité. Le deuxième objectif est d’évaluer l’importance de ces luttes pour la compréhension actuelle de la participation représentative à la santé et la sécurité au travail (SST).
À partir du cas de l’Australie de la fin du XIXe siècle, la méthode de recherche a consisté à rechercher, retrouver et analyser des sources historiques, notamment des articles de journaux, des témoignages enregistrés auprès des commissions d’enquête sur les incidents et les catastrophes minières, des comptes-rendus des débats du Parlement sur les réformes réglementaires pertinentes et des procès-verbaux de réunions syndicales, ainsi que les témoignages d’observateurs contemporains et les analyses publiées.
Étendant notre enquête à d’autres pays, dont le Royaume-Uni, le Canada, la France et la Belgique, les méthodes utilisées pour ces pays ont été moins axées sur les articles de journaux et davantage tributaires de l’analyse des documents historiques publiés, des rapports de congrès syndicaux internationaux et ceux des assemblées législatives de ces pays, ainsi que des thèses et des rapports de recherche. Combinées, ces sources se corroborent et fournissent des données qualitatives riches, dont l’analyse a permis d’atteindre les deux objectifs de recherche.
En plus de combler une lacune importante dans la littérature sur le développement de la participation des travailleurs à la SST, cet article montre que les luttes et les stratégies des mineurs de charbon visant à ce que les travailleurs aient leur mot à dire sur leur santé et leur sécurité au travail, tout comme les contextes qui les ont façonnés, s’avèrent à la fois instructifs et importants pour comprendre les expériences actuelles.
Mots-clés:
- mine de charbon,
- histoire,
- mineur,
- représentation des travailleurs,
- santé et sécurité
Appendices
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