|
Conference on Organized Labour in the 21st Century
Background Document
Introduction.
In its 1997-98 World Labour Report the ILO provided a revealing overview of the state of industrial relations worldwide. Systems for regulating employment within individual nations have been threatened by global competition, technology, new industrial organization and changes in the workforce. In many countries the result has been a decline in trade union membership; a reduced coverage of collective bargaining; and a weakening of legal protections for workers. This has not, however, been the universal pattern.
In 1998 the International Institute of Labour Studies launched a 4-year programme on 'Organized Labour in the 21st Century'. The aim was to investigate in more detail the challenges facing trade unions; to present an overview of their varying responses; and to identify the policies and activities which have proved particularly successful in different regions of the world.
As the first stage of this exercise, trade unionists and academic experts were invited to give their own views of the key questions to be addressed. To assist in this exercise, this paper presented a preliminary review of some of the problems faced by unions in the world; and it posed some questions.
Challenges Facing Unions
1. Changing Patterns of Employment and Union Membership
Many union movements have been losing members because of changing patterns of employment. Unions often had their strongholds among manual workers in large establishments in traditional sectors such as coal-mining, metal-working, textiles, docks and railways. Another area of high unionization in most countries has been the public sector. But many of the traditional industries have been declining drastically, and there has been a world-wide trend to privatize what was formerly public.
Meanwhile the areas of growing employment have often been in the private service sector and in smaller workplaces, where unions have usually found it far harder to recruit and represent members. At the same time there has been a shift from manual to white-collar occupations, which in most (though not all) countries have traditionally been less well unionized.
Another change has been in the type of worker. Many trade union movements have mainly represented full-time employees with relatively secure jobs and they have often seemed to assume that the 'typical' worker would be male. But in many countries the labour force has become more evenly balanced between men and women; part-time employment has become more common; temporary contracts have spread; and in many countries there has been an increase in migrant labour. In some cases, such changes have been linked to the growth of an 'informal economy' and of a 'submerged' labour force.
The changing patterns of employment have produced both winners and losers. At one extreme there are groups with new, often technologically-based skills or professional qualifications. At the other extreme is a large and growing category with few skills who are vulnerable, insecure and often severely exploited.
Both winners and losers pose problems - very different in kind - for collective organization and representation. Those with new and scarce qualifications are often confident that they can survive in the labour market, and advance their personal career, without any need for collective support. Unionization is even more difficult if - as is often the case - they work for small firms or are self-employed.
By contrast, marginal workers are difficult to organize because they are often scattered; are sometimes illegally employed; may work fluctuating hours; and are vulnerable to victimization and dismissal if they do join a union. They may also view trade unions as organizations which are not particularly interested in workers such as them.
- How have unions managed to recruit and represent those with new skills and new careers?
- How have they managed to organize the growing numbers of 'atypical' workers?
- How far has it been necessary to emphasize services to workers as individuals as an incentive to membership, rather than collective representation?
- How have they managed to reconcile the competing interests of diverse groups of workers: women and men, native-born and migrant, secure and insecure, low-paid and high-paid? What has been the experience of special representative structures (separate committees, seats on governing bodies etc.) for previously under-represented groups?
- Where it has proved impossible to establish effective collective bargaining arrangements for certain sections of the workforce, what other means have been used to ensure basic employment rights and minimum standards of wages and conditions?
2. Change in Labour Management Relations
Stable industrial relations systems have been built on a compromise between capital and labour. The compromise occurred at different historical periods - in some countries in the nineteenth century, in others at the beginning of the twentieth century, in yet others far more recently. The form of the compromise has, however, varied from country to country. Wages and other conditions of employment were regulated either at the national level, or in sectors, and in some cases at the enterprise level.
This compromise has been under challenge in most countries, and in some it seems to have broken down. In the emerging environment there is greater mobility of capital; more autonomy for individual enterprises; increased competition on wages and labour costs; and less support for government intervention in the labour markets.
Employers have restructured and relocated production and pursued new 'flexible' systems of work organization and working time. As a result, unions have had to adapt their structures and organizing strategies in order to ensure representation of workers in decentralized and smaller sized units of production.
A number of companies have defined their own industrial relations system, separate from the broader, nationally-based arrangements. Such developments might lead to a diminished coverage of employers' organizations and a weakening of sector-level agreements. This would be more likely if it is true that companies establishing their own industrial relations systems tend to exclude trade unions.
New management strategies challenge the established policies towards employees. For example, Human Resource Management, which has become popular recently, involves such elements as: direct management communications with employees; pay systems which are 'individualized' rather than standardized through collective agreement; and organization of production through work teams with appointed or elected 'team leaders' who form part of the management structure. The aim of such practices is usually to make employees identify more closely with the company.
- How have trade unions adapted their own structures in response to the decentralization of industrial relations? What systems of workplace representation have been created, and how are these linked to the official union machinery?
- How have they responded to 'human resource management' initiatives? In what ways does the argument of 'humanization' help unions?
- How have unions been able to win broader community support in resisting anti-union employers?
