The Blue-Coated Worker: A Sociological Study of Police Unionism

by Robert Reiner

Overview

This 1978 book addresses the way in which police unions had become increasingly militant and formed a significant political force, demanding better pay and conditions and a say in social and penal policy. In this study, Robert Reiner considers the development of British police unionization, and the views of the police themselves towards unionism. Dr Reiner is able to relate these two issues to one another particularly insightfully as a result of his interviews with a sample of policemen in a large city force, which illustrate the policeman's world-view. The central contention of the book is that the police occupy a contradictory position in class structure. Economically they are employees who form unions to advance their interests like other workers, but their political role of preserving the social order imposes special inhibitions on the character of their unionism, and can alienate them from other trade unionists.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521294829
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	09/07/1978
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Sociology , #10
Pages:	308
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.71(d)

Table of Contents

Preface; Acknowledgements; Part I. Introduction and Historical Background: 1. Introduction to the study of police unionism; 2. The history and structure of the Police Federation; Part II. Police Attitudes to Unionism: 3. Policemen's evaluation of the Federation; 4. Evaluation of specific Federation activities; 5. Policemen's desire for unionism; 6. The goals an institutionalisation of representation; 7. the Federationists and the men; 8. Attitudes to unionism outside the force; Part III. The Police as an Occupation: 9. The background and initial orientation of policemen; 10. Orientation to work; 11. Police and outside society; 12. Understanding police unionism a typology; Part IV. Conclusions: 13. Conclusions and implications of the study; Postscript and appendices; Bibliography; Index.