The Evolution of the Tactics Employed by the Unions - Assignment Example

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS Name: Instructor: Course: Institution: City: Date: Question Two The Evolution of the Tactics Employed by the Unions In the recent years, there has been a shift in the strategies employed by trade unions to carry out their mandate especially due to their declining memberships. One of them is servicing which is strongly founded on the external workplace activities of the unions (Teicher, Holland & Gough, 2013). These activities are geared towards initiating appraisals in terms of the workers’ pay, the work dispute resolutions as well as the general conditions of work. The other strategy is that of organizing. Here, aggressive structures of the workplace delegates are employed to take note of campaigns that are valuable to the concerns of the members at their workplaces (Teicher, Holland & Gough et al., 2013). The success of the unions depends on collectiveness, contacts, communication, campaigns and credibility (Salamon, 2000). Ackers & Wilkinson, 2003, did insinuate that unions also use community unionism which basically refers to the collaborations between the unions and other supportive groups with an aim of achieving a particular objective. This kind of ideology can be solely moved forward by the union leaders themselves (Teicher, Holland & Gough et al., 2013). Instrumental Alliances has equally been another strategy employed by the unions (Teicher, Holland & Gough et al., 2013). This is essentially an alliance that is formed in order to drive the agendas at hand beyond which they may be terminated. Through such alliances, the industrial strategies are ideally combined with the social goals in order to have a greater influence (Salamon et al., 2000). Reciprocal Alliances are also formed with a clear mandate of harmonizing the benefits of both parties of the workplace divide (Teicher, Holland & Gough et al., 2013). With this model, it is not just enough to champion for the fundamental rights of the employees alone. Finally, the Partnership Unionism has been championed for in an attempt to foster the bargaining powers of any two organizations (Teicher, Holland & Gough et al., 2013). This helps to build even a stronger partnership union that can advocate for workers’ rights aggressively. Reasons for the Decline of Trade Union Membership There has been a decline of trade union membership in Australia from a whopping 50% to a paltry 18% between 1974 and 2011 especially from the public employees. This decline can be attributed to a number of reasons (Teicher, Holland & Gough et al., 2013). To begin with, the kinds of work have changed structurally. Lately there has been a drastic shift from the conventional full-time employment where privatization, outsourcing, offshoring of jobs in the manufacturing sector as well as the use of casual labour have all changed the way labour is sought for (Ackers & Wilkinson, 2003). Secondly, the courts seem to be favouring the employers a lot in their judgments according to the latest findings. Such legislations as the Work Choices 2005 amendment to the Workplace Relations Act 1996 have made it difficult for unions to either retain old members and/or recruit new members. There has also been some external factors’ interference such as media propaganda on certain perceptions by the community, employer group campaigns against trade unions and some public statements too (Teicher, Holland & Gough et al., 2013). These have tarnished the image of the unions as either being extremely aggressive or sometimes bad-mannered during their strikes. Another reason is the increasing literacy levels which have been considered to be an alternative to the unions in terms of empowering the employees at the workplace. Finally, the changes in internal structures of the unions with regard to such parameters as the hierarchical structures are also believed to be a restriction to memberships of the unions (Teicher, Holland & Gough et al., 2013). Limitations of Nationally-Based Unions in a Globalized Era The recent trend of globalization has led to a variety of shifts in the various fields of life. The trade unions that are confined to specific national boundaries have not been left behind either. In fact, they have been influenced more into going global in order to fit in the seemingly village-like world in which everything is literally becoming linked to one another, so-to-speak. This apparent rush for trade unions to start operating in the global platform has been largely attributed to a number of reasons; most of which have been pegged on the alleged limitations that do exist for the local nationally-based trade unions. According to Teicher, Holland & Gough et al., 2013, unlike the old times, the current years have seen a lot of integration of capital. This has as a result provided a platform on which the national trade unions can and opt for going global. This shift to capital integration has made it necessary for trade unions that are based in specific countries to consider joining the global village as it is. Such a move if not taken by the locally-based trade unions will out of doubt cause a limitation to the employees in terms of accessing capital facilities. Arising from this fact therefore, there does exist an economic challenge for the nationally-based trade unions which may consequently pose a shortcoming to the running and day-to-day operation of such trade unions (Teicher, Holland & Gough et al., 2013). It is therefore believed that through such internationalism, the unions will have a strong bargaining power when it comes to cross-border solidarity. Additionally, the move to join the international community in their quest for union representation, local trade unions will perhaps have an upper hand in soliciting for transnational capital. For the trade unions operating in capitalist nations, there is a tendency for such trade unions to remain limited in what they can do to their members. It is likely for such trade unions to be restricted in what they can achieve since they will most at times shy away from pushing wages up to a level that may inhibit profits being made by the capitalist companies. In conclusion therefore, it is important to drive away the false notion that exists about the major purpose of trade unions in the society. Many at times, their existence have been attributed to the sole objective of inhibiting the development of employers. This is however not true at all. In fact, this notion can only be compared to propaganda. The trade unions are only there to tame the employers from exploiting their employees with a purpose of creating a better platform for growth for both parties in this case (Kaufman, 2004). Question Three International Organizations Advocating the Removal of Worker Protections? It is indeed a blatant fact that a lot of international institutions are currently either directly or otherwise against the increasing worker protection laws in the world. Some may not have voiced their concerns publicly, but others such as the World Bank have been very clear on their stand with regards to this. Many of these international organizations have