FLORENCE: Faced with an embarrassing strike by Air France pilots during the World Cup, the French government purchased labor peace by, among other things, offering striking pilots a big ownership stake in their company. Such employee ownership, uncritically lumped together with socialist nostrums over the years, was once widely dismissed as a nutty, ideological illusion. Recently, it has attracted fresh and widespread interest not only as a means to secure more tranquil labor relations, but as a practical means of business organization. In the West, this interest derives in part from declining faith in traditional trade unionism; in the postcommunist East it was stimulated by the speedy collapse of state socialism.
FLORENCE: Faced with an embarrassing strike by Air France pilots during the World Cup, the French government purchased labor peace by, among other things, offering striking pilots a big ownership stake in their company. Such employee ownership, uncritically lumped together with socialist nostrums over the years, was once widely dismissed as a nutty, ideological illusion. Recently, it has attracted fresh and widespread interest not only as a means to secure more tranquil labor relations, but as a practical means of business organization. In the West, this interest derives in part from declining faith in traditional trade unionism; in the postcommunist East it was stimulated by the speedy collapse of state socialism.