Adamastos

100 years of the General Diamond Workers' Union of Belgium

The book covers the history of the General Diamond Workers' Union and how it succeeded in uniting the widest range of diamond workers. The Belgian diamond industry had a very unique structure and was not easily divided into workers and employers. There were merchant-manufacturers, workshop owners, entrepreneurs who employed workers but were often also diamond workers themselves, independent craftsmen, counter workers, workers with widely varying training and status, and apprentices. Many variations existed in between.
We follow the evolution of the ADB until 1995 and how the diamond industry drastically changed over the course of the 1970s and 1980s, from a rather anachronistic proto-industry to a hypermodern sector.

Martine Vermandere
AMSAB/ABVV-Textiles, Clothing and Diamonds, Ghent/Antwerp, 1995, 142 p., ill., hardcover