been seen to prefer doing business in countries that have almost no laws to protect workers. Whereas this stance may be interpreted to mean the creation of room to manipulating workers, it is almost impossible to change this belief by the international organizations (Teicher, Holland & Gough et al., 2013). The Edition of 2007 of Doing Business by the World Bank has been widely castigated on an account that it is encouraging the employers to take advantage of their workers. This report seems to give an outright credit to those countries and governments such as the Marshall and Palau that have eliminated labour regulations. What is even more disturbing in the report is the open declaration that the top ranking was based on their allowance for workers to be forced to work for as long as twenty-four hours in a day or even seven days a week. This ranking was also based on the absence of vacations for employees or even advance for dismissal of employees from work by their employers. These were what characterized the countries that took the leading front in the rankings. According to Kelly, 1998, the argument of such international organizations is that most of these legislations are usually against the rights of the employers themselves. The report claims that the labour legislations may among many other things discourage investors who may feel that they are likely to be taken for a ride. Unlike the codes of conduct, IFAs comprises of texts whose signatories management of transnational companies and other universal unions. Codes of conduct on the other hand are a reflection of a small sample of the texts at hand whose representativeness is somewhat null and void. Codes of conduct together with IFAs are tasked with the improvement of industrial relations as well as working conditions. In the course of doing this, they introduce new rights for all stakeholders i.e. representatives of employees, employees themselves and trade unions. The Effects of Worker Protection on Job Creation and International Trade Many international organizations (just like it was discussed above), are a bit skeptic about the whole issue of worker protection legislation. From their point of view, worker protection laws have been instrumental in scaring away potential investors from certain governments (Teicher, Holland & Gough et al., 2013). Their understanding of the entire issue is that most of these worker protection laws have focused so much on allegedly inciting employees against their employers at the expense of actually ensuring that workers are protected. This consequentially has led to reduced employment opportunities because the potential employers will tend to shy away. International organizations have been the most affected however especially due to the excessive bureaucracies that are involved in the countries that embrace such legislations as far as business operations are concerned. Several factors have been attributed to the adaptability of the labour legislations. This to some extent affects the ability of the labour market to promote investment as well as the creation of jobs (Teicher, Holland & Gough et al., 2013). In conclusion therefore, companies need to adjust salaries and employment to the demand conditions that keep changing over time. Quite a huge number of jobs are either lost or created on yearly bases as a result of worker protection laws. Therefore, this issue has to be handled with a lot of care, if job creation is anything to go by. Operation of Codes of Conduct and International Framework Agreements as Mechanisms for Linking International Trade and Labour Rights For decades now, the codes of conduct for transnational organizations as well as trade unions have been in existence. In the recent past however, their proliferation has greatly increased; especially since the early 1990s (Teicher, Holland & Gough et al., 2013). This trend has been warranted by the expanding international trade coupled by global deregulation that is spearheaded by investments. The various stakeholders in the initiation of these codes of conduct include but are not limited to companies, company investors, trade unions as well as consumers (Budd, 2004). There is a school of thought however that argues against these codes on an account that they only exist to counteract the effect of the pressure from consumers, the trade unions and the companies. Some on the other hand argue that most of these codes are only intended to portray good corporate image even where there is none and therefore misleading the public (Teicher, Holland & Gough et al., 2013). Whereas the codes of conduct were initially intended to help in enforcing ethical standards in workplaces, they have been extensively misused at times. They are actually being used as a cover-up for the organizations in the public domain. Some scholars have seen the move to be more of a means of displaying a good image to the government of the day, unions and consumers alike. By so doing, it becomes a clever technique of ensuring that they are not affected by the regulations of the public. The codes of conduct have also been argued to be a trick for eliminating employees out of the regulation process (Budd et al. 2004). This therefore means that the codes are not always a reflection of an agreement between the employees and their bosses, but a flawed one-party stipulation. In order to promote the codes of conduct and make them effective, the universal union federations that are signatories to the IFAs always take note of the systematic reference to the core labour standards of the ILO. References Ackers, P. and Wilkinson, A. (2003). Understanding Work and Employment: Industrial Relations in Transition, Oxford University Press. Blyton, P., Bacon, N., Fiorito, J. and Heery, E. (2008). Sage Handbook of Industrial Relations, Sage. Budd, J. W. (2004). Employment with a Human Face: Balancing Efficiency, Equity, and Voice, Cornell University Press. Commons, J. R. (1919). Industrial Goodwill, McGraw Hill. Hyman, R. (1975). Industrial Relations: A Marxist Introduction, Macmillan. Bruce E. K. (1993). The Origins & Evolution of the Field of Industrial Relations in the United States, Cornell University Press.  John, W. B. (2010). Labour Relations: Striking a Balance (3rd ed), Boston: McGraw-Hill. Kaufman, B. E. (2004). Theoretical Perspectives on Work and the Employment Relationship, Industrial Relations Research Association. Kaufman, B. E. (2004). The Global Evolution of Industrial Relations: Events, Ideas, and the IIRA, International Labour Office. Kelly, J. (1998). Rethinking Industrial Relations: Mobilization, Collectivism and Long Waves, Routledge. Salamon, M. (2000). Industrial Relations: Theory and Practice, Prentice Hall. Webb, S. and Webb, B. (1897). Industrial Democracy, Longmans, Green, and Co. Nichols, T. (1997). The Sociology of Industrial Injury, London: Mansell Publishing Limited. Mullins, L. J. (2005). Management and Organisational Behaviour, FT Prentice Hall. Morrell, F. (2011). 90 Steps to Employee Engagement & Staff Motivation, Forest Gate Publishing. Teicher, J., Holland, P., and Gough, R. (2013). Australian Workplace Relations, Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. Read More