Shop Stewards and Union Activists in Contemporary UK Industrial Relations - Essay Example

Consider the Role and Influence Shop Stewards and Union Activists in Contemporary UK Industrial Relations Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Shop Steward 3 Role and day to day job of a Shop Steward 3 Shop Stewards Controlling Unions 4 Winter of Discontent 4 Background of the Trade Union 5 Historical Context of Trade Unions in UK 5 The Decline of Trade Unions 7 Economic Influences 9 Political Influence 10 Management Influence 10 Industrial Relationship 11 Background of Industrial Relationship 13 Recent Developments in UK in respect to Trade Unions 14 Will HRM replace the Role of the Shop Steward? 14 15 References 16 Bibliography 18 Shop Steward A shop steward is a person who is elected to deal with the employer in a union shop. The duty of shop steward is to get involved with recruitment of new members, collection of dues and negotiations for settlement of grievances (Business Dictionary, n.d.). Role and day to day job of a Shop Steward The role of the steward varies as per the constitutional mandate of the labor union. In general, the roles of the steward include the following: They used to monitor the guidelines of the Collective Bargaining Agreement to ensure that the agreement should not be violated by both the parties, neither by the union workers nor by the employers The stewards are also responsible for checking whether the firm follows all of the federal, state and local regulations or not They also need to stand for the fellow workers when the firm blamed them for violating company policy or to go against the terms and condition of the collective bargaining agreement They are also responsible for communicating of the official notices, memos, directives and the policies to the workers Shop stewards are assigned the responsibilities of recruitment and provide training to the workers as per the need of them Being a leader, they promote the union consciousness, values and beliefs in the workplace Shop Stewards Controlling Unions It has been argued that in 60’s and 70’s that the shop stewards were controlling the unions. This can be discussed through the review of the literature. According to Mr. Joseph Glascott, when the trade union movements had broadened its field at national level, the power of trade union had been more exercised in the lowest level which is the territory of the shop stewards. He acknowledged that shop stewards were the integral part of the blue-collar companies within the industrial relations system. In the large industrial plants, where lots of members of different unions had been employed, there it was found that at least twenty stewards were representing various departments (Glascott, 19710). Salamon’s statement is also vital in this respect. He stated “The role tended to move away from being a passive guardian of the union’s collective agreements negotiated at the national level to one of direct negotiations with management.” Winter of Discontent The phrase refers to the British Winter of 1978-79. After 1926, this period has been marked as the largest stoppage of labour due to the widespread strikes. A horrible condition prevailed in the country at that time as there was a shortage of food. It had a great social and political impact. It led to declining influence of the trade union. The membership of trade union was halved. This period caused rise of ‘Militant Tendency’. The manufacturing base of the Britain has been badly affected. During this period, the base of the old labour force had reduced and a new workforce was building up (Conservapedia, n.d.). Background of the Trade Union The origin of the existence of the trade unions can be traced to the eighteenth century. During the period, a rapid expansion took place in the industrial society. Because of such changes, lots of women, rural workers and children had been involved in the workforce. Most of them were un-skilled or semi-skilled labor. This pool of labors spontaneously organized and at the later stage developed and founded trade unions. According to Smith, unions were not legal in most of the countries. For attempting to organize and develop unions, the leaders faced severe penalties. In spite of this, the unions were formed to acquire political powers. It resulted in body of labor law which not only codified the association between the employees and employers but also legalized the organizing effort. In this respect it is necessary to mention that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) has been developed to guide the right to join any union. This has been mentioned under the same law in the Article 23, Subsection 4. There is a term called “Union Busting” which refers an employer who prevents the union’s membership with the help of outside agencies, among their staff. Prohibiting a person to form or join any trade union is considered as “Human Right Abuse”. Historical Context of Trade Unions in UK Since 1870s, in the European countries, the democrats and the socialist parties played a significant role in building up and forming trade unions. This stood in comparison with the British experience where union movements have been dominated by ‘New Model Unions’ from the mid-nineteenth century. Until the establishment and enlargement of Labor Party in the early twentieth century, the trade unionism was much stronger than the political labor movement. The origin of the trade unions was in Europe. With time, it became popular in many countries especially during the industrial revolution. During the period, the bargaining power shifted to the employers’ side. Most of the workers were mistreated and underpaid and this situation compelled the leaders to raise their voice. That was the foundation of the trade union. Basically, trade unions composed of professionals, workers, past workers or even can be with unemployed. Over the last 300 years many trade union has been founded and developed in a number of forms and also influenced by various political objectives. Though the activity may vary in different unions but from the beginning itself all the unions use to follow the same principle. Few of them are mentioned below: Provision of benefits to members - At the early stage, many trade unions used to provide benefits to their members by insuring them against unemployment, funeral expenses, old age and ill health. In most of the developed countries, these facilities were supposed to be provided by the state. Apart from this legal advice, provisions for professional training were still beneficial for the union members. Collective Bargaining - This term refers that the trade unions can negotiate