3. Public Status of Trade Unions
In many countries, unions have historically achieved a publicly recognized status as representatives of workers' collective interests. This may involve, for example, having an exclusive right to negotiate collective agreements; membership of tripartite bodies; consultation by governments on questions of social and labour market policy; and participation in the administration of welfare benefits.
More recently, however, declining membership, and in some countries the emergence of rival forms of collective organization, have challenged unions' claims to represent all employees (or the working class more generally).
There are of course many countries where unions' status as representative organizations has never been publicly recognized. In some cases their attempts to win recognition have met fierce resistance. This was particularly the case in some newly industrializing economies where governments have attempted to compete in export markets, or to attract inward investment, on the basis of low wages and weak employment rights.
Unions therefore face the challenge of justifying their right and their capacity to act as representative bodies. In some countries this is primarily a matter of demonstrating that they are genuinely voicing the concerns and aspirations of their actual members. In others - where levels of membership are low - it is more a question of showing that they can act on behalf of all employees, whether unionized or not. Often this requires alliances with, for example, community organizations, social movements, churches or other non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
- How have unions succeeded in proving that they genuinely reflect the views of their members: for example, by renewing their links with the rank and file, improving workers' education, and strengthening internal democracy? What use has been made of the media channels such as video, e-mail and web pages?
- Where the status of unions has been threatened - or never recognized - has it been useful to press the argument that trade union rights are basic human rights?
- In what ways have they been able to build alliances with other bodies concerned with workers' rights and interests, outside the workplace as well as within it?
4. Challenges in a Hostile Economic Environment
Trade unions, at least in the industrialized countries, have usually succeeded best in periods of economic growth and relatively full employment. A favourable labour market strengthens unions' bargaining power, and in a period of expansion there are gains to be shared between workers and employers. The same conditions also made it easier for unions to persuade governments to improve welfare benefits and public services.
In many countries these conditions now seem long past. Low economic growth and high unemployment have caused serious problems for unions. The fear of unemployment can itself make workers reluctant to join unions or to remain members. Employers are able to take advantage of labour's weakness and may feel driven to do so in order to survive in unfavourable markets. Rather than distributing the gains of growth, collective bargaining often involves sharing the costs of retrenchment; and the concessions unions may feel forced to make can contribute to workers' disenchantment with the unions.
Reduced economic strength can also affect unions' political influence. If unions seem less of a threat to government objectives - for example, if their ability to negotiate 'inflationary' pay increases is reduced - then governments may feel less need to take them seriously. This has become particularly important in a climate when most governments have accepted policies which involve tough monetary disciplines, curbs on public expenditure, privatization of utilities and public enterprises, and deregulation of labour markets.
Changed economic conditions have also altered the trade union agenda. Questions of economic development and redevelopment, and worker training and retraining - which have always been seen as important by trade unions in most developing economies - have become serious concerns in the industrialized countries as well.
- What initiatives have unions taken to influence government policies - at local, national and perhaps international levels - for economic development and job creation?
- What part have unions played in new 'supply-side' measures to improve the position of the unemployed and of new entrants to the labour force?
- What policies have unions adopted towards alternative forms of work organization - for example, workers' cooperatives?
- How have they addressed the need to create - or defend - effective social security provision?
5. The International Economy: A Threat to National Trade Unions?
Modern industrial relations systems in most countries have primarily involved the national arena, with employment regulation rooted in agreements between national unions and employers' organizations, and legislation enacted by the state.
Liberalization of international trade, the globalization of financial markets and the growing importance of multinational companies appear to threaten such nationally-based systems. The emergence of regional labour markets (the EU, for instance) implies that even among industrial economies, the key decisions affecting national labour markets are taken outside the country concerned. Cross-national comparisons of labour costs affect national competitiveness and also shape corporate investment decisions; this constrains the conduct of national collective bargaining. The stability of national currencies seems to require that governments adopt deflationary economic policies, often against the interests of labour.
Pessimists argue that internationalization completely undermines the effectiveness of trade unions. More cautious analysts suggest that, at the very least, their room for manoeuvre has become much narrower than in the past. The implication is that unions must strengthen their own international organization in response.
- In what ways have unions been able to exchange information, coordinate policies and undertake common activities internationally?
- Given that most union members are primarily interested in questions which directly affect them in their own workplace, how have unions succeeded in informing them of the importance of international issues?
6. The Next Steps
The themes discussed and questions raised above defined the aims of the programme on 'Organized Labour in the 21st Century'.
The next step was to receive reactions. Our aim was to create a network of trade unionists and sympathetic experts who exchanged ideas and information and helped to shape a clearly focused programme of research. The Institute realized that the problems facing unions and the policies that were best suited to address them varied considerably from country to country and between different regions of the world.
In the light of the preliminary paper, we invited the network's members to tell us:
- Which of these challenges have been the most important in their own country?
- Are there other key issues which should be examined?
- How have unions in their country responded - at national, sectoral or local level?
- Are there particular successes they would mention?
The Institute invited written replies on questions of direct concern to the network's members not exceeding 1000 words in length, to be sent by e-mail.
Based on their responses, the Institute prepared interim reports during the months of July, August and September and posted them in the Internet Home Page of the Institute.
| 
