‘Going Underground’: A Tube Worker’s Experience of Struggles over the Frontier of Control

Emma S Hughes, Tony Dobbins and Stephen Murphy
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Emma S Hughes: Bangor University, UK
Tony Dobbins: Bangor University, UK; University of Birmingham, UK
Stephen Murphy: London Underground, UK

Work, Employment & Society, 2019, vol. 33, issue 1, 174-183

Abstract: Mainstream media representation of London Underground (LU) workers typically foregrounds their alleged militancy, greed and negligence towards the travelling public. This knee-jerk tendency obscures the voices, expressions and experiences of workers themselves. This article enriches public sociology by giving Stephen, a Tube driver and former LU station worker, a platform to share his vivid story. Stephen’s voice reveals deep sociological insights into the realities of workplace struggles over the shifting ‘frontier of control’ at LU, and graphically captures uneven and fluid patterns of individual/collective resistance to restructuring and ‘modernization’. His lived experiences of managerial control and worker autonomy, interfacing with different degrees of alienation, new technology and customer engagement, have changed over time as ‘passengers’ become ‘customers’ and ‘give and take’ employment relations dwindle.

Keywords: disputes; frontier of control; London Underground; modernization; resistance; unions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:33:y:2019:i:1:p:174-183

DOI: 10.1177/0950017018758215

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