The Growing Representation Gap in the United States - Essay Example

?The Growing Representation Gap in the United s? How to Fill It. The growing representation gap in US is a 40 years old process It started in late 1960s and have flourished in the atmosphere of weak labor laws. As a result of this under-representation, workers have suffered, resulting in cutting of benefits, reduction in the actual pay and abolition of welfare schemes.2 It was Freeman and Rogers who first coined the term representation/participation gap, to describe the “difference between the say that workers want and what they currently have.”3 The collective bargaining rights of workers were only weakly enforced in US laws and also the ongoing changes in the labor scenario worsened the situation. Globalization saw many factories being laid off and also many companies outsourcing their work into other countries seeking cheap labor.4 Decentralization, contract system and influx of cheap labor from other countries were the challenges faced by the work force which became torn into highly unorganized different interest groups. All these, in turn, had an effect of widening the representation gap. Employees are very much aware of this gap because they always believed that filling in this gap will “directly improve the quality of their working lives and …make their firms more productive and successful.”5 But the ground realities in US are not very conducive for the solution of this problem. Studies have shown that “only one out of six US employees… have access to the independent representation of their individual and collective interests.”6 It is also a proven fact that though employees want representation, it is the employers who prevent them from accessing such opportunities.7 A major area of concern associated with the problem of representation is the changes that have happened in the composition of the workforce. The workforce scenario is greatly changed in US in the context of global migration of labor. Global alliances that are emerging in labour sector, the increased presence of women, and ethnic minorities in the global work force, and the new forms of workers organisations like the ‘worker centres’ of USA, have been some indicators of change. America has been depending more and more on immigrant labourers to meet the nation’s workforce needs. But these laborers have never been assimilated into the mainstream unionism. The race, ethnicity and nationality have come to play a great role in determining the group formations among workers. Organizing simply on a class basis has become a thing of the past, at least in the unorganized sector. There are attempts going on to assimilate the migrant workers into the mainstream work force of US by trade unions. This is very crucial when we see that in the United States, one in five people is from another nationality.8 The situation of the migrant workers have been pathetic as, “low-wage immigrant workers exist within industries in which there are few or no unions or other organisational vehicles through which they can speak and act.”9 Hence, the key to filling in the representation gap also lies in understanding the challenges faced by this totally different work force mix and also the changes brought about by the extreme corporatization. The dominance of service sector over the primary production sectors has also presented a new set of problems regarding representation. When the rise of service sector in combination with the technological changes that accompany it is considered, it can be realized that the representation issue is at its worst in this area.10 The increase in part-time and temporary work clubbed with the increase in the percentage of woman workers in the total work force also create new challenges on the representation front.11 All these changes in the labor force composition is supposed to have enhanced the bargaining power of the corporate companies.12 Anti-union tactics of corporations in the United States Around 32 million civilian workers in US lack “collective bargaining rights under any law, either federal or state.”13 Also it is found that 66% of the 20 million government workers in the US have legally approved bargaining rights, “both federal and local”.14 In the Zogby interactive poll carried out by Workplace Democracy Association in 2008 had revealed, “One out of every four working Americans (25%) describes their workplace as a dictatorship, while just 34% of bosses react well to valid criticism”.15 The categories of workers who have no bargaining rights include, agricultural workers, domestic workers, supervisory and managerial employees, independent contractors etc.16 All these groups except the supervisory and managerial employees, have been known for their low-income status as well. Without the collective bargaining powers and with a very meager income, these workers have been victims of extreme kinds of exploitation by corporate companies. Quoting J. Mickelthwait and A. Woolridge, from their 2000 article, ‘Writers on Globalisation’, it is observed, “twenty years ago the salary difference between a US CEO and a factory worker was 40:1. A few years ago it was more than 400:1.”17 This income gap itself is a sign of the decline in the bargaining capacity of the low-income workers. The non-union labor market is also found to grow in unimaginable proportions and this trend is expected to continue in the near future as well.18 Though non-union workers are found to be in favor of unions when surveys were conducted among them, there are many legal hassles that prevent them from doing so.19 In the U.S., it is observed that, "when one compares workers whose experience, education, region, industry, occupation and marital status are comparable, those covered by a union agreement (are also) 28.2% more likely to have employer-provided health insurance, 53.9% more likely to have pension coverage …(and)…14.3% more paid time off.20 But unionization of all the workers is still a distant dream and the existing laws deprive a major portion of the workers, the legal right of collective bargaining. Human Rights Watch has drawn attention to the anti-union strategies of the corporate company, Wal-Mart, and has observed that “Wal-Mart is a case study in what is wrong with US labor laws.”21 It is shown by Human Rights Watch that an atmosphere of fear is created among the workers regarding unionization and also continuous negative campaign on the topic sponsored