Plant Closure and the Politics of Worker Ownership: The Inglis Case

Abstract

This thesis is a case study of the 1989 closure of the Inglis Ltd. plant in Toronto, Ontario. The purpose of the study is to examine worker-ownership as a labour strategy in a period of economic restructuring. In the Inglis case, Local 2900 of the United Steelworkers of America developed a response to closure comprised of three elements: negotiating improvements on the terms of closure specified by contract and by legislation; participation in a state-sponsored Labour Adjustment Committee; and a study of the prospects for worker-ownership as an alternative to plant closure. Through document analysis and interviews with union members, officials, and consultants, the relation between these three strategic elements is outlined. Gramsci's concept of "passive revolution" is employed to analyze the role of the state in economic restructuring and in the plant closure. It is argued that the state's role in economic restructuring has fostered forms of worker-ownership which are difficult to translate into effective labour strategy. State reforms embodied in plant closure legislation and adjustment programs have simultaneously channelled labour responses away from worker-ownership and towards severance negotiations and adjustment activities.