with employers regarding the wages and the working conditions. Industrial Actions - Even the unions can enforce strikes and lockouts to grab their demand. Political Action - The trade unions use to promote legislation which is favorable to the member’s interest. At this end, they may even pursue campaigns and can financially support to the individual candidates or parties. The Decline of Trade Unions The role and activity of stewards had declined since the past two decades. The root of these changes in UK was the structural changes of British economy. Earlier the trade unions of UK were traditionally strongest in the manufacturing industries such as coal, printing, steel, and engineering. But the scenario has changed since 1970. The 1980’s recession is the main reason behind the decline of trade unions as millions of manufacturing job was lost at the time. According to Richard Hyman, who is a professor of London School of Economics, another factor of decline in the number trade unions is the tough competitive environment where an attractive opinion has been provided to the employers by the anti-union stance. A statistical data regarding the membership can be provided in respect to biggest unions. In comparison with 1980 to 2000, the number of membership has declined in T&G and UNISON is 0.3 million, in GMB the amount a bit low, 0.2 million ( TUC ). Therefore, the decline in the piecework bargaining and the tough economic climate can be blamed for this decline. The union membership reached its peaked in 1979. The up and downs of the membership movements can be shown through a chart. ( Schifferes , 2004). As per TUC the reasons behind this fall in membership are: The dramatic fall in the job market in the manufacturing industries. The number of union membership is too high in those industries. Secondly they blamed the huge number of unemployed people. The small companies, where organizing unions is difficult, has increase its workforce. Even there are fall in the full time employment and the numbers of the part time and temporary worker has increased. The part time employees usually avoided to be a member of the union. The previous government had a conservative approach and the laws introduced by them created difficulties for the union to keep their members and operate (Bized, n.d.). As per WERS 14% of workforce have Joint Collective Cttees and only 22% have collective bargaining. From the same source of information it has been identified that union density has fallen from 55% to 26%. More specifically, it can be added that at present the density in the public sector is around 64% where in private sector this percentage is only 20 (WERS, 2004). Economic Influences Most of the economic influences have already been discussed. The main cause behind the decrease is the recession which continued till mid 90’s. It leads to reducing the employment condition. As it is mentioned earlier also that number of part time employees had increased which brought flexibility in the working condition therefore the bargaining power of the workforce has been reduced. Therefore few things can be interlinked for better understating of the economic influence. Flexible working condition has been one such factor that is linked with the deregulation of the labor market. It leads to loss of trade union’s power which further related to building up the management power and the foundation of all these factors. Political Influence The newly elected government in May, 1979 had focused on the political and the economical issues as the nation was going through an economic down turn. Therefore, they aimed to bring changes in the political and economical environment. As they believed in free market economy, it was reflected in their policies and practices. Therefore, the power of trade union was declined. Various policy and proposal were formulated during this time. It is important to mention here that the conservatives had threatened. As per their Election Manifesto in 1979 they were supposed to introduce three main changes. Those included reviews of the law on trade union immunities. Secondly for the employees who had lost their job because of non-joining the trade union, they ensured ‘ample compensation’. The next one was that they were supposed to encourage the secret ballots. Those will be financed by the government “for union elections and other important issues” (Dorey, 1995). Management Influence The management of most of the companies try to avoid the trade unions in their internal process. Because they have a feeling that the activities of the trade unions mostly interrupt the smoothness or the flow of the process as they frequently go for strikes and lockouts. Trade unions often demand for increasing the wages which is ultimately reflected as inflation. It can be termed as cost-push inflation. According to Collings, complete removal of trade unions can be achieved through offering more to the employees than the trade unions. As per the management’s view, building up of good relationship with the trade union leaders is not always fruitful. Therefore non-unionism can be considered as a better option as quite a few companies achieved success through it. Industrial Relationship Industrial relation not only shows relationship between the labor unions with the employer but also with the government who define the policies. According to C.B. Kumar “Industrial relations are broadly concerned with bargaining between employers and trade union on wages and other terms of employment. The day-to-day relations within a plant also constitute one of the important elements and impinge on the broader aspects of industrial relations”. The industrial relationship can be organized or even can be unorganized in nature. It refers that the relationship between the workers and union or between the management and labor union can be organized or can be unorganized. Industrial relation is multi-dimensional in nature and it has three determinants. Those are: Institutional Factor: Industrial factors include labor laws, collective agreements, state policy, voluntary codes, and attribute of works, motivation and influence. It also emphasise on social institutions such as community, joint family, their values and beliefs. Economic Factor: Basically economic organizations are included in the economic factor. It can be a socialist, a communist, an individual ownership firm, government ownership firm or can be a capitalist. It also includes the labor force. Such as sources of supply and demand of the labor market, power, nature and composition of the force. Technical Factors: Technical factors refer to techniques of production, capital structure and