Patriarkalism och föreningsrätt : Om produktion och facklig kamp inom handelsträdgårdsnäringen i Malmö med omnejd fram till 1936

Sammanfattning: In 1935 and 1936 there was a hard labour conflict in the market garden business in the city of Malmö and its environs. The Parties were Allmänna Arbetsgivareföreningen (the General Federation of Employers), an affiliation of Svenska Arbetsgivareföreningen (the Swedish Employers Federation), SAF, on the one hand and on the other Svenska Lantarbetareförbundet (the Swedish Union of Agricultural Workers) and its Section 210 (the Union of Garden Workers in the District of Malmö). It was the last major conflict over rights of association involving Swedish workers before an era begins in which there are no conflicts of this nature, and the relations between the SAF and Landsorganisationen (the Confederation of Swedish Labour Unions) are characterised by the so-called "Spirit of Saltsjöbaden". This study deals with the background, the course of events and the settlement of the conflict. The relationship between workers and employers is viewed from a power relations perspective. Market gardening was, for a long period of time, slow to develope. It was a patriarchal production system in which apprenticeships as well as board and lodging were integrated parts. From a power relations perspective this patriarchal system worked against the workers, since the system rested on individual employment conditions for each employee. The power position of the employer was thus strong, since the individual employee did not have recourse to a collective stand from his colleagues. The study shows how the power position of the workers in relation to the employers was strengthened from the mid-1920s, on both the macro- and the micro-level. The micro-level in this context stands for the workplace-level.