Conference on Organized labour
Responses to the Conference Paper
John Weeks
School of Oriental and African Studies, Sussex university, UK.
18 August 1998
Comments on Network on Organized Labour in the 21st Century
I strongly concur with the analysis in the discussion paper, and would add a few points.
First, perhaps more emphasis could be given to policy changes. Technological changes and the decline of 'traditional' manufacturing and mining in the developed countries are important, and also important has been changes in the legal framework in which organized labour operates. To take but one example, in the UK the Conservative government outlawed the secondary boycott and 'sympathy' strikes. This meant that when the French general strike occurred several years ago, there was little that British trade unions could do in support, without breaking the law. This has an important
policy and research implication. To the extent that the decline of trade union influence is the result of policy, it can be reversed through the legislative process. However, this requires research on changes in laws at the national level. The legal framework also affects the ability of unions to organize 'atypical' workers, especially if such workers are exempted from trade union protection under national laws.
Second, active, extralegal repression of trade unionists has played an important role in the decline of union influence. The network should lick with the ICFTU, to maintain a data base and information bank on trade union repression, analogously to the work of Amnesty International (though, clearly, the ILO could not play an advocacy role).
Third, while the problems of organizing have increased, one can learn from the example of capital. World markets are now more competitive than in the past, but this has been associated with successful organizing by corporations for the protection of their rights (through the WTO, NFTA, etc.). Further, many of these rights enter as 'riders' to trade agreements (such as 'intellectual property'). The argument used against labour standard, that it is not a 'trade' issue, would apply equally to many rights of capital included in trade agreements. Again, research would be helpful, on the rights of capital protected by international agreements, and what might be the analogous rights for labour.
Finally, research is required to assess the relationship, in underdeveloped countries, between export orientation of industries and conditions of work. In particular, there needs to be written a technically competent assessment of the World Development Report, Workers in a Changing World, in which there are a number of dubious and superficially presented arguments.
|