modernization schemes. The concept behind the industrial relationship is not narrow; it has a very wide connotation. It not only sticks to the day to day relationship of the labor and the management. This concept confines the relationship between the employer and employees in course of running an industry. Where employers set up and project the present and future policies and employees make it possible through the various functions such as quality control, marketing, customer service. Apart from this concept, the industrial relationship can be broadly described as the relationship between the community and an industry. Existence of any industry has been based on a society. It is a part of the society and they have to maintain good relation with society to survive. It leads to association with various persons. The internal relationship between the workmen, supervisor, management, or employer also affects the political, social and economic life of the whole community. Thus, a series of social relationship is created through the industrial life. Therefore, it has been proved that social relationship not only regulates the relation only between the management and workmen but also in between the industry and community. Therefore, the industrial relationship can be expressed through the labor –management relation, employer-employee relation, group relation and community or public relation. Certain fundamental principles have been recognized by the Labor Management Committees of social policy in governing industrial relation. A good labor management relation refers to the bonding in between the employer and trade unions. It should be such that both can solve their problems freely, responsibly and independently. Both the parties should desirous to be associated with the government agencies. It is expected that the problems between both the parties should be resolved through the collective bargaining. Even during resolving such problems the association or involvement of appropriate government agencies may be needed due to the public interest. Therefore, collective bargaining can be considered as the corner stone of the good relation. Background of Industrial Relationship Any one single factor cannot be identified for the development of the industrial relations. This factor is dependent on the Western Europe’s industrial revolution and on the social, political and economical situations in many other locations. Since earlier days, the changes that have been taking place are not of similar pattern in different countries. Not all those changes have been reflected in the principle and practices of industrial relations. At the earlier stage, the worker used to work with their own tools. Since then, they have entered into the power driven factories. These changes have been brought because of minimizing breakdown caused by industrial relations and for increasing the productivity. Human relations approach and industrial peace are the other reasons. It also led to labor partnerships, primarily based on democracy and for sharing the profits (Management Paradise, 2008). Recent Developments in UK in respect to Trade Unions The TUC authority has claimed that the condition is now improving as they launched a recruitment drive New Unionism - Organizing for Growth. According to the authority employees are turning to trade unions as they believe that unions can provide job protection. Keeping this in mind, ‘New Labor- Employment Relations Act (2004)’ has been enacted. It has been observed that the recognition has been increased among the women but it still not enough for increasing the trade union density. In spite of all those legislations, new unions have been recognized only at 27% workplaces. Will HRM replace the Role of the Shop Steward? For answering the above question, a reference from a research can be added. Mr. Stephen Machine had used the British workforce data for the period of 1980-98. His focus was to determine whether the practice of Human Resource Management coincide with the union’s decline or not. The two initial analysis of the study have shown that there are no significant differences in the union or non-union sectors in the pattern of HRM over time. Apart from this study, it has also been observed that the HRM practices have become popular in the recent days. The reason is not only the recent HR laws but also the facilities it has provided to the company and the employees also. With the improvement of technology and advanced information software human resource practices have become more effective for the firm. In the comparison with shop stewards and the unions, most of the organisation give preference to the HRM practices as it does interrupt the flow of the business activities, rather it tries to resolve the problem that arises and are related with workforce. HRM and trade union should not coincide as all the activities are not the same. Basically, trade unions or shop stewards work for employees where human resource department represent the management. Therefore it can be concluded that it is not possible to replace HRM into the role of shop stewards. References Bized, No Date. How has trade union membership changed in recent years? TUC. [Online] Available at: http://www.bized.co.uk/compfact/tuc/tuc15.htm [Accessed June 14, 2010]. Business Dictionary. No Date. Definition. Shop steward. [Online] Available at: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/shop-steward.html [Accessed June 14, 2010]. Conservapedia. No Date. Political and social impact. Winter of Discontent. [Online] Available at: http://www.conservapedia.com/Winter_of_Discontent [Accessed June 14, 2010]. Dorey, P., 1995. The Conservative Party and the trade unions. Routledge. Glascott, J., 1971. Shop Stewards in Power. The Sydney Morning Herald. [Online] Available at: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1301&dat=19710413&id=_lEVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ceUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1877,4159371 [Accessed June 14, 2010]. Management Paradise, 2008. Industrial Relations. Forum. [Online] Available at: http://www.managementparadise.com/forums/human-resources-management-h-r/37991-industrial-relations.html [Accessed June 14, 2010]. Schifferes, S. 2004. Industrial decline. The trade unions long decline. [Online] Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3526917.stm [Accessed June 14, 2010]. Bibliography Beardwell, I. 1996. Contemporary industrial relations: a critical analysis. Oxford University Press. Gospel, H, F & Palmer, G. 1993. British industrial relations. Routledge. Jackson, M, P. 1982. Industrial relations: a textbook. Taylor & Francis. Read More