by the company, is a routine.22 This is not an isolated instance. It is observed that US corporations have been trying systematically to destroy labor unions since the 1960s.23 Corporations have developed the habit of hiring management consultants whose job is to plan and carry out anti-union campaigns.24 The interventions made by such consultants did not always stay within the limits of mere propaganda and became aggressive; “they threatened unions with decertification, fired union leaders and organizers, and threatened to relocate their plants unless the unions and their members ‘behaved’.”25 In Wal-Mart, managers were asked to report unionizing activities immediately on hotline.26 This is just an example of the urgency with which unionism is tackled. Figures have shown that in US, annually, about 23,000 workers loose their jobs as punishment for being involved in trade union activities.27 NLRA and NLRB In US, NLRA (National Labor Relations Act) was enacted in 1935 and is considered as the “cornerstone of labor relations and collective bargaining in the United States, providing the basic framework governing private sector labor-management relations.”28 NLRA is the act that gives workers the right to “form unions and bargain collectively and requires employers to recognize employee unions that demonstrate support from a majority of employees and to bargain in good faith.”29 The act also has provisions to give back pay and also to give back the job to the worker if found that the employer has violated the provisions of the act in terminating the services of the employee.30 The enforcement agency of the act is the National Labor Relations Board.31 Many groups of workers like supervisors and those in managerial positions are excluded from NLRA. The supervisors and higher-level managers who are excluded from NLRA constitute around 10% of private sector workers.32 In the public sector, the federal as well as local acts and laws prohibit workers from striking.33 About 7% of the private sector workers are independent contractors and they are also deprived of collective bargaining rights and excluded from NLRA.34 Around half a million domestic workers are also kept out of the purview of the NLRA.35 Only nine states in the US have provided bargaining rights to agricultural workers.36 When enacted, the NLRA had provisions, which made it mandatory for employers “to grant a demand for union recognition if a majority of workers signed a card indicating they wanted a union.”37 But later the law was amended by way of the new Taft Hertley Act (1947), which said that, “employers can reject workers’ demand for unionization and force a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election which requires about one-third of workers to petition for the Board to hold the election.”38 The company would use the delay thus caused, to dissuade individual workers from demanding a union formation.39 Another important problem with the existing labor laws is that penalties imposed for violating the laws are very little.40 So employers prefer to violate the law by paying the ‘small price involved’ and thus preventing the long-term headache caused by unions.41 Another step against unionism and representation happened in 1980s when the conservatives began to dominate the NLRB.42 It was a period when corporate companies were non-ashamedly indulging in anti-unionism but the Board ignored that totally.43 NLRB began to keep away from activities of promoting unionism and addressing the grievances of the workers.44 The Chairman of NLRB during Ronald Reagan’s president ship even criticized unions as destroyers of flourishing industries and strikes as threats against people’s wish to work.45 With such government level support, the companies could easily suppress unionism and strikes.46 The recent judgments of the Supreme Court on specific labor dispute cases have also been generally unfavorable for the unionization of workers. For example, as per the Supreme Court decision in the Kentucky River case, many categories of workers were excluded from the purview of NLRA.47 This judgment made it necessary to decide on the exclusion or inclusion under NLRA on a “case by case basis.”48 In the Hoffman Plastic Case also, “the Supreme Court ruled that undocumented alien workers were not eligible for back pay under the NLRA.”49 The gravity of this judgment and its impact on the welfare of the workers can be understood only when we realize that there are “8.7 million undocumented immigrants” in United States.50 The government argument has been that “since 1959, no major group of workers has lost bargaining rights under the NLRA.”51 This is claimed because, after the Taft Hertley Act (1947)52 and the Landrum-Griffin Act (1959) had brought in amendments to NLRA and had put certain restrictions on trade union activities as well as union administration, no major federal legislation has been made against collective bargaining of workers.53 But the existing laws have been twisted and interpreted in such a way that the workers have seen a decline in their collective bargaining power. Another issue is that of the hundreds of pending cases in the NLRB, which in turn, destroy the faith of the employees in such a remedial mechanism. Towers has pointed out that all these problems related to the representation gap can be viewed as the consequence of withdrawal of public policy support for the collective bargaining of the workers.54 This is a problem that can be rectified only by a policy change. But the current political scenario in US does not indicate such a change in the immediate future. Path Ahead Within the existing legislations and within the wider democratic polity, a new path can be traced to fill in the representation gap. The suggestions that Freeman and Rogers have put forth to fill in the representation gap in the US labor scenario include, existence and functioning of unions, work councils, or even independent organizations of workers.55 This may require serious union revitalization attempts and a search for new and effective organizational forms. There has been criticism that black workers are underrepresented in the leadership of trade unions.56 Only when the unions have the capability to end such discrimination that they will win the ground support among the majority of workers, as now the majority amount to such marginalised groups. For example, in the British trade union, UNISON, 72% of the workers are women but the union has only 62 women in executive positions and in the trade union, USDAW, 60% members are women but the number of women in executive positions in this trade union is only 53.57 In this backdrop, discussion must be started to give a more flexible and democratic structure to trade unions. This can develop into a platform creation for better representation. But it is observed that certain new innovative practices of the corporate managements have been preventing the revitalization of such groupings.58 Employee participation programs are an example for this.59 This is a mechanism by which efficiency of work is put above workers’ rights and issues like representation gap and such issues are kept away from workspace.60 Though issues like such programs address health and safety in the workplace, they do not go beyond the interests of profit that motivate the companies to involve in such activities. Hence, caution has to be there regarding such programs and they can be monitored for violation of the NLRB directives on workers’ organizations.61 It is by carrying out continuous campaigns among the employees explaining the importance of collective bargaining, that result can be achieved. Since 1990s, social scientists have also been promoting the benefits of workers groups other than unions.62 For example, “mandatory works’ councils” have been put forth as an alternative.63 But the US government and legislative bodies have so far shown no interest in such new bodies. In US, worker centres have emerged as organising platforms for low-wage workers as they provide, “a combination of service, advocacy and organising” to such workers.64 The services imparted by workers centres are, “legal representation to recover unpaid wages, English classes, worker right education, and access to health clinics, bank accounts and loans.”65 Also, these worker centres are involved with “researching and releasing exposes about conditions in low-wage industries, lobbying of new laws and changes in existing ones, working with government agencies to improve monitoring and grievance processes, and bringing suites against employers.”66 On the organisation side, they try to sustain labour organisations, and train a strong leadership. 67 This functional mechanism of worker centres show which are the needs felt by a worker in the current labor scenario. Many of these needs are outside the purview of conventional trade unions or they need to be assimilated into the trade union conceptual framework. For example, learning English is a very crucial need for an immigrant worker in USA but presently the trade unions do not have that agenda included in their proclaimed ideology. To cite another example, a worker from an ethnic group may want to connect with other members of his ethnic group and collectively bargain for a specific right related to his/her ethnicity. For example, that worker might want the company to give her group members a holiday on their specific religious festival day. These are the socio-cultural areas that need deeper introspection apart from the socio-economic sphere while attempting to revitalise trade union movement or enhance representation. The steps to increase representation through unionism can be, “the recruitment and replenishment of new generation of activists, the building of work place activity in the context of restructuring, the development and promotion of mutual support between levels of union members and leaders, and …the conditions for international unionism.”68 The use of information and communication technology in building networks of employees and employee groups at local, national and even international level has to be promoted. This kind of networking can replace the conventional forms of representation and reach out to the workers in the nonunion sections even. Networking across organizations, between worker organizations and proper trade unions, between local ethnic worker groups and trade unions-there are n number of possibilities presented by the modern world to fill in the gap of representation. These are the possibilities through which the weakness and exclusionist tendencies of the laws can be countered. Along with that, a common workers’ platform has to emerge, which can act as a pressure centre for long-term policy changes. Only with such multi-pronged and multi-dimensional efforts can the representation gap be at least narrowed down. Bibliography Bennett, James.T and Kaufman, Bruce.E., The Future of Private Sector Unionism in the United States, New York: M.E.Sharpe, 2002. Calveley, M. and Healy, G. “Political Activism and Work Place Industrial Relations in a UK ‘Failing’ School’, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 41:1, March 2003, pp.97-113. Fine, J. Worker centers: organizing communities at the edge of the dream, N.Y.L. School of Labour Review, Vol.50, pp.417-464, 2005-2006. Freeman, Richard Barry and Rogers, Joel, What Workers Want, New York: Cornell University Press, 1999. GAO, Collective Bargaining Rights: Information on the Number of Workers With and Without Bargaining Rights, Washington D.C: United States General Accounting Office, September 2002, 1-48. Gorman, Robert.A., Michael Harrington: Speaking American, London: Routledge, 1995. Human Rights Watch, Discounting Rights, New York: Human Rights Watch, n.d. Healy, G., E. Heery, et al., Eds. The future of worker Representation: Future of Work, Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2004. Labor-Management Relations Act, Chapter 120, 61 Stat. 136, 1959, accessed 13 April 2011, http://www.ipsn.org/court_cases/labor-management_relations_act.htm . Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, 1947, P.L. 86-257, United States Department of Labor, accessed 13 April 2011, http://www.dol.gov/compliance/laws/comp-lmrda.htm Mooney, Linda.A, Knox, David and Schacht, Caroline, Understanding Social Problems, London: Cengage Learning, 2010, 249. New Unionism Network, “Quotes”, accessed 13 April 2011, http://www.newunionism.net/inspirations.htm Ohlemacker, S. “Number of immigrants hit record 37.5M”, The Associated Press, September 12, 2007. accessed 13 April 2011, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/12/AR2007091200071.html Towers, Bryan, The Representation Gap: Change and Reform in the British and American Workspace, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. Troy, Leo, Beyond Unions and Collective Bargaining, New York: M.E.Sharpe,1999. Read More