An Injury to One....

by Seán Mon Feb 27, 2006 01:00

The next step is to unionise everywhere ie. Lidl's, Aldi's, Intel, IBM, call centres....

by Shop Steward Thu Mar 09, 2006 23:35

Sean is right of course. But it will take an almighty effort. Whole swathes of the workforce are not unionised at all and only the rapidly swelling numbers at work is masking a catastrophic fall in union density. Net union membership shows only a tiny increase year on year despite a vastly increased workforce. Its worth looking at the reasons why. Trade unions are innately highly conservative (small c) organisations with a strong emphasis on the rulebook, procedures and internal politics (small p) and bureaucracy. There is a reason for this. The model has been historically very successful at advancing the greater good of the greater number within its membership. (As long as you define success within the context of extracting as much as possible for the workers within the broad confines of the capitalist economy - changing the system is best pursued through other means but thats a different story!) The model works well in large industrial employments or in stable service employment, including the public service. This worked well in the 1960's, 70's and into the 80's and 90's. The demise of "traditional" industries has robbed the union movement of a valuable habitat where membership was virtually mandatory, and where activists could flourish and develop. It is vastly more difficult to organise in the newer service industries where there is a rapid turnover of workers. Aldi, LIdl and counless small/medium retail/hospitality oulets are typical of this type of employment. Call centres are similar. While often employing large numbers of poorly paid staff (which in theory should be fertile ground for unions) an aggressive anti-union stance has paid off for management. "Troublemakers" are identified early on and will be sacked before their Unfair Dismissal rights come into force. Working conditions are bad and workers are under enormous pressure to meet company targets. A high turnover is accepted and even encouraged as it is cheaper to retrain new workers on a regular basis than to provide the increased pay, career structure and pensions that might encourage people to stay. IBM, Intel and high tech industry is a different ballgame. Competition for staff is strong and pay and benefits are pretty good. Better than many unionised employments, if truth be told. But there's a catch. (There always is) The Company has you by the balls. Hearts and minds soon follow! You can be a good corporate citizen, sing the company song, dress down on Fridays, eat in the same canteen as the CEO, go to the (free!) 4th July picnic and generally keep your head down and you will prosper and earn enough to pay for your exorbitant mortgage and childcare. You will be "allowed" to "negotiate" your very own annual wage increase and bonus (within the confines of tight parameters and a budget handed down from head office which middle management will divvy up preferentially to the good corporate drones) Get with the program and you'll become a happy well paid Stepford employee. Last thing you will want is a nasty ol' union stirring the shit............ Unless of course you get into trouble and the iron fist emerges from the velvet glove - you've got nowhere to turn. But by then its too late. You're history. Don't even think of trying to enforce your rights or you'll never work in this town again.

So, what's to be done? Pending the glorious revolution when all capitalist running dogs will be shot, there are a few things that can be done TODAY (ok, well maybe tomorrow) by the trade union movement.

1. Education, education, education. Start in the schools. Get em young. ICTU had a secondary schools program whereby activists used to visit secondary schools to explain how trade unions work and the benefits of membership. This program needs to be reactivated and updated. Yes, its hard work and unglamorous but it needs to be done. I grew up in a household where both parents were active union members. My grandfathers and uncles were union members. This is rarely the case today. We need to get the message out.

2. Unions must focus on recruitment as much as servicing existing members. Members no longer come to us and sign up automatically. We gotta chase them up. We must also focus on atypical workers, part timers, students, immigrants. UNIONS MUST SET UP AND RESOURCE NEW STRUCTURES TO DO THIS The existing branch and national structures are inward focused and concentrate almost exclusively on servicing the traditional areas of employment. Both the British TUC and the American AFL-CIO have tackled this problems and there are some simple examples that can be copied eg Organising Academies to train large numbers of recruiters

3. The existing "voluntarist" industrial relations machionery (LRC, Labour Court etc) was designed in 1945 and has served us reasonably well. However it cannot cope with the newer aggressive anti-union type of employer (think Irish Ferries, Gama, Ryanair, etc) Nor is it well set up to deal with the increasing rights based sytem that is gradually being transposed from European Union legislation into Irish Law. The existing system is in effect a much-loved comfort blanket but it is getting increasingly threadbare. I believe there is an overwhelming case for a move to a more continental type sytem of sectoral collective agreements that are legally binding on employers. (This deals with the ALDI's Lidl's, Ryanair's etc.) The Scandanavian, German and Italian models are worth looking at. While we still have influence at "social partnership" level we must push firmly in this direction.

4. Media. We need to encourage the mainstream media outlets to appoint full time industrial relations correspondents (NOT combined business and industrial correspondents) who will develop an expertise on reporting trade union activities. Trade unions must step up to the plate and provide trained media spokespersons who can engage more meaningfully than churning out standard trade union cliche and jargon.

5. Party Politics. OK, OK it would be lovely if all politicians shared our views and ideals. They don't. But quite a few do. And they exist in nearly all the main parties. Even FF and FG. (I once attended an FG trade union liasion group, no less!) Typically they will make lots of noise when, say, a factory closes down. But they are next to useless when it comes to pushing for union friendly legislation. We need to invest greatèr time and resources into lobbying and political liaison. (US unions are pretty good at this) "Scorecards" for politicians can be communicated to members at election time.

This won't fix everything. But it's a start. And it's achievable.