Transcript A Philosophical look at Collective Bargaining

A Philosophical look at Collective
Bargaining & Change
Management
Presented by Piet du Plooy
[email protected]
Has Collective bargaining Failed the
working Class
This presentation uses a number of studies
to show that collective bargaining, if we
understand collective bargaining to be
positional, bargaining has not delivered for
the workers.
We will first look at the definition then at
some ideas on how society are locked into
a particular way of thinking
Collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is a process of
negotiations between employers and a group
of employees aimed at reaching agreements to
regulate working conditions.
In June 2007 the Supreme Court of Canada
extensively reviewed the rationale for
regarding collective bargaining as a human
right. In the case of Facilities Subsector
Bargaining Association v. British Columbia, the
Court made the following observations:
Collective bargaining
The right to bargain collectively with an
employer enhances the human dignity, liberty
and autonomy of workers by giving them the
opportunity to influence the establishment of
workplace rules and thereby gain some control
over a major aspect of their lives namely their
work... Collective bargaining is not simply an
instrument for pursuing external ends…rather
[it] is intrinsically valuable as an experience in
self-government...
Collective Bargaining
There is also a view that says collective
bargaining is at worst a mere façade behind
which the employer continues to dictate
terms, at best a means by which organised
employees can get marginally to grips with
their masters on some issues although still
leaving the latter with the real reserves of
power.
In the light of the above consider the
following:
Rising Inequality in the world
Unprecedented interest in income inequality
has sent a complex book by economist
Thomas Piketty to the top of the charts on
Amason.com.
Following a few charts from the book
Capital in the Twenty First Century by
Thomas Piketty
Rising Inequality in the World
Wages as a percentage of the economy has
dropped to all time low
Wage Growth v/s Productivity
Corporate Profits as % of GDP
Growth of hourly productivity,
The average CEO earns as much as 331
workers, up from a 24:1 ratio in the
1960s.
The Rich are
The
South Africa’s two richest people have wealth
equal to the poorest 26.5-million
South Africa is a country of breath-taking wealth
and life stealing poverty, according to an Oxfam
report on extreme inequality.
The Rich are getting Richer and the
Poor Poorer
The central claim of Piketty’s book is that; The
free-market system has a natural tendency
towards increasing the concentration of wealth,
because the rate of return on property and
investments has consistently been higher than the
rate of economic growth.
What is more there are few economic forces that
counteract its natural tendency to become
concentrated, as greater wealth brings greater
opportunity to save and invest.
The Rich are getting Richer and the
Poor Poorer
The book analyses hundreds of years of tax
records from France, the UK, the US, Germany and
Japan to prove a simple idea: the rich really are
getting richer. And their wealth doesn’t trickle
down. It trickles up.
According to trickle-down economics, the first
thing businesses do with extra money is hire
workers. These workers spend their wages,
driving demand. The net result is a faster growing
economy.
Free-market Equilibrium
The Laissez-faire capitalist free-market
system will always seek an equilibrium, in
other words with a situation where there is
not full employment the equilibrium will
always be found where the market selfadjust to full employment.
The same applies to wages where there is
over-supply the market will self adjust, and
the poor worker will perpetually be underpaid
GDP as seen by big Business
Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all
production,’ wrote Adam Smith in 1776 in The
Wealth of Nations. South Africa is dominated by a
specific corporate point of view, a point of view in
the debate about economic policy and wage levels
from which vantage point South Africa’s gross
domestic product (GDP) is thought of as ‘gross
domestic profits’. When the economy is viewed
through the eye of the corporate beholder, wages
and benefits paid to the mass of employees are
‘costs to companies’, and therefore, through
ideological slippage, costs to the nation.
Dick Forslund
Yes but surely South Africa is different
Prof. Sampie Terreblanche in the book A
History of Inequality in South Africa:
Parallel with the negotiations on constitutional
issues at Kempton Park during the early 1990s,
representatives of the corporate sector and core
ANC leaders also negotiated informally on
economic issues. Sampie Terreblanche 2002 p95
In 1993 the corporate sector and core ANC leaders
reached a hugely important elite compromise. This
happened before the transitional executive council
(TEC) accepted a secret $850 million loan from the
IMF
Yes but surely South Africa is different
to help tide the country over balance of
payments difficulties in November 1993.
Before the TEC signed the loan agreement,
the corporate sector and the NP government
on the one hand and the ANC leaders on the
other signed a secret protocol on economic
policy. In the statement on economic
policies agreed with the IMF, the TEC
committed itself to a neo-liberal, exportoriented economic policy, and a
redistribution through growth strategy.
Sampie Terreblanche 2002 p95
The Matter between NUPSAW and
the Lotteries Board
But not only wages and conditions of employment
are looked at through the prism of the Bourgeoisie
also consider the following to illustrate the point:
The matter between: National Union of Public
Service & allied Workers obo Mani and nine others.
v/s National Lotteries Board.
The employees were dismissed for
insubordination and brining the organisation in
disrepute. They advise through a petition that the
CEO be given a separation package in return for
his resignation.
The Matter between NUPSAW and
the Lotteries Board
The 9 employees were dismissed for
insubordination and disrespectful behaviour,
bringing the name of the CEO into disrepute.
Dismissal was upheld in the labour Court and also
the Supreme Court of Appeal, it then went to the
Constitutional Court where the majority judgments
were in favour of the employees.
There were three different judgments by the
Constitutional Court, our concern here is with the
judgments of Judge Froneman (Minority) and
Judge Zondo (Majority)
The Matter between NUPSAW and
the Lotteries Board
The point one wish to explore here is how your
thinking is influenced by the prism you see
through.
In this case different people came to different
conclusion even though they were presented with
the same facts within the same frame of reference:
Judge Froneman establish the issue of principle as
follow: This case concerns the interpretation and
application of the provisions of the Act that deals
with the nature and extent of the lawful union
activities and the right of employees to
take part in them
The Matter between NUPSAW and
the Lotteries Board
The matter revolve around a petition that stated:
In the light of the above, we urge the Board to request
Prof Vevek Ram to resign and further look at a suitable
settlement for him as deemed fit by the Board. Failing
which, Prof Ram must be relieved of his duties due to
reasons stated in Appendix A
We further urge the Board to take the matter seriously
as we are no longer prepared to spend a day with Prof
Ram in the same building with him at the helm of this
organisation. We further urge the Board to ensure that
June 30th 2008 is the last day of
his employment.
The Matter between NUPSAW and
the Lotteries Board
In essence what the union claimed was that the
actions taken were normal union activities and
therefore the dismissal has been automatically
unfair
Judge Froneman held that the demand for the
dismissal of Prof Ram was unlawful
Section 4(2)(a) Right to participate in the lawful
activities of the union, the essence here is the
activities might be lawful under the Act but it does
not mean they are protected; unprotected strike is
a good example
The Matter between NUPSAW and
the Lotteries Board
Judge Zondo used the same petition but his
understanding of the petition is that the union
earnestly encourage or strongly advise the
employer through the petition, as oppose to a
demand as is the understanding of Judge
Froneman
Judge Zondo had a different understanding of the
petition and therefore analysed the meaning of the
word urge and since the union did not demand the
dismissal of Prof Ram their action was not
unlawful and thus protected, which made the
dismissal an automatically unfair dismissal
What is the
solution
In a globalised world
trade unions will have
to have a fresh look at
traditional positional
bargaining, it makes
very little sense to
engage local
management while the
company are run on a
global basis
Introductory Orientation
• In general terms power is been described
as: “The ability to influence the
behaviour of others – with or without
resistance.”
• MacMillan also refers to power as: “the
capacity to restructure actual situations”
and in some extremes even
transform situations.
Change can be presented as the
moving from the current dispensation
(status quo) to a future dispensation
however defined
FUTURE STATE
CHANGE
CURRENT STATE
Toffler (1998) connects power and
change with each other and present it
thus as:
“For this is the dawn of the Power Shift Era.
We live at a moment when the entire
structure of power that held the world
together is now disintegrating. A radically
different structure of power is taking form.
And this is happening at every level of
human society.”
“In the office, in the supermarket, at the bank, in the
executive suite, in our churches, hospitals, schools and
homes, old patterns of power are fracturing along new
lines. Campuses are stirring from Berkeley to Rome and
Taipei, preparing to explode. Ethnic and racial clashes are
multiplying... Power is shifting at so astonishing a
rate that world leaders are being swept along by
events, rather than imposing order on them... There is
strong reason to believe that the forces now shaking power
at every level of the human system will become more
intense and persuasive in the years immediately ahead... A
‘power shift’ does not merely transfer power. It
transforms it.”
As for the context the execution of power
could mean:
 The exercise of influence
 Management and control
Within the bigger political framework in mind the
execution of power could mean
 The exercise of force
 Force through the exercise of authority
(institutional in nature)
 Collective decision making
 The awarding of value (worth) and scares
resources
 Practices of avoidance and manipulation
“Politics can therfore be seen as a struggle over
scarce resources, and power can be seen as the means
through which the struggle is conducted.”
Heywood, 1997
The origin of power is complex and all sources of
power cannot necessarily be directly reduce to a
political context
Gailbraith In his “An anatomy of power” identify
the following sources of power
CONDIGN
Power related; for instance military
force; delegated power, frightening &
threatening
COMPENSATORY
Allocation of resources
CONDITIONED
Persuasion; Diplomacy etc.
PERSONALITY
PROPERTY
ORGANISATIONAL
Charisma; Status
Knowledge and Skills; Culture and
Tradition
Social Relationship Structures
Three faces of Power:
Power of decision
making
Power of setting the
agenda
Power of thinking
Control; [ideological]
Thank you
Please think about that