Maritime trade is the backbone of the world’s economy. Around ninety percent of all goods are transported by ship, and since World War II, shipbuilding has undergone major changes in response to new commercial pressures and opportunities. Early British dominance, for example, was later undermined in the 1950s by competition from the Japanese, who have since been overtaken by South Korea and, most recently, China. The case studies in this volume trace these and other important developments in the shipbuilding and ship repair industries, as well as workers’ responses to these historic transformations.

Raquel Varela : Researcher at the Institute for Contemporary History of Universidade Nova de Lisboa, where she coordinates the Study Group on Global History of Labour and Social Conflicts. Recent book: História do Povo na Revolução Portuguesa 1974-1975 (Lisbon, 2014).Hugh Murphy: Visiting Reader in Maritime History, National Maritime Museum, Royal Museums Greenwich and Professor in the Department of Economic and Social History, University of Glasgow. He has published widely on business and economic history, particularly on the history of British shipbuilding during the twentieth century. Marcel van der Linden : Senior Research Fellow at IISH, the institution of which he has been the research director between 2001 and 2014. He is also Professor of Social Movement History at the University of Amsterdam. Recent book: Workers of the World. Essays toward a Global Labor History (Leiden and Boston, 2010).

1. IntroductionMarcel van der Linden, Hugh Murphy, and Raquel VarelaAcknowledgementsNORTH-WESTERN EUROPE2. Labour in the British shipbuilding and ship repairing industries in the twentieth centuryHugh Murphy3. Bremer Vulkan: A case study of the West German shipbuilding industry and its narratives in the second half of the twentieth centuryJohanna Wolf4. From boom to bust: Kockums, Malmö (Sweden), 1950-1986Tobias Karlsson5. The Norwegian shipbuilding industry after 1945: Production systems, rationalization, and labour relations, with special reference to Bergens Mekaniske Verksteder and Aker Stord Hans-Jakob Ågotnes and Jan Heiret6. From war reparations to luxury cruise liners: Production changes and labour relations at the Turku shipyard (Finland) between 1950 and 2010Kari Teräs7. The Dutch shipbuilding industry, 1950-2012 Sjaak van der VeldenSOUTHERN AND EASTERN EUROPE8. Always on the verge of sinking: Labour and production in the Sestri Ponente shipyard, Genoa (Italy), 1950-2014Giulia Strippoli, Davide Tabor, and Luciano Villani9. Work, workers, and labour conflicts in the shipyard Bazán/Navantia-Ferrol, Galicia (Spain), 1950-2014José Gómez Alén10. Against market rules: A Spanish shipyard nobody wanted (except workers)Rubén Vega García11. Labour relations in a Portuguese shipyard: The case of Setenave Jorge Fontes12. Work in the Portuguese shipyards of Lisnave: From the right to work to precariousness of employment Raquel Varela and Ana Rajado13. The Gdansk Shipyard: Production regime and workers conflicts in the 1970s and 1980s in the People's Republic of Poland Sarah Graber Majchrzak14. The shipbuilding industry in Galati (Romania) under Communism, 1948-1989Constantin ArdeleanuTHE AMERICAS AND AUSTRALIA15. Charting a new course: US shipbuilding labour, 1950-2014Robin Dearmon Muhammad16. The Argentinean shipbuilding industry: Workers' struggles in a state shipyard Cintia Russo17. Production and labour of a state-owned enterprise: A case study of an Argentinean shipyard, Astillero Río SantiagoJuliana Frassa18. Labour in the Brazilian shipbuilding industry: A contribution to an analysis of the recovery period Claudiana Guedes de Jesus19. Brazilian shipbuilding and workers between tradition and innovation: Shipyards Caneco/Rio Nave and Mauá - Rio de Janeiro, 1950-2014Elina G. da Fonte Pessanha and Luisa Barbosa Pereira20. Cockatoo Island, Australia: Industry, labour, and protest cultureLisa MilnerASIA21. Evolution and development of the shipbuilding industry in Bharati Shipyard Ltd, Maharashtra (India), from the 1970s to 2010: Employer, employee, and production perspectivesS. M. Fahimuddin Pasha22. Shipbuilding and shipbuilders in Thailand Nicola Mocci23. The lower labour market and the development of the post-war Japanese shipbuilding industry Takeshi Haraguchi and Kazuya Sakurada24. The evolution of labour relations in the South Korean shipbuilding industry: A case study of Hanjin Heavy Industries, 1950-2014Wonchul Shin25. China, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and VietnamHugh Murphy26. Some final observations Hugh Murphy and Marcel van der LindenAppendix 1: The effects of the oil price shocks on shipbuilding in the 1970sHugh Murphy and Stig TenoldAppendix 2: Shipbuilding in 2013: An analysis of shipbuilding statisticsVictoria CulkinGlossary of shipping and shipbuilding termsList of Tables, Graphs, and FiguresCollective bibliographyNotes on contributorsIndex