Labour Management Relations and Collective Bargaining

The TE sector has one of the highest rates of trade union affiliation in manufacturing. Perhaps because of this, basic labour standards have been less of an issue than in most other industries. Even so, plant relocations and subcontracting have involved a reduction in trade union affiliation, leading in some cases to difficulties in labour-management relations.

The increased adoption of flexible labour practices has major effects on competitiveness and working conditions. Such practices have tended to reduce the levels of stable full-time employment while changing levels of benefits and overall remuneration packages. Those changes in work organization and labour flexibility have promoted the introduction of performance indicators and incentives in job specifications which have resulted in changes in pay systems. In turn, these changes are pervasively affecting the collective bargaining process and the relationships between management and workers and their trade unions.

Increased flexibility in work practices and differentiation in such practices among plants of the same company call for greater flexibility in bargaining. In general, this tends to promote greater involvement of workers at the shop-floor level, while making the bargaining process more difficult and more time-consuming. These changes will continue to affect the nature of labour-management relations and the role